im contemplating tinting my tail lights 35%. Im sure it will look great on my NBP, however, do you think the tail lights will shine through well enough and will the cops pull me over for this? I live in NYC. THanks.

 

35% is extremelly dark, I went with 20% and as soon as I recieve the film, I will be posting pictures... I have WDP, so it is of course going to look a little darker on a lighter colored car..

 

i dont think ill look 2 dark..... ive seen 5% and its really dark and ive seen 35% and i dont think its 2 bad

 

tinting for tailights reads the opposite way, so 20% is lighter than 35%, and so on, instead of the other way around which is how window tinting is measured...

 

I see absolutly no reason why it would be different. the concept is still the same... its letting light through. the only difference is its lights from the brake lights.

tint is tint. 20% tint lets approx 20 percent of the light through no matter what. Thats where it gets its name. Its not going to change just because your doing it on something other than windows, because its not named for the windows! its named for the tint film.

 

Elevate, I agree with you, but if you look at the smoked taillight film companies, such as Rockblockers or www.stickercity.com you will see that they measure the level of tint differently, it's stupid in my opinion as well, but thats how they do it

 

I do think this would look pretty good, but I would caution you to contemplate this mod. With the way people drive here in FL I think that sometimes even having nuclear powered tail lights is sometimes not enough. More specifically you are going to make it harder for people to see your brake lights.

Also be sure to check your local laws regarding head/tail lights to make sure this won't be a cop magnet. I was pulled over for having a license plate frame, for window tint etc etc.

Gestapo cops suck!!! :cop:

 

actually its not the same.... with window tint.. the light goes INTO the car, tailight tint, the light goes AWAY from the car

make sense? Tint is measured by the amount of light absorbed by the target (if you want a technical definition)

 

anyone have pics of this mod. I would like to do it to the rear sidemarkers as well to somewhat match the front signals.

 

Here's a picture of the mod from an eBay auction I found while I was looking around recently.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...945823533&rd=1

Not my speed, but to each his/her own!

 

I'd like to see a pic with the lights on.

 

Check out mine. Enjoy!!
http://photos.yahoo.com/zimaking76

 

The Picture neuronbob posted is with 35% tint, which is the darkets film you can get for the taillights. You can get your headlights tinted by a shop with a spray, but that costs alot more than a $50 film. One mod I know will need to be done is for the rear sidemarkers which are on the side of the vehicle, those will need to be smoked as well to compliment the taillights, once done with my taillights, I will be going up to Glendale to get my headlights smoked.

 

once it warms up i will put my light kit on...

 

hate to yah down, but ur wrong...when putting 20% tint on a car it goes on the inside of the glass...the outside visibilty into the car is now 20 % becouse it's on the inside n the visibilty from the inside of the car to the outside is more like 65%..now if u put it on the outside of the glass...the inside to out visibilty will be 20% n the outside to inside would be the 65....in the case of a tail light...ur putting it on the outside, not inside, therefor ur basically trying to get light throught 20% visibilty...which i think is too dark...but i deff think 35% would look good n work well...just my

 

huh? film is film, dosnt matter what side you put on it, it only seems darker from the outside when looking in because there isnt a sun in the car to shine light out...
also you saying 35 will look better then 20? they are flipped with light smoking, so if you say that 20 is way to dark and then suggesting 35 which is even darker?

 

these pics are of the 35% like the stuff on ebay?

 

You'll still be able to see your taillights, however, if you don't want to risk getting pulled over I'd go a little lighter, but if you don't mind, you should be ok.

 

My cuzin owns a tint shop on Webster Ave in NY city...belive me i know what im talking about...the film is designed to be mounted on the inside of the window this way the visibility f rom the inside is decent opposed to the visibilty from the outside to the inside of the car....and 20% is much darker than 35%....way u gotta look at it is...try to get the power of ur tail lights through 20% visibilty as opposed to 35% visibilty....35% i doubt u'll have trouble with cops...20% u might get bothered with...but hey thats just my

 

Here are state laws of legal tint in the US:

http://www.tintdude.com/ntoo.html

A brief clip: "Generally the films are sold as 5%(limo), 20%(dark), 35%(medium), 50%(light). "

Another good source:

http://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/tinting.shtml

Again, we learn: "The LOWER the percentage, the darker the tint! 5% tint (otherwise known as "Limo Tint") is the DARKEST tint you can buy and looks VERY good on the back window! The percentage coresponds to the amount of light that is allowed to enter the window (IE: 5% tint only allows 5% of light to enter through the window)!! "

And here is some good data from an actual tint manufacturer:

http://www.solargard.com/index.cfm/f...gh_Performance

Hopefully, this should settle some things and answer everyone's questions (although some of it seems to be coming down to semantics.)

Hope this helps!!!

 

I dont disagree with anyone of you, but according to the manufacturers of this tint film, the 35% stuff is darker than the 20% stuff....

 

Ya that makes sense... but what do you mean 'target'?

 

I get it now. Kinda confusing. I will explain this the best I can. When he says target, he means where the light is shining.

Basically the film is unidirectional. Meaning if you hold the film up in your hands and look through it, then filp it over, its going to be different. There is only one side you can apply the film on, the side that has the little plastic sheet peel off. That is the side intended to be applied and therefore there that is the side that is going to be facing the light source (facing the window it faces the sun, and facing appllying it on the tail light faces the lights from the brake light)

that is why 04 Acura TL said that one direction it will be 20 percent looking inside, but about 65 or whatever looking out.

So when you measure the tint of the tail light you measure how much of the light is getting blocked, not getting through, as is the case on window tinting. It makes perfect sense if you think about it but it could be confusing, as it was to me before i looked into it.

 

i personally like it just the way it is.

 

In CA, I believe that tinting the lights are illegal and dangerous since there are reflective material (kinda like the reflectors on your bike) that let others see where you are, especially when you are parked. So event though it may look good, some one may not be able to see you in the dark if you tint over the tail light, covering the reflective components.

 

Has anyone came across a site or company that makes a 50% tailight tint kit for our cars?...I keep seeing 35 and 20%....

ThX!

 

50% is too dark...

20% shows 80% light...

 

20% is darker then 35%

 

thats like sayin if ppl had 35% on their windows it would be darker in their car than having 20%!

 

they are read differently, so 20% lets 80% light from the LED's out and 35% lets out 65% of the light from the LED's out. I called stickercity and asked them, and thats what they told me. Haha I dont think there is any purpose in arguing this, the tint film should probably just be labeled the same way window tint is so all this confusion could be avoided.

 

if you take a pic of the rear with flash in the dark you will see that only the bottom part of the tail lights reflect. so if you tint the rest you should be fine so long as enough light goes though. i wouldnt do that anyway, it would look wierd.

 

i did that i have pics posted......is this what your talking about

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106524

 

Here are some shots of my smoked tail lights, done with teh film sold by rockblocker...

https://acurazine.com/forums/audio-video-electronics-navigation-22/what-factory-speaker-sizes-107066/

 

OR....you could simply spray the tint on yourself for less than $10...
I bought this stuff and will be puttting it on the next week or so....I'll let you know how it looks..

http://www.pitstopusa.com/detail.aspx?ID=50412

B

 

I just got done spray tinting my tails, I think it turned out pretty good, especially for a mod that costs less than $10!
This stuff works pretty well and it still lets the light through pretty well.



With the lights on:


B

 

looks good! tell me how it holds up though, if it fades and makes the finish dull, or if its even shiny? thanks!

 

Just put the film on until you get pulled over for it then take it off! Bring a picture of the "offed" film and get the ticket waved, then the next day put the film back on. Problem solved!

 

This guy know how it works Only problem everytime you put the film back off and on, the film spreads a bit, and it will hurt the stickiness of the adhesive.

 

For those interested in 2nd Gen Tl smoked tail light kits we have them now in stock.

https://acurazine.com/forums/sponsored-sales-group-buys-10/smoked-tail-light-kits-tsx-2nd-gen-tl-294296/

BTW, that CL looks great with them on.