My Blacked Out Prius Project

It's beautiful---well done
congratulations
Froley

 

All "unaltered" Prius tail lamps are clear, but light up red when turned on. If the lamps are still red and equally bright from the same distance, then it's probably OK to darken the covers a bit. But to achieve the original brightness, you would have to use brighter LEDs, which may be difficult to do and probably rather expensive.

Another safety issue is the reflectivity of the tail lamps when they are NOT on. All tail lamps on cars are intended to be quite reflective. Just drive down a street at night alongside a bunch of parked cars and you'll see.

 

I would consider cutting away just the box where the "tail lamps" are, the ones that run continuously. Even without tint those 5w bulbs are just ridiculous! Everything else looks good.

One thing to consider otherwise, or in the meantime... if you are on a road or in the fog or something, tap your breaks frequently, or if a car is coming up behind you. At least that way those super led's will alert them to your presence.

 

CA vehicle code more strict than US DOT?
Look at just about half the new cars out there, with their clear tail lights and red LEDs...
Also note third gen RX7s came with factory blacked out tail lights.

Arctic, if you go to your local CHP station they will inspect your car for free and you can send me a $20 check instead of giving it to the city every time.
(Note that I already applied a $5 PC member discount).



Moti

 

ADD some chrome . it will look better

 

I think that if you black out the license plate frame and lugnuts it will really help complete the look.

The problem with the blacked out taillights is that your head lights throw it off balance - consider a light tint for the tails.

Going to need some sort of aftermarket headlight to reduce the amount of glass and reflector up front!

 

Can you mask part of the headlight to reduce the white appearance from the side?

I think the tail lights shouldn't be tinted and if you used 2004 to 2005 tail light clusters the brake lights are black already. You also shouldn't have tint over the reflectors on the bottom of the tail light clusters.

My opinion is a red accent stripe around the rim would set the wheels off.

 

Nice work. I think you should swap the lug nuts for black ones though.

 

This is true. If you get a fix it ticket all you need is a cop to sign it off.

As for the car. I'm usually not a fan of blacked out cars, but it looks good on a Prius. Definitely a welcomed change of sight. Personally I would have gone with a lighter tint on the pass. and driver. side windows to avoid detection, but to each their own. I've had 30 or 35% (one of the two not quite sure) on the pass. and driver side on mine since 06' and no problems yet *knock on wood. As for the headlights, if you feels gutsy enough you can do a Whistler mod on around the edges.

 

+1. I think the car looks great. You do need to complete the job by blacking out the lug nuts. But you will ultimately get a ticket for the rear lights (and maybe the tint). I was speaking with a Porsche owner who did it and he has gotten one, had to correct it but still had to pay the fine. He did put the black ones in again and is still tempting fate. I actually don't think they're unsafe. The darkened ones I've seen glow very brightly through the tinting. But the state has a revenue gap.
OTOH, I wouldn't touch the headlights. That is just dangerous.

 

Dude that looks freaking badass. Dont let anybody tell you other wise.

 

wow that is black

 

Looks fantastic. Now take a scuff pad to that clear coat and get it resprayed matt. That'd be dead dead.

- D

 

I personally don't like the blacked out trim badges as that reminds me of an el cheapo' $150 complete car paint job when they don't make the effort to mask things off.

Just my 2cents.