How To : Tint your Tails SAFTEY FIRST !

i figured this would be a good tutorial to write up . I will entail pictures at a later time, when other problems are ressolved, such as, well my car running like crap after i rebuilt the motor, lol. But i figured id write this after i got pulled over buy the GP PD ! Which shit, if your license plate is starting to peel, or your turn signal is dimm, they will pull you over and let you know, i got pulled over for no front license plate, and a tinted rear plate cover, and its toatly clear, i asked him about the tails, he said he was refering to the license plate cover, and to get it fixed, handed me a ticket and walked away. so im guessing these tails would be acceptable Anywhere. cause our cops are the most bored piggies . Well here she is.

hardist part is finding the Tinting spray, the BEST quality to use is
VHT Nite Shades
its a normal areosol can, but they only give you 7 OZ !!!! its weak, but if u buy all this. Aside from the tinting spray, you can LOTS of sets of lenses, i charge 100 $ and thats including the cost of shade, and pays for all my materials over again, and i could prolly do another 20 sets before i ran outta sand paper and rubbing compound. the expencive part is the tinting spray .

6 coats of nite shade and 3 coats of clear coat.

You could prolly do 2 sets of tails with 1 can of nite shade, unless you want it illegal dark.




Keep in mind when doing this, Please Please think of other drivers, and dont go to dark, if u want it really black, fog on 7 coats, No more, And fog, i mean, VERY lite coats. the light shines out pretty well, but some people wont pay attention... Anyways, You need the following


1 . Can of Nite Shades 19.99 Shipped.
1. Can of high quality Clear coat ( Compressed rattle can ) 6.99
2 . Range of wet sanding paper. buy the pack, that has like 400 800 1000 1500 Then 6.99
3. Buy a pack of 3000 grit wet sand paper 3.95
4. a Knife, Or razor, Something to scrap off plastic letters
5 . Bucket of soapy water LOL i dunno $ .05
6. Polishing / Heavy Rubbing compound 5 $
7. a nice synthetic wax, my Galants fav is meguires NGX Synthetic.
8. Polishing / and or lint free cloths.5 $
9. cleaning compount safe on plastics. ( prep all ) at autozone 6$


DO ONE LENSE AT A TIME.

First of all, i started off buy taking my knife, and removing the US DOT Numbers and all that us patent crap on the bottom of the lense. Making it pretty smooth, not all bumpy, i want a clean look.

Then i wet sanded the tails with the 400 grit sandpaper, Rember to get it wet with soapy water before sanding, Removes Alot less, and your paper lasts forever. Sand it down evenly, using a block. ( i used a special form fitting foam sanding pad, i love them ) Wet sand untill you cannot feel where the lettering was, and you have removed thoes little holes, you will see what im talking abot, dont remove them all the way, but take the raised ring down flat, and have it so the whole light looks nice and sanded,.

This is all in the Prep work, the more even and the more u wet sand this, the better the finish product will look.

Repeat the process with the 800 grit paper,. Dont rush, rember, it will look better Wink Dont spend as much time sanding with the 800 gritt, You already have a nice even surface, you are just making the sanding scratches smaller.

Repeat the process, with the 1000 gritt. Not as heavy or as long of sanding process.

Now let it dry out a little ., take her inside and wash it off with soapy water, removing all the white plasticy residue.

After this, i let it dry, and used " Prep All " a plastic safe cleaning compond that removes all dirt and greze, and evaporates fast.

let it dry very much all the way. Now they look very dull and crappy, and your going aww crap, Well take them outside. into a dust free area.

Now this Nite shade wants to clump together, and run, and look uneven and shitty, rember this is not spray paint, its tininting film in a spray can... So fog on a VERY light coat, You will not be able to see this coat, Just lighting go over covering the entire lense. 1 snall coat from about 12-15 inches away.

Wait 7 minutes. Come back and repeat that process. Fog on another second coat, this one you can go a little closer, 8-10 inches, But just barely spray it, " Fogging it on " this allows the tinting film to set up a bit, and stand up,( kinda like painting with mettalics ) But it dont dry completly so its all good...

wait 7 minutes. Repeat.

wait 7 minutes repeat.

wait 7 minutes repeat.

Now look at how your lense looks, you may be able to see threw it pretty good right now, This will get alot darker when it drys, But when the light hits it it will look a deep deep dark red, Go put a cover over the light, or window, so you can still see them, but like in the shade, See how they will look. Keep in mind. They will Dry and be much darker.

The ammount of coats depends on how thin and properly you fog it on, this can take 7-8 coats if done right, and light enuf coats. DO NOT SPRAY ON THE TINT TILL ITS AS DARK AS YOU WANT IT, IT WILL BE WAY TO DARK. Do not apply more than 8 coats.


Let set and dry for 5 hours, so you know its completly dry, Will take longer if its really humid . I let mine sit over night, cause this is the important part, It needs to be DRY ! its not normal spray paint ;) and will take prolly 12-18 hours to fully darken + cure, before ready for clear coat !!! if u clear it to early, it will crackle + mix with the nightshade and look blotchy and bad, and need re-sanded. Should be safe following drying procedures on the can, but i went extra to be safe ;) and it did get darker, and dry more.

Now get out your soapy water, and your 3000 gritt.

Sand away. I actually tinted mine to dark, and i sanded prolly 30-40 mintues on each lense to get it how i wanted. The 3000 grit barely takes any off, Keep it wet. Sand sand sand, Do NOT use the prep all or any other cleaning solvents or solutions on this lense. Simply wash with clean luke warm water with your hands and rinse untill all the residue is gone, make sure there is nothing on it thought.

Let it dry 100 % free of any water.

Head back outside. get your clear coat, I just used a spray on clear coat from autozone, the best stuff they had. Duplicolor brand, was like 6.99

hope you got good and accurate with the fogging tequnie Wink

Fog on a coat of the clear from the can, Now i lighting foged the entire lenses with 2 small foggy coats to begin with, Enuf to almost make the lenses look wet, but to barely cover them.

let set for 3 minutes.

Fog on another layer like you just did. ( run over them once real lighting, then go back over the first one again, after you spray a light coat on the other lense.

They should appear wet now. and look like, Way nice.

wait 3 minutes.

Apply the exact same thing, fog on 2 light coats .

I got lucky, This was all i needed, it had a few particles of dust that had fallen onto it while i left it set drying all night.

I took some turtue wax, Heavy Swirl and Scratch Rubbing compound.


Take a Lint free cloth

Swirl in little swirls, not pressing to hard, but working the compount onto the lense. Dot let this stuff dry, after a coat of rubbing compound is evenly covering the lense, Go over it again fairly fast, But pressing harder this time.

Quicky wipe it clean with a rag " Remove all rubbing compount, Set a coat of that was on here, and let it set about 30 minutes, come back with a polishing cloth, lint free of course, and remove all the wax. And you have some sexy sexy tail lights, that wont fail to weathering or hardly anything if this is done right, it will be basicly just like your carpaint. and waxes and shines just like a brand new paint job Wink

nice info.

interesting!! keep it up!

got pics

Cool tutorial, when will you have the pictures up?
~Gabe

nice. mine are done the honda way with stockings (and yes they feel like a sexy womans legs) I'll be sure to rip them off and follow this soon.

haha, Sorry guys, Honestly, I forgot about all this stuff, with wreckin my car, and my computer blowing up, had to buy and build a new comp, and now fixing my car ! bleah ! Crazyness, But i got some sexay new shoes for her. And gotta finda new fender. Blah blah blah, But anyways, long story short, i lost all the pics of the project i had :( Sorry all ! but id be more than happy to do it again !!! i promise if u follow the steps tho :))

it will be very very sexay ! when i get my car back ill take some pics of how she is lookin now, but she got broken down and sat infront of my house for a bit, and of course jelous punks keyd my car and broke windows mirrors off, and all that good stuff... Grrrr....


but a year or more later, thoes tails still shine and look very sexay !!! :) infact. ill be having a pair of shiny new ( used for a month ) altezzas up for sale here, my stocks look so sweet again, i love them, and with everything blacked out, looks super sexy ;)

This one was taken over the winter ( while i was rebuilding the motor ) before i wrecked it, and screwed thoes wheels grrrr... But it was raining and crappy, an sittin for a month in this picture and does not serve these tails justice, this was with a year and a half a wear on them, But they look much shiner clean

My Galant center sticker was fallin off, lol, ride started falling apart ;P was time for a fresh motor and a rebuild

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...14-07_0920.jpg

good looks you wanna do my Ralliart tails cause im lazy lol

same but on my 8g! nice write up tho

~Gabe

Wow this has been revived. Nice write up and clean job did you fix car after wreck or is that the end?

yea, its all basicly back and rollin im lookin for a new fender, But looking at a few options, prolly going to get my ride painted here, I just replaced my whole rear end, rear crosmember, suspension bushings, lower strut bars, hub and bearings. Just gotta get my front end pulled out .. About 100 $ then get my alignment done, I just sent Paypal to homie that was selling a new 8g tranny mount, going to do some poly inserts on the other mounts.

So i took her on a 600 mile round trip test drive yesterday. I think i also have a front wheel bearing going out, its making some noise from the front end, but man, she really drives nice. I forgot how nice my car was before i wrecked it. and the whole un employment thing isisnt helping the situation pass any faster, but i got a buddie thats going to paint my roof + mirrors black, and repaint my front bumber, and get a new fender, and paint bolth my front venders and sand down and re-clear my carbon fiber hood.

im runnin some 17's blacked out, looks really nice on my car, i averaged 30 mpg on the way to portland and 34 ish on the way back 12.8 gal got me 410 miles !

im toatly confident in my motor building skills now :) My buddie even gave me props that i could go threw everything he messed up, and fix it right, and have it work better and longer than anything he has built.

that noise that was coming from my engine was a AC compressor bearing, it got shot and was chewin up the compresor, i ripped the pulley off, slapped a 7g SOHC Non AC belt on there. ( poor 7g sohc owners... was a 46 Dollar belt !!! )
and ordered the bearing from nealy bearing, it will be in thursday ! my mount should be showing up around then also, Then im going to get rid of my stock rotors, going brembo's for now, till i can afford to have my friend drill + slott them . if that hummine noise dont go away in the front, ill just replace the rest of my wheel bearings, the car is 11 years old in october ;) mfg. date oct 1998

As far as tinting your tails for you, I mean, i am unemployed ;) and i do love the community, But id prolly reccomend doing it yourself, ( you know how picky your cops are ) and it would prolly be a hasstle to pull them out and ship them. wait for me to do them and pack them up and ship them back, Id be different if u wanted 8g galant altezzas =) i got thoes sitting under my bed ! there not sprayed up, i was orginally going to do a very in depth post on thoes, with a picture by picture walkthough. Which i will do and post on here when it warms up, I tried this method on my headlights, but it was getting to cold out, and all i got was crackles and fish eyes, So try to avoid using the tinting spray on glass, but under the right tempature, and if done thin enuf coats, would look very sick on the headlights, I did tint my head lights with a sun screen visor window tinting film, basicly wrapped the whole headlights with it, and it looks nice, and gives my lights a purply look, i need to get a HID conversion !!!

But back on track ... if i wasn't out of any pocket expense, and u were in no hurry to get them back. and if u were really that lazy ;) yea id do them for ya ! PM me about it if u really that serious, but id be more than happy to help you out along the processes also ! could be the difference in a few days ( do it yourself ) and a few weeks ! ( send it out )

if any mods are reading this ? maybe u could move this post to the general How To Tutorials, since it does apply to all models, i am trying to help other members out, and they having difficulty finding my link . They using the wrong products and doing all the wrong steps :( and they could end up being very un safe . or a UN necessary ticket

dang camera batteries ! dead ! well i did this same procedure just last week on my wheels, only thing different i did, was use a metal adhesion primer, and wet sanded that with 1000 before paint.
they came out pretty nice, all blacked out. shoulda done more clear tho, they were hard wheels to paint. i just wanted to take some pics, its been a while lol

Added note, That by " falling Apart " under normal conditions, These glants are VERY well built, But i run 6000 watts RMS threw my car, so it was litterly Falling apart =p My bad ;)

quick question.. would it be fine to have the tails tinted with film as in have a tint place do them? or is it overal a lot better to do them your way? just curious

Has anyone tried this on Altezzas? I, like most people, don't much like the look of the altezzas, they look out of place on our G, but if they were blacked out, they'd look like stock tails except at night, at which point they would be circular lights, I think that'd be sick lookin. Just wondering if anyone has done it.