My next cobalt I am wanting to smoke my tail lights. Yall think best way is throwing a little black in some clear and spraying them is good way or should I do it some other way. Thanks for any input.

 

i dont even understand what you're saying but whatever you do dont mix black paint and clear lmao

VHT Nite-Shades™

/thread

 

vht leaves them uneven I think. Mine were painted with light coats of black until they reached the desired depth, wet sanded between coats, then wet sanded again and cleared, wet sanding between clear coats. Lot of work, but the results look fantastic.

 

they make black tinted clears. i think thats what he was talking about. throwing a lil black pigment in a clear to darken it up. essentially what the niteshades is but i think niteshades sucks. pretty much most the stoff you get out of aq can sucks. duplicolor makes a smoke color in their metalcast line of spray paints. i have never used it but i have used the blue and the orange. they are basically a candy in a can. this is the orange below.

 

x2 what Sox said... not a fan of VHT, I personally don't like the way it looks and the light visibility takes a hit.

The benefit with using automotive base coat and clear coat is that you get a better finish and almost all the light will still be visible.

If you are wanting a smoked look I have seen people mix the base coat (black) with clear coat.

 

are you a painter? i would think not.

im a veterened body guy. ive tinted probablly over a 100 sets of lights with clear and black and every single one blows nightshades away. nightshades is for your average cheap ass that doesnt want to spend a decent amount of money to have lights done correctly. not to mention if nightshades is done wrong it will melt the plastic on your lights.

theres not a chance in hell nightshades will look at this and this pic is with a cell phone camera.

 

WOW! That is beautiful! how much does that run someone? Lets say cobalt sedan tails?

 

for a complete set of coupe tail lights including the sides and third brake light i charged 145 bucks plus shipping. i normally charge like 125 for a full set of sedan lights because theres less masking and crap involved.

 

not bad...I might be sending you a set later on when I repaint my car.

 

So I should probably do what im talking about. Yea I heard nightshade kinda sucks. Im not a painter but my best friend is but he has never done it yet

 

I thought abt doin this do all body shops do this??

 

@Omiotek, what type of base coat and clear coat do you use?

 

i bought a set of smoked taillights and they look pretty good!

 

when i did those lights i used spies and hekker but ive done it with standox, glasruit, basf etc etc. i do something to my base but its a secret i will not tell unfortunately but near similar results can be obtained without doing what i do.

 

ill be doing base and clear on my lights. Im a beginner at being automotive painter. so far I like it lol

 

I think smoking or tinting your taillights is dangerous. It's a good way to cause an accident because someone behind you didn't see your brake lights during the day.

 

I fell like smoked tail lights are easier to see than some of the majority chrome housings that manufacturers are putting on cars now a days. I almost tagged a nissan altima a few months back because the sun was glaring off the chrome part of the tail lights and I had no clue he was coming to a stop to turn into his driveway.

 

its depends how the process is dne. most cars you see out there are done with nightshades which ruin the visibility of the lights.

doing it the way I do it will help keep a lot of clarity. sure you loose a little bit but ive done tail for guys all over the us and ive never had a guy get pulled over or in a rear end accident because someone couldn't see them.

 

aye easy big guy, i guess because of op's grammar i misunderstood him, no need to come at me bro. i figured he meant mixing rattle can paint which wouldnt really work, would it?

 

My tail lights are no less bright than they otherwise were. It takes very very little darkening at all to make them look black when your brakes are off. And if you can somehow miss my lights then stop texting and driving.







Taz, I fixed your link for ya.

 

no you cant do that..... im not a "bro" either thanks..

not trying to be a dick but the whole "bro this" "bro that" "you mad bro" stuff gets old.

 

Dude was texting me about buying my S10 a couple days ago and got all bent out of shape because I wanted to use a notary and wouldnt just sign over the title. He kept calling me bro and it was pisisng me off so I just quite talking to him haha

 

couldn't agree more on the "bro" talk

 

Omiotek-I might get you to do some for me since you done so many. If I was just send them to ya and paypal the money and of course you send back when done? Can you get them done in a decent time frame? I know you probably have a job and this would be side thing. I just dont want to wait several weeks. Thanks

 

Hey tazmanian....where you buys yours from? If I did just buy some already tinted.