Tail light tinting and a custom light bar?

[xtremerevolution]

So I had this crazy idea yesterday.

 

I'm looking for a black-silver color scheme on my car. I think it will work out pretty nicely if I can get it done.

 

So far, I've got black rims and a black grille. Since that picture below, I took out those fog lights and got a new grille and painted it black as well. I also put in black racing seats and 8000k HIDs.

 

 

This one guy was parting out the his cutlass, so I bought his rear wing, which is also conveniently black:

 

 

Another guy was parting out his z34 Lumina, so I bought his hood louvers, which are also black.

 

Once I get back to Chicago I'll have the rear wing installed, and then I'll cut the holes for the hood louvers (very carefully) and have someone weld them on.

 

I think overall that should do pretty nicely for a silver-black color scheme. However, I've got a bit of a problem.

 

If I tint my tail lights, they'll get rather dark. I really don't want that happening, since I hate people who have annoyingly dark tail lights. I've seen a few guys on the freeway with tinted tail lights and you can barely see them when they stop. Also, for some particular reason my rear window brake light hasn't been working for a while, and it took a mechanic 3 hours to figure out there was a short in the wiring somewhere leading up to that brake light. So yeah, until I run new wiring I don't have a rear window brake light either.

 

So I was thinking...what if I tinted my tail lights as planned and installed a custom LED brake light bar in the back of my rear window (toward the top) to compensate for the reduction in tail light effectiveness? Would that be a good idea? Or would it be a better idea to make some holes for some more LED bulbs in my current tail light assembly? I was also thinking of even installing some 9006 headlight bulbs inside my tail light assembly after I get it tinted to keep it showing brightly.

 

Any opinions?

 

Also, if anyone has a tutorial lying around as to how I can tint my tail lights, I'd really appreciate it (since I can't really find one). A link or something would be nice.

 

Thanks.

[slick]

Personally, I think having random non-vehicle colored parts on the car would make it look off, or misplaced,

 

For the tinting, VHT Nightshades.

 

As far as the LED's are concerned, you would need to compensate the amount of light output after the tinting is concerned in the taillamps to make them totally legal. Obviously tinting your taillamps automatically makes the illegal, but thats besides the point.

 

BTW, I have several LED strips meant for tail lamp and brake applications if you are interested. Hell... I even have LED CHMSL housings as well, in charcoal color.

 

 

On that strip, one of the LED's was out, but I verified the rest of the strips that all LED's are working. They are Lumiled's SnapLED's.

 

[xtremerevolution]

hmm, I might be interested in some of those, though I still don't know how I'd go about installing them. That tail light assembly is rather large so I'd need to figure that out a bit.

 

Would it be logical to use headlight bulbs (55W) to power the tail light assembly? I'd imagine they might get too hot. Are there any other brighter bulbs that I can use in place of my current ones?

[slick]

Too bright. Totally illegal as well.

 

I would just go ahead and tint the tails, and then figure out what to do about light output from there. I love the look of tinted tails, but all too often, I see so many vehicles where the light output totally blows.

[slick]

xtreme, you might be interested in this thread:

 

http://www.w-body.com/forum/index.php/topic,62162.msg743408.html#new

[intern8tion9l]

is it possible to weld the louvers to the hood? aren't they different metals?

[xtremerevolution]

is it possible to weld the louvers to the hood? aren't they different metals?

 

I think they'll weld on just fine. I know of a few guys from the Impala SS forum that have done it the same way.

[intern8tion9l]

thats good to know. i've got a set i wanted to put on my car but have been trying to figure out how to mount them

[xtremerevolution]

thats good to know. i've got a set i wanted to put on my car but have been trying to figure out how to mount them

 

Yeah, everyone I've seen just cuts out the holes with the dremel, cleans off the edges of the louvers underneath (there are some bits sticking out), and has them welded on from underneath. The job looks pretty well done I'd say. I won't even have to paint anything since I want to keep them black, not only to stand out more but also to match my back-silver color scheme.

[intern8tion9l]

you are thinking you're going to be able to weld them on and not have the heat burn the paint off? i dunno about that

[xtremerevolution]

you are thinking you're going to be able to weld them on and not have the heat burn the paint off? i dunno about that

 

The louvers will not sit flush with the hood. The edges will sit on top of the hood on a smaller hole. Therefore, if any paint does burn, it will be about half an inch away from the nearest edge of visible hood paint.

 

Now if you are referring to the paint on the louvers burning, that might be an issue, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

If I don't weld these things on, what other method of attaching them would I have?

[intern8tion9l]

i'm not saying to go another route, the welding will be the easiest in the end. like i said, i'm going to look into it as well. i really don't know how else you could do it. but i know i want mine to be flush, so i have to get someone really good at welding to do it i guess

[xtremerevolution]

i'm not saying to go another route, the welding will be the easiest in the end. like i said, i'm going to look into it as well. i really don't know how else you could do it. but i know i want mine to be flush, so i have to get someone really good at welding to do it i guess

 

Mine won't be flush unfortunately, but the louvers will only stand like 1mm on top of the hood surface (or about the thickness of the louver metal).

 

Would Gorilla glue work? I'm thinking that would be a LOT easier than welding, and I wouldn't have to worry about the paint burning.

[pwmin]

i would think you should be able to tack weld it in a few places and not burn the paint

[xtremerevolution]

i would think you should be able to tack weld it in a few places and not burn the paint

 

Yeah that would probably work pretty well too. Still, I think as ghetto as it sounds, Gorilla glue might hold up pretty darn well. I know that stuff dries up hard as a rock. Plus this would remove the need for me to take my car somewhere to have someone else weld it, which would probably be more expensive (since I don't have access to a welder).

[intern8tion9l]

some 5 minute epoxy will def do the trick too. the kind that you mix