atchipmunk Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I decided to do a light smoke on the stock tail lights of my BSM LGT Wagon. Figured it would go well with the recently tinted windows (30%), but don't like the look of tint film applied to the tail lights. Besides, i'm not sure that tint film would work too well on the curves of the wagon tail lights. So, I decided to use some VHT NiteShades tinting spray, but I wanted to make sure it looked like part of the tail lights and was cleanly done. Figured I could spray some clear over it and wet sand and buff to a perfect shine. Here's the rundown of the process... Here's the stock tail lights before I started... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-1.jpg First step was to wet sand the outer lenses with 1000 grit sandpaper to roughen the surface up a little bit and allow the spray tint to "stick" better. I wet sanded each lens till they had a nice, even dullness to them. Here's a pic comparing a wet sanded lens with the non-sanded one (wet sanded one is on the right, obviously)... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-2.jpg And here's both lenses sanded... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-3.jpg After they're both wet sanded evenly, it's time to spray some tint. Here's the VHT Niteshades spray tint I used and the clear... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-4.jpg One of the benefits of using a spray tint is that you can completely control how light or dark you want to make the tint. I didn't want to go too dark...just a light smoke. So, I sprayed 2 light and even coats to get the level of tint I wanted. Here's the 2 lights after 2 coats of NiteShades. (I almost feel like I might have gone a bit darker than I initially wanted, but oh well...)... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-5.jpg After letting the tint dry completely (next day), it was time to spray some clear to seal it all up. In order to get the clear to stick better, I again wet sanded the tint layer very lightly with 1500 grit sandpaper making sure to keep it very even. Here's the lights after this sanding... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-6.jpg Then it was time to spray some clear. I layed down 3 coats of clear, with the 3rd coat a bit thicker than the 1st two in an attempt to minimize the orange peel. The Duplicolor Acrylic clear I used had a tendency to turn cloudy right after it was sprayed, which made me a little nervous at first, but luckily it cleared out once it cured. Here's the cloudiness right after spraying the clear... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-7.jpg Even though I sprayed the last coat of clear thicker, it still left a lot of orange peel...kinda inevitable with most spray cans. In this closeup, you can clearly see the orange peel texture in the clear... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-8.jpg To get rid of the texture, it was back to wet sanding. First with some 1000 grit to cut through most of the texture, then finally with some 2000 grit to get the finish I wanted. Here's one of the lights after the final 2000 grit wet sanding session... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-9.jpg To finish them off, I used some terry applicators and polishing compound to bring out the shine in the clear. After several applications of compound and buffing, here's what I ended up with... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-10.jpg And once close up so you can better see the finish. The orange peel texture is gone and you can see it in the reflection of my daughter's blue and green booster seat... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-11.jpg Unfortunately, by the time I finished up, it was already late and dark out so i'll install them and take some installed pics tomorrow. Stay tuned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutbackXT05 Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 I pretty much did the same thing but I when a bit darker. I only did 2 coats of vht and got kinda scared when I saw how dark it was but it doesnt look to dark anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAC5.2 Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Keep in mind, this is completely illegal in every state in the USA. [URL="http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/proper-flip-key-interesti-159894.html"]Flip Key Development Thread[/URL] "Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." - E. Hubbard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 Keep in mind, this is completely illegal in every state in the USA. Yes...i'm aware of the laws regarding tinted tail lights. Hence the reason I went with a light smoke. Hopefully, the light smoke won't attract too much attention from Johnny Law. I figure, if the older VW GTI's can get away with lightly smoked tail lights as stock then maybe they won't give me too much sh*t for these... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GloNDark Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Man that looks great. I've had a can of the VHT in my cabinet for months and just haven't gotten the guts to do it on the legacy yet. This really makes me want to get it done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted November 15, 2011 Author Share Posted November 15, 2011 Threw the tinted tails onto the car today, but no time to give it a good bath so here's a couple of quick shots of them on the car. I'm pretty pleaed with how they turned out. Gonna also give them a couple of coats of wax to protect the clear coat. When I have time to wash it, i'll take some better pics... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-12.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/SmokedTails-13.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 looks great man!!! I wish I could just pay you to do mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoobydoobie Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 Looks good. Not too dark = a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
planelazy Posted November 17, 2011 Share Posted November 17, 2011 Looks great. I just used tinted laminx overlays.. barely made mine darker, more like the JDM tails on the sedans.. I'm very happy with it, I wouldn't go any darker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theflystyle Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 looks good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclozene Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 looks great! I agree with the film tinting thing. Did you notice much of the spray tint come off when wet sanding it for the second time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justgeegz Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Those tail lights look sick dude! Good stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefRacer Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Nice job, very professional looking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalyst Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Yup, wet sanding with 2000+ does the trick after that are all cured. Turns it into glass. I sprayed my sedan tails with a translucent red and clear, look OEM. "This is an adventure." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Thanks for the compliments, guys! looks great! I agree with the film tinting thing. Did you notice much of the spray tint come off when wet sanding it for the second time? The wet sanding after the tint was done very lightly so as to not take off too much material. Some color comes off with it, but it's very minimal. I only really wet sanded enough to roughen up the surface some and reduce the orange peel texture that was present after the tint. That helps to get the clear to stick and lessens the thickness of clear you'll have to spray and wet sand to get that glass finish... Anyway, thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 Heh. I guess I forgot to add more pics to this thread. Tinting the tails was meant to go along with the other little touches I had planned for the car...tint, wheel color, etc. Here's some recent pics... http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-1.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-2.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-4.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-6.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-7.jpg http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk56/atchipmunk/05%20LGT%20Wagon/LowLGT-9.jpg Personally, I think the light smoke goes well with the tint and black wheels... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joedirtae09 Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 ^ that wagon looks like its up to no good!! have you considered upgrading your wheels to something wider? i think your wagon would look even better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted February 10, 2012 Author Share Posted February 10, 2012 ^ that wagon looks like its up to no good!! have you considered upgrading your wheels to something wider? i think your wagon would look even better. Thanks. Oh there's a LOT that's in the plans...including some black 18x9.5" wheels. Unfortunately, having 2 kids (a 2 Year Old and a 3 month old) makes it a little harder to justify spending $$$ on this car to the wifey...especially when I bought this car as the "family" car. So, little by little i'll be adding some stuff here and there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 LOOKS GREAT! very butch looking Subie. are those your horns right behind the grille fascia? our cars are almost twins... i did my wheels black plasti-dip then painted them an anthracite grey. i did the center caps of the wheels too. do you like the look of the unpainted center cap? ps- pic of my beast below. looks very similar right@!? so hey, you may notice that i have no roof rack. i took it off and then agonized over the holes and the paint not matching. my advice (if you hate the roof rack too) is to remove it, paint it silver, put it back on. thats the safest and easiest way to make sure the holes are sufficiently filled. Heh. Yeah...our cars do look pretty similar. Your wagon looks great! Yes...those are my horns mounted behind the grill...Hella Supertones. And I actually do like the unpainted canter caps...at least on a black wheel. Back in the early 90's I used to dislike black wheels because I thought they looked like the car was running on 4 spares or 4 steelies when they were rolling. The aluminum center cap kinda breaks up the monotony of the color for me and sets it off just a little so they don't look like spares when rolling. Yeah, I did notice that you had no roof rack. It looks so clean without it. And I have seen some pics of wagons with the rack painted. The painted roof rack does look good...makes the rails kinda disappear. My only problem with that is that I still need to be able to use the roof rack. I'm an avid mountain biker and am looking to add a set of the Canadian Aero crossbars to my car so I can run the Thule Sidearms I have mounted on my E36. If I painted the rack, I'm pretty sure the paint wouldn't hold up to having crossbars clamped onto them without damaging the paint. I REALLY wish the "hump-less" JDM roof panel came on our cars so we could run the JDM roof rack delete pieces. Those are ideal in that they have bolt-on mounts for rack cross-bars so you can run them really clean looking (no rack) and quickly and easily bolt-on the rack when you need to haul stuff. Once again, we here in the US get shafted... But I digress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xero287 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chameleon Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 As always ... Another great write up. The "family car" is coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atchipmunk Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 As always ... Another great write up. The "family car" is coming along nicely. Thanks! Unfortunately, gonna have to lay off on the car upgrades for a bit...have more important family expenses that need to be addressed. I did, however, recently pick up an '06 STi Booster and Master Cylinder that will be the start to a planned future Brembo brake system upgrade. I'll install the booster and M/C soon (will definitely take pics and post a DIY Walkthrough for that of course!) but after that i'll have to divert energy and funds to more important things... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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