[boogie van]

ok, possible rice alert. haha.

a few months back I saw some pics on .net where someone had bought the standard chrome altezza lights, and then smoked them either with spray tint or lamin-x, so as to not see the tacky chrome.

I guess sort of along the lines of rx7 fd taillights, black when off, circular lights when on.

of course, even after searching, I just cant seem to find the pics now.

anyone have pics of something like that?


the lights are cheap enough on ebay to buy and experiment with...maybe even with fitting some LED's =D>

 

[LostSoulMiata]

the lights are cheap enough on ebay to buy and experiment with...maybe even with fitting some LED's =D>

I would try like a vinyl cut-out for the tails, circular or whatever first, or buy a product called NightShades. It's basically a spray tint, but you have to do it in steps to get a smooth, glossy finish. You could experiment with painters tape first also to see what you like best before making a leap.

I don't know if I still want to experiment with LED's on my stockers just yet. I do have a new set of stock tails that a customer gave to me, maybe I'll get some time in this weekend to pull apart one of my old ones to see what I'm up against.

 

[JDMage_mx5]

Boogie Van I know exactly what you are talking about and I think it would great, You might actually want to try the black housing euros or even maybe the cheap carbon fiber ones that way onces you tint the taillights non of the chrome will try to show (start out with a dark background and it may make it easier to cover up) and I know Testors has some tint sprays that you can get in a can and you can choose red, black, yellow and I do beleive some other colors youll just have to search their site or yes you could use window tint but it might scratch easily. Great idea none the less.

 

[TrophyFodder]

Boogie, I have some Altezzas at the house (I think) I'll ge tehm to you in about a month.
Chris

 

[boogie van]

oh wow, cool. one mans trash is another mans treasure? haha. just pm me when youre back and we can work something out.

 

[Splitime]

Testors has a Smoke spray. I used that with a Clear and it worked out. On stock lights... lemme find a picture (just daylight, no lights on shot sadly).
Oh, and I shaved the dot markings and such off them before I painted them. Easy to clean now.

Crap.... old picture host is down... I'll try to find some later.

 

[boogie van]

I think I may just go with the lamin-x. I put it on my christmas list so we will see. At least then the look will be consistent. I dont care if these are totally legal, thats what the stock taillights are for. If I hacked up the lights and installed led's then I dont think there will be an issue of them being too dim.

 

[Stealth97]

Brainstorm used to sell them tinted. They did the inside of the lens.

 

[356redux]

We smoke lights at our shop all the time. We use automotive clearcoat with a hint of black paint. Do as many coats as you want until you get desired darkness. When dry theses lights look nice and glossy, can be polished and waxed like the rest of the paint, and look hot. Be sure to sand off the manufacturers markings on your oem lights before doing so for a much cleaner look. As for euro tails I did mine red candy. It gives the taillight a uniform bright red color and a more modern look as opposed to super rice look of chrome altezza style lights. To see some cars with smoked lights check out my shop site www.ultimate-audio.com
Look in the luxury car gallery.

 

[TrophyFodder]

I think I may just go with the lamin-x. I put it on my christmas list so we will see. At least then the look will be consistent. I dont care if these are totally legal, thats what the stock taillights are for. If I hacked up the lights and installed led's then I dont think there will be an issue of them being too dim.

One of them is cracked- good enough to practice on tho-
Chris

 

[boogie van]

Bump for pics...

Got the lights from TrophyFodder for cheap with some air horns and got to work. Had a can of spray tint sitting around for a few years so that was free.

I didnt want to go too dark, but as I was spraying the tint had a blueish color to it so I guess I went darker than I intended due to that. At night, you can hardly tell they are tinted, except that the reverse light output is weaker.

It was a quick job, minimal prep, no wetsanding between coats and all that, just for the sake of trying a new look. They did have a crack after all and if they fog up when it rains then whats the point of putting a few days effort into it?

Boogie Van I know exactly what you are talking about and I think it would great, You might actually want to try the black housing euros or even maybe the cheap carbon fiber ones that way onces you tint the taillights non of the chrome will try to show (start out with a dark background and it may make it easier to cover up)

I found 1 reason why to use the chrome ones....

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/7687/ltmmt90fks3494d10ewa5.jpg

look at the reflector area around the turn signal...on the chrome ones, this reflects and makes the increases the light output....you can see on the carbon and black ones they just changed the entire housing color, with no regard to the reflector surface. I have no idea if this would make a huge difference but if you are tinting, I would assume it does.

Im no genious though, I only realized that last night when I finally installed them and tested them out :mrgreen:

 

[That7guy]

Looks awesome dude! cant wait to see it in person with the new seat and all. Looks like you've been busy. Its funny how that top used to be on mine, lol.

 

[LostSoulMiata]

Looks good Matt, I tinted mine red though :mrgreen:

 

[Doppelganger]

i like the solid red tint "euros". I did it to a friends Integra years ago and it looked good.

 

[arcana]

Looks pretty good dude. Did it come out looking even on the lenses?

 

[LostSoulMiata]

Looks pretty good dude. Did it come out looking even on the lenses?

Mine, yes. Fairly evenly due to the small curve in the plastics. I just did several light coats but let them dry inbetween coats.

 

[95MerlotM]

7 year bump for good looking tail lights. just received a free pair of black ebay tail lights so i reckon this will be in the works

 

[Canipete]

ehhh I dont like it personally. I tinted my altezza red

 

[RICKRC1]

Agree tinted red would look better

 

[Malibu Q]

Hope it's okay to post this here.
Does anybody know if the Altezzas come apart okay if you heat them in the oven.
I'd like to get a set and pull them apart to mod them.
Thanks.