DIY Tailight Tint

Well a few months ago I bought some smoked colored turn signals for my 1993 VFR from Thurn Motorsports. I was very pleased with the way they looked but I immediately thought that they made the ugly red tail-light stand out like a sore thumb. I searched high and low for a clear or smoked tail-light to replace it with but had no luck. Since I had an extra lens already available from my old parts bike I thought I'd try my luck at a DIY tint. I ordered some tint spray from Amazon and bought some fine grit sandpaper from the auto parts store and several hours and many sanding and clear coats later you see the final results. I think it came out pretty good. And before you start bashing about brake light visibility I want you to know that you can still easily see the lights through the tinted lens. Opinions?















Rollin

 

It looks nice, but I'm not sure I would want my tail light less visible.

 

Sweet!

Me likey. :thumbsup:

 

Very nice. But is the light still as bright?

 

The pics are a little deceiving because they were taken in a shaded portion of my driveway. With the running lights and brake lights on you can easily see the light through the tint. I am very pleased with the looks.

Here are a couple pics in my garage with just the running lights on and then the brake lights.






Rollin

 

Great job it looks awesome. And that it stayed just as bright as factory is even better.

 

I like that. I just might do that too and claim it was my idea in the first place. I found a site on a UK site that has LED's for 6th gens so with those, the brighness should not be an issue.

 

That's the key be bright enough so that some dumbass doesn't rear end ya while keeping the COOL factor.

 

It would have been interesting if you had a stock light next to your tinted light for a reference. But I still like.

 

Anybody try this stuff on the inside surface of the lens?


Tons of poop on LEDs for bikes here:

http://www.webbikeworld.com/lights/

Comparo on incandescent vs LED vs quartz is interesting.

With some simple conversions from a site or a mired nomograph, light output in lumens can be calculated using a digital camera in SP or AP mode as the measurement instrument. Or it can be read in f stops..

 

That was my very first thought but since the entire lens piece is molded and does not come apart into separate pieces I figured it couldn't easily be done without cutting part of the lens assembly completely out. The entire process probably took me about 10 hours between the 3 coats of tint, and 6 coats of clear coat plus lots of rubbing with Maquire's compound.

Rollin

 

I have a 91. Same configuation. I wonder if some of the tint could be poured into the hole where the bulbs go. Most of those plastic compatible paints and coatings are resolvable in xylene or lacquer thinner.

Looks good. Nice work and a nice clean bike.

 

Thanks Billy! Now I just have to wait for someone like Squirrelman to post about how irresponsible it is to alter the visibility of your lights and how it can have dire consequences LOL !!! Well since I do still have another red lens I am seriously thinking about giving that idea of yours a try!! Should I just use a screwdriver to open a hole in the can of tint??

Rollin