How To: Custom Tint Taillights

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gc_harvey

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I get all kinds of help info from this site, and other forms as well for that matter, and I figured I'd post a "how to" of my own. Most of you probably already know how to do this, but here it is anyways.
I wanted to tint my taillights, but I also wanted it to be something personalized and different from anyone elses.
Here's what I did. Started out by taping off the reverse lights so I wouldn't black them out with the rest of the light. Then, I picked what I wanted the light to say on it and printed out the stencil that I made on Microsoft Word. After that, I took a glue stick and glued it onto some masking tape that I put on the light. Then I took an X-acto knife and cut out the letters. Next was the tinting. I used VHT spray tint from Advance Auto. Used a few coats of that, then a couple coats of clear coat on top of it to keep it from fading out.
Here's the pics of the process.
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It didn't make it near as dark as I wanted to. I thought they were way darker when I was doing it, but it was dark when I was spraying them. I'll have to put some more coats of the tint on it when I get time to do it again. But, here ya have it. My only suggestions are that you pic words with square letters rather than round and do it in the daylight so you know how dark it is. Good luck to anyone who does this!
 
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gc_harvey

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Nice, that looks pretty sick

Thanks.. I woulda liked for the tint to be way darker, but it still looks decent I think. It's hard to notice that it even has any letters in it right now. I gotta do it over again this weekend, hopefully.
 
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gc_harvey

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That's wierd, mine always end up darker then I want hahaha

lol, the last ones I did before these ended up way darker than I wanted, so I was trying to be careful with it.. I was too careful, haha
 

Stangshcky12

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I've never gotten around to polishing mine
I think most just use 2000 grit wet sand paper then wax the light, anyone know what a light polishing compound after wet sanding the waxing after might do?
 

quietpeen

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That's pretty cool
 

0212353

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I've never gotten around to polishing mine
I think most just use 2000 grit wet sand paper then wax the light, anyone know what a light polishing compound after wet sanding the waxing after might do?

I use Adams Revive Polish

do NOT use wax until they have cured (60ish days)
 

Allstar

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Did you wet sand the entire light then tape off areas not to tint, did the tint, removed the tape and then cleared?
 

xariver

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hey guys im new to this forum since i just purchased a new ram but i work at a body shop and got pretty good at tinting tail lights. i use 8% of my clear and put three wet coats on then bake them. this seemed to work well and for the prep i was using scuff stuff on a grey 3m pad that way it would stick and you wont see the starches through the blacked out clear. Then if i had any imperfections in two days i took 2000 grit wet sanded them flat and then went over with a da and 3000 grit. and ardex 1500 grit turned out well on multiple tail lights. I was using wanda clear and lessonal 23 black so if your using a little different materials may change the tint percent. Thanks hope this is helpful
 

jayhuc

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Hey guys. also New here. I tinted my lights with plastic dip smoke. 1 can did both lights. I've been through many car washes and no peeling yet .
 

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