uhmm.. you arent going to want to run tint film over your rear lights as it looks terrible on the coupes unless your extremely good at wrapping due to the complication shape of the coupe tails. Notice they dont show any side-shots?? there is a reason for that
i used VHT nightshades on my old car and they came out perfect. It does take some patience though to do it right.
you going to want to scuff them with like a 2000 grit sandpaper then wipe clean
spray 2-4 even light coats of VHT (depending on the darkness you want)
spray 3+ coats of clear after the VHT
then your going to want to wetsand with 2000 grit once again then polish them to a shine with meguiars scratch x2.0
heres the results on my old LT, ignore the dirty car.. they came out super glossy. I did 4 coats of VHT.. total cost was maybe $15 at most
Yeah it looks really good! But I've already nightshaded my tail light (I did it last year) so do I do like 2-3 coasts or I scuff them and start it again?
id scuff them with 2000 grit just to give the new tint something to adhere to. then do the whole process I described over again.. should work flawlessly as long as you take your time with it
all wetsanding consists of is taking your high grit sandpaper (normally 1500-2000) and soaking it in a bucket of water. The whole idea is to keep the paper and whatever you are sanding wet! so as you go keep dipping your sandpaper in the water and keep the whole taillight (in this case) wet so it will slide across the surface easier. Thats really the only difference in comparison to the usual sanding/scuffing process.
as far as the polishing goes, just buy it and follow the directions which just consists of rubbing it on with a microfiber cloth until the part you are polishing is shiny. not very difficult at all lol
Yea thanks lol...I knew wet sanding was exactly what it sounded like but iv never done it so I didn't know if there was a trick to it other than keeping it wet. And as for the polish I didn't know if you used a buffer which I should have specified instead of what I said
The image on that kit looks like its just circles that go in the middle of the lights. It doesnt look like its one of those full wrap kits. IMO I would recommend the VHT nightshades. This is what I used on my car and it turned out great. You can find it in a lot of stores for under $10 a can.
My advice is get aftermarket smoked LED lights. You risk making your stock lights too dark and if you leave the stock bulbs in there you will be a hazard. Don't be concerned about getting a ticket, be concerned about getting rammed by an 5,000 lb SUV that didn't see you. I'm just sayin'. Tails that are tinted as dark as some of the pictures on here may look cool, but they're dangerous. Just my $0.02...
I used spray on Nightshade on the Ford Mustang tail lights, it looks nice a dark, but I don't think spray on will get a result as good as padlocks posted images, they pretty much look like they were simply painted black, really nice.
i used VHT nightshades on my old car and they came out perfect. It does take some patience though to do it right.
you going to want to scuff them with like a 2000 grit sandpaper then wipe clean
spray 2-4 even light coats of VHT (depending on the darkness you want)
spray 3+ coats of clear after the VHT
then your going to want to wetsand with 2000 grit once again then polish them to a shine with meguiars scratch x2.0
I'm with colodude. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the look, but every time I see tinted tails I question the safety. IMHO, if you alter the safety devices on your car, you're just asking for it.
Actually, I think I need to apply a few more coats, I just didn't want to block them out, Don't get me wrong, the job I did looks sweet, just not as sweet as yours. I used another brand not actually Nightshade, I did only 2 coats, I guess I can add a few more coats and see whats up, maybe I can get them as good looking as yours, I didn't know spray would work that well and lights would still shine through, now you have confirmed it, I will add a few more coats and see if I can get them completely black like yours.
This is what I got right now, your second image, mine look exactly like these on the Mustang.
no those were spray painted as well.. took a very long time, but I never had a chip in them and they were glossy as can be as well..
what I did (deep breath lol):
first stripped off all old clear with aircraft remover.
sanded off the corrosion I had on them (couple of progress and comparison pics)
before sanding (inner rim)
after sanding (inner rim)
before spokes (corrosion under the clear)
after sanding spokes (ignore the dirty blotches)
3 coats of primer per rim (playing cards work wonders)
n finally the final coat with 4+ good coats of clear over it (I originally had them gold for a while, but then redid them black a couple months later so bear with me)
now, like I said, this took a long time. I'd estimate it took me around 3 hours per rim in total to do. BUT it was done right! I didnt have any chipping occur on the rims, and the corrosion I had on them from salt was totally eliminated to prevent further issues. So its really up to you on the time your looking to spend. This only cost me $20 bucks for supplies to do while in college in a dorm room and I got similar results as to if I would have got them powdercoated at 15x the cost, so I really couldnt complain. Being patient is pretty darn important in this case though..
some people prefer to just cover up their rims with plastidip to cover up imperfections, but I wanted to correct the issues not just cover them up
About the tail lights, I used the spray like you, and the image of yours I posted is the result of my job on the Mustang, so since they look the same and your added more coats to yours to get that very dark tint, I will do the same soon.
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Chevy Cobalt Forum
619K posts
28.8K members
Since 2008
A forum community dedicated to Chevy Cobalt owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, parts, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!