I'm going for a White/Black look on my Blizzard pearl Prius. I have black rims, black badges, and pretty dark tints and i'd like to complete the look by doing my rear lights. Would plasti-dip be a good method? Anyone done this?
Personally, I think my PIP is already a bit loud, so I don't plan to dress it up at all. What's plasti-dip? Is that like something you can paint on to protect the car, then strip it off later?
i dont think plastidip will be good on tails since it wont be that translucent. google VHT night shades. or you can always use vinyl tint.
Consider this carefully. I have been behind a few "cool dudes" with blacked out tails lately and the stop lights are almost impossible to SEE in the daytime. And going down the freeway at night, they look like they have no tail lights at all until you get right up on them.
Don't be that guy. Head lights and Tail lights exist for a reason. I seen idiots in california who tint both their head lights and tail lights!
Not to come in on either side of the whether or not you should do it debate..... I mean if you're going to do it none of us are going to stop you. As was mentioned plasti-dip is a terrible choice as it's opaque and would sort of defeat the purpose of having lights in the first place. Also as was mentioned the real options are pretty much a vinyl film to wrap around the housing, or a spray on product like VHT nightshades. You could also take it to a body shop who could mix a dark paint to be clear and then spray it on. Any of them you do yourself will come out as well as how much effort you put into doing them..... so if you rush they'l look like crap. I mean it's always possible it may look like crap anyway. If you're looking for easily reversible then vinyl would be the way to go as you can always just peel it back off. Spray on tints can be removed with competent sanding, but that may be something you don't want to do yourself. You could always do a vinyl wrap to see if you like it and then go with a spray on coat later on (either self applied or professionally). Whichever you choose I'd caution you to not go completely blacked out. You can get a fair amount of the "blacked out" look while still leaving the lights completely visible. Even just enough to dampen the chrome accents in the lights can change the look immensely. As a last alternate you could put a lot more effort into it, open the housings up and tint the interior pieces instead of the exterior housing. That's probably more trouble than it's worth.... I'm not sure about the prius, however many tail lights are sealed up by melting the edges of the lens cover around the main housing vs. the adhesive which most headlights use.
It doesn't need to be completely blacked out, just smoked. It will cause ZERO safety issues. The light will be visible completely. My car came tinted from the dealer and the brake light is behind tints and is visible. What's the difference? I know what you guys mean, i've seen cars with BLACKED out tail lights and you can hardly see their brake signals. That's not what i'm going for. and no, i'd never do my headlights.
tint and smoking are two different leaves from the same tree. smoking the tail lights to get rid of all the chrome shiny-ness can be done by using vht spray but very few layers of it
I'm finding tint films for "smoking" taillights for your model/gen Prius on eBay, searching for: "taillights smoke 2010 Toyota Prius Base 1.8L" As with tinting of any kind, laws vary from state to state, though often with similar objectives and motivations in mind, and all legality is on the owner|driver's head. I did find this though: Tail Light Laws in Arizona | eHow Display In Ariziona, a vehicle must have at least one rear-mounted tail light of which the red light is visible from at least 500 feet. The light must not be tinted any other color. Position As stated in Section 28-923, Subsection B of the Arizona State Legislature, the position of a vehicle's tail lamp should not be higher than 72 inches and not less than 15 inches.
FWIW Prius C tail lights are NOT Bake-able. Trust me, I learned the hard way. tried to bake to pop the cover and paint the inside to lose the HIDEOUS chrome on the sides and NON essential parts. MAJOR FAIL.
I bought a pair of pre tinted tail lights from Garm. I'd be happy to sell (cheap) my stock tail lamps to anyone who wants them. Might work well for someone fo experiment with or use as backups if their tinting attempt fails. SCH-I535 ?
This thread may prove useful: Blacked Out Tail Lights | Page 2 | PriusChat Even if you put on a little too much NightShades, it can be polished off without too much difficulty until you arrive at the tint you want. I feel perfectly safe and have had no problems.
I used the smoke plasti dip on my rear lights it works but im not 100% satisfiyed with the look, other people seem to go both ways as well some people like it others do not
