Im trying to black out my tail lights but am not sure what method to use. I see a lot of you use VHT night shade paint or get overlays but no one really talks about tint film. Am curious to see the difference in looks if you can help me out with that. I see people recommending tint because of easy removal and VHT because shade preference, but i haven't been able to find anything about the difference in looks and appearence if there is any.

Pros and cons (in appearance)?

I'm looking for a dark look but still want my led's to shine through, even when brake lights aren't on... is this possible?

im willing to pay the $ if professionally done tint films the answer

thanks guys

Paint is the way to go, it looks so much better than overlays. Try doing a SEARCH subject painted tails...Gary

I'm sure there's vinyl out there that can give you the shade you want. Paint is pretty permanent. I mean I guess you could remove the tint paint if you don't like it but it'd be a b!tch. Make sure you want this before you go with paint.

I forget which paint I used but I did this on one of my previous cars and once the paint dried it dried in a haze. I dunno if this was due to humidity or what but I used a coat of clear coat on them and they came out great. Definitely takes a few coats to get to the shade you want so have patience and let each coat dry before applying the next. If you get too anxious you'll end up with runs in your tails and have to redo them.

I VHT'd my Evos taillights in the past and it came out so-so. I like the look of a shiny tint better but that is much more expensive. I plan on just leaving my G35 lights alone.

I had my taillights professionally smoked for $100. I had them apply two coats of the "paint" and it turned out pretty dark, but you could still see the LED's even when the brakes weren't applied.

I wouldn't go with VHT as you just can't duplicate the results that professionals can give you. My taillights really looked like they came that way from the factory, and I never had a problem with scratching, swirls, wearing off... anything of the sort.

EDIT: here's the ones I had done

thanks for the info guys, ^ and awesome pic thats the exact look im goin for i appreciate it man, any pics with the leds shining through would also be very appreciated if anyones got the free time

That looks OFFICIAL!! I was debating it due to mine being grey too, but you've definitely made it clear, it looks great! I definitely wanna check out how they look lit up if you don't mind? Thanks buddy!

I went with tint because I didn't want it to be so permanent. Paint may look a tiny bit better but if you think you will ever want to go back to stock easily just do vinyl.
Here's a really old picture lol

here's the best pic I have of my brake lights shining thru, also an old pic lol

Ask and you guys shall receive:



That's just the running lights at night. They show through perfectly. Brake lights are, of course, much brighter.

@c_morse, thanks a lot buddy, definitely gonna be next up on the list...once all of my DD pieces get here (should be Saturday)!

yeah c morse those tail lights are sick you definitly helped alot thanks

I used VHT because I was just looking for something cheap and quick. I'm happy with how they turned out and if you're skeptical because of it being permanent or not...I dropped one of my taillights after I was done and it scratched it up real bad, It only took about 30 minutes of staged wet sanding to get it back to normal which then all you would have to do is apply a clearcoat and polish and you're back to factory.

Before VHT

After 2 Coats of VHT

Lighting After 2 Coats of VHT

Scratch from dropping the taillight before sanding

After wetsanding with 400 - 800 I wetsanded again with 2000 to get the finer scratches out

Tinted tail lights look cheap IMO, if you do it use overlays so when you realize it looks cheap you can take it off.

If you want temporary smoked look then go tint. If you know you wont regret it later then get them painted.