Best way to smoke tails: VHT or paint/clear?

[neevnav]

I'm going to smoke my tailights and my cab lights shortly and was wondering what the best method to use is, VHT nightshade or the 5/95 paint clear mix in a gun. What results have people had, what lasts longer, etc. And any pics would be great!
Thanks,
Mike

[Sweet Tea Man]

get a hyper clear from the paint store and see if they can throw some black into a touch up bottle for you(unreduced).

mix the clear, and SLOWLY add a couple drops of the black with stirring the clear. do this until tint you want is achieved.

prior to doing this, 1000 grit your stuff and degrease.

spray one coat on everything and let it flash for a minute or two. you want to be applying medium wet coats. then do it again and again until your tint on the lights is acheived

[SouthernProperZ]

i have a can of nite shades. will that be enough to tint both tails?

[Sweet Tea Man]

unsure. i always use clearcoat. i know it lasts.

[44gmcnewf]

i just wet sanded my tails with 2000 gritt and then sprayed regular dupoont base and then clear i did them while painting a furd escape in the last picture iput them behind my lamp to see how it would look with the light behind it.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/crazy_newf_2007/21-04-07_1803.jpg

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/crazy_newf_2007/21-04-07_1802.jpg

[Sweet Tea Man]

now go take a pressure washer to them. they will blow right off. 2000 grit is too fine of grit for the paint to stick to:read:

[iminaquagmire]

Or you can use Testor's "Transparent Window Tint." The model paint stuff. I used 5 coats IIRC of that and then another 6 of Duplicolor clear. There is a good write-up in the technical article section done by BLwright about candying tails. Its essentially the same process.

[bignick31985]

I just used Niteshades. If was to do it again I'd probably try some clear with the black paint in it.

But for the Niteshades I sanded the tail lights with 400 and then 800 grit. Then laid the Niteshades down on them. I bought 2 cans and still have nearly a whole can left. I used a Dupli Color spray can clear and used the entire can on both lights. Then once it was all dried I sanded the clear with 1000, then 1500 and used a buffing compound and then swirl mark remover. Then waxed them.

They turned out pretty good for being a spray can clear as well. Except when I had my bed off I zip-tied my lights to a board across my frame and the zip ties left pretty good impressions in the clear. Other than that they held up great.


The best pic I Could find for reflections.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g319/bignick31985/IM000177.jpg

[slammins15]

Instead of sanding I would clean them really good with some R-M 900 and use adhesion promoter then spray on the tint/color then clear

[Koots]

I'm gonna go with Jeremy here, i would listen to him he does amazing work.

[mitchellz71]

I'm gonna go with Jeremy here, i would listen to him he does amazing work.

indeed, it always looks great

[CamaroGuy87132]

Niteshades FTW!!! :read:

Georgiaboy- yes, I tinted OBS tails with about 1/4 of a can. :read:

I've been using niteshades for about a year now and I wouldn't use anything else.

I tinted my friends taillights on her eclipse maybe about 5 months ago and it has held up great. Probably the best job I've done with them. The key is preparation. On hers, we steel wooled them and cleaned them with fantastik a bunch of times. A few coats on niteshades and a few coats of clear, it came out AMAZING, and still looks amazing now.

I did my friends parklights on his 94 silverado and they still are holding up great too, I don't even think we sprayed clear on them :crazy:

I tinted the marker lights on my car with niteshades, that came out great. I only cleaned them with lysol before I sprayed them.

And just the other day we tinted the taillights on my friends 93 Cheyenne. I only cleaned them with lysol and just sprayed it on. To me it really brought out the truck.

Heres some pics of niteshades work

This is my friends 93 Cheyenne

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/random/08_17_07_2001.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/random/08_17_07_2002.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/random/08_17_07_2006.jpg

My car

Before

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/cutlass%20442/truck3004-3.jpg

After

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/cutlass%20442/truck3010-1.jpg

Before

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/cutlass%20442/truck3005-3.jpg

After

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/cutlass%20442/truck3011.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b121/Camaroguy87132/cutlass%20442/truck3008-3.jpg

I'm gonna be tinting the taillights and maybe the headlights of my friends SRT-4 in a few days. I'll get pics of that. If I can I'll get some pics of the eclipse, and try to get some pics of my friends 94 silverado.

Niteshades= only way to go when tinting lights :read:

[44gmcnewf]

i got mine on my buddies k10 till i got my truck done and no peeling yet lots of alder scratchs from far away loooks like somone scratch it with 120 and plus one has a crack in it can yeah before i painted i only wanted to see if it would work and what it would look like. I think might do another set tint the revesre lights also.

[Sweet Tea Man]

Instead of sanding I would clean them really good with some R-M 900 and use adhesion promoter then spray on the tint/color then clear

by not just putting adhesion promotor over the unsanded/scuffed plastic, its going to peel. the scratches are what the clear bites to

[Koots]

It's alright for a quick job on it, but i would want to do something that lasts. i did a quicky job on painting my exposed frame on my OBS and it didn't turn out that great, it still dark green but it doesn't look as nice after a long winter.

[White_Stealth]

I've always used clear base with some black added to it, and then put 2 coats of clear over the top of that and they come out slick with no need to buff.
also I clean and degrease first, scuff with grey scotchbrite (making sure there is no "shiny" left), the clean and degrease again and paint.
Of all the ones I've done over the years, the has yet to be one that has flaked, peeled, or bubbled up, with the exception of my fiance's terd ferd, I scuffed her new headlights out of the box and didn't clean them first, and the oils from manfacturing were still there and they failed after a couple months, I've since redone them and haven't had a problem since.

[Koots]

would you say it would be 2 parts clear and one part black or is it more light of a mixture. i want to do this soon cuz i like painting, i just need alot of practice with littler things. i've already started doing dashes and trim, sanded and cleared my old 98 tails. but i've got another set to experiment with. Point me in the right direction. Sorry to Thread Jack, i'm a bastard like that.

[Sweet Tea Man]

read my above post. you dont add a crap load of black to it. all you are doing is tinting the clear.

[neevnav]

Yeah that's what I think I'm going to get to next week. Thanks for all the opinions. Anyone else have any pics?

Mike

[Koots]

read my above post. you dont add a crap load of black to it. all you are doing is tinting the clear.
Thanks for "clearing" that up( :lame: i know), I am curious like a cat so i had to ask.

[CKTA]

Niteshades= only way to go when tinting lights :read:

Niteshades su(ks! :read: it dries dull (look at your own pics) and gets worse as time goes on.....Clear tinted w/ paint is the only right way to do it. Niteshades was "cool" in the late 80's early 90's.:aniteef:

[CamaroGuy87132]

Niteshades su(ks! :read: it dries dull (look at your own pics) and gets worse as time goes on.....Clear tinted w/ paint is the only right way to do it. Niteshades was "cool" in the late 80's early 90's.:aniteef:
Nope.

[CKTA]

Ummmmm....did you look at you own pics? :think:

Also, I used Niteshades and clear/paint......and the clear/paint is a million times better.

[iminaquagmire]

I don't want to feed into anything here but Niteshades is always dull. Maybe if people took the time to clear it properly with wetsanding and polish afterwards it would look OK. I've never seen glossy tails done with Niteshades and glossy tails are the only way to go.

[bignick31985]

I don't want to feed into anything here but Niteshades is always dull. Maybe if people took the time to clear it properly with wetsanding and polish afterwards it would look OK. I've never seen glossy tails done with Niteshades and glossy tails are the only way to go.

Ialready posted how I did it. It worked well for me, so I'll put up some before/after shots.

They were glossy the entire time I had'em on, until I zip tied them when I had my bed off. Left some marks in the clear from being secured so tightly. And one fell off the frame and got dragged like 50 feet doing 60mph, so it got chipped up good, lol.

Again, I know mine are not as glossy as clear/black but it looked great to me. And if you dont have a way to spray the black/clear mix on your own and dont want to pay someone to do them. $15 can do the below.

No clear, just Niteshades:
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2094000-2094999/2094089_188_full.jpg


After clear, then 1000/1500 sand, 3m scratch remover/polish, and swirl mark remover:
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2094000-2094999/2094089_191_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2094000-2094999/2094089_195_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2094000-2094999/2094089_193_full.jpg

[iminaquagmire]

Yours are the first glossy ones I've seen. I guess I missed it. They look good. Maybe its just the ricer type or view that its a "quick mod" that leads people to not clear and polish them to the extent that I think looks good.

But as to your other remark, I didn't use a gun and compressor to do mine with the Testor's paint and mine cost roughly the same as yours. Niteshades and blended clear aren't the only ways to do it. Just sayin'.