AU Bake and Painted Headlights-Tinted Tailights

[blackau02]

I'v recently started my first thread on adding Black rims to my Black AU and BA bonnet bulge, now I've gone mod crazy and thinking of possibly Painting the inside of my headlights and tinting my tail lights aswell... I just wanted peoples opinions before I do anything I might regret...

I'll jump on Photoshop tonight and try give you an idea of what it would look like.

[Polyal]

You on your P's? Id stay steer clear of tinting the lights.

[blueoval]

+1, just check the legalities of this mod in your state before attempting it. There is a bit of work to paint the headlights too, its not a simple job. There is a how-to thread of painting your headlights as well.

[POELWYK]

i have my tail lights tinted and iv never had a prob with the boys in blue

[JC]

Originally Posted by blackau02

I'v recently started my first thread on adding Black rims to my Black AU and BA bonnet bulge, now I've gone mod crazy and thinking of possibly Painting the inside of my headlights and tinting my tail lights aswell... I just wanted peoples opinions before I do anything I might regret...

I'll jump on Photoshop tonight and try give you an idea of what it would look like.

It's nice that you want to do things to your car - but do the things you want to do, and don't limit what you do to what others think looks cool/good/etc.

Black bezels on the headlights (but leave the reflectors silver) is a great mod and changes the look of the car for the better, IMO.

Don't tint the taillights - it's illegal, and potentially dangerous if you tint them too far. If you MUST tint them, limit it to one coat just to take the shine off the clear lens - this way, the indicators and brake and tail lights should still work as normal..

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by JC

Don't tint the taillights - it's illegal, and potentially dangerous if you tint them too far.

I'm all for personalising our vehicles but I don't get why you'd want to make it easier for someone to plow into the back of you

[blackau02]

I would prefer to get good after market tailights that are dark but frankly I dont think any are that great, well not for the look im going for. And I dont know how true this is but apparently there's a painted type tint that doesnt detract from any light brightness... would it just be fine to get brighter Tail lights?

[JC]

Anything that makes the taillights darker is going to cause less light output. I suppose you could get brighter globes if they existed, but the only globes I know of are all rated the same and have never seen a dual filament stop/tail with more output.

Tail lights are not a fashion accessory - they are there for a reason, and if you tinted them and someone ran up your backside, is the potentially thousand it will cost you worth the "look" of tinted tail lights (I am assuming that insurance wouldn't cover you).

As I said previously, if you do one light coat of nightshades or equivalent, you should be fine. Otherwise just get the AU eclipse lights (they're the black altezza style ones).

[blackau02]

These are as close a photo I could find before I shop my own pics a mazda with bake n painted lights and a tinted head lights xr6, I like the clean black look of the mazda.

[blackau02]

[JC]

Originally Posted by blackau02

Links don't work

[Polyal]

At the end of the day tinting tail lights doesn't completely remove the light emitted, but it does reduce it and that's all an insurance company needs to lock back a claim.

Au2 lights look the best by far, I can't say I've liked any of the altezza version...they look cheap and tacky in most cases.

[blueoval]

I heard even Altezza's were illegal in some states too. I believe it is in SA.

[Uncle_Ken]

This is mine set up
Black rear tails lights
Half and half


Full






UK

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by blueoval

I heard even Altezza's were illegal in some states too. I believe it is in SA.

I think its nation wide, has to do with a lack of red reflectors or something in them. I think the newer ones have them but at the start they certainly didnt.

[blackau02]

[zakjames]

Originally Posted by blackau02

I believe a '?' is worthy?

[blackau02]

this is a xr6 with tinted headlights

[blackau02]

Originally Posted by zakjames

I believe a '?' is worthy?

This is what baked and painted lights look like just on a mazda. my link a few posts above didnt work so i put the image up, its the only pic I could find i know its not a ford but just to give people an idea of the look.

[zakjames]

ahhh i getcha now, BK MPS?

[InfernoSR]

Originally Posted by blackau02

this is a xr6 with tinted headlights

Unfortunatly these arent painted headlights, but custom dark tinted headlight covers. From memory these arent just everyday window tint, but actual dark coloured plastic, thats been moulded the same as standard clear headlight covers.

[my671fordv8]

Originally Posted by blackau02

I'v recently started my first thread on adding Black rims to my Black AU and BA bonnet bulge, now I've gone mod crazy and thinking of possibly Painting the inside of my headlights and tinting my tail lights aswell... I just wanted peoples opinions before I do anything I might regret...

I'll jump on Photoshop tonight and try give you an idea of what it would look like.

Here is my au headlights and tail lights

Attachment 68159

[blackau02]

Originally Posted by JC

It's nice that you want to do things to your car - but do the things you want to do, and don't limit what you do to what others think looks cool/good/etc.

Black bezels on the headlights (but leave the reflectors silver) is a great mod and changes the look of the car for the better, IMO.

Don't tint the taillights - it's illegal, and potentially dangerous if you tint them too far. If you MUST tint them, limit it to one coat just to take the shine off the clear lens - this way, the indicators and brake and tail lights should still work as normal..

Thanks for that after consideration I think I'll just stick to painting the bezels black the ts50 lights r like that it's a nice look and for the taillights I guess the cons far out weigh the pro's. I'm gona paint my lights this wknd I'll post some pics. Sorry one last question i'v seen people have painted their lights reflectors and all on bake'n'paint videos on you tube so how do the lights still work? Do they just get a different globe that doesnt have a black tip like the stock halogen globe, sorry if that's a stupid question.

[AUIIPURSUIT]

any modification of the standard headlight, even painting the bezel, will change the output of the light, and therefor render its current ADR approval useless, and thus defectable.
How long you get away with this, is up to driving style, locations, and luck.

[MAD]

Originally Posted by InfernoSR

Unfortunatly these arent painted headlights, but custom dark tinted headlight covers. From memory these arent just everyday window tint, but actual dark coloured plastic, thats been moulded the same as standard clear headlight covers.

They're just painted headlight covers. No special tinting.
Aunger headlight protectors + paint = colour matched headlight covers.

It amazes me how people get hold of something so simple and somehow feel the need to increase it's difficulty. I'm not pointing this at you, but the chain of people that lead this information to you.

As an aside, the headlight covers on the XR6 above would be perfectly legal, as long as they are only used during the day and if the front indicators werent blocked.

Originally Posted by AUIIPURSUIT

any modification of the standard headlight, even painting the bezel, will change the output of the light, and therefor render its current ADR approval useless, and thus defectable.
How long you get away with this, is up to driving style, locations, and luck.

A painted bezel is not going to change the light output one bit. The light output is affected by three things... reflector, lens and globe.
The bezel is just there to cover unsightly gaps around the reflector.
The bezel, in the AU range, was available in chrome, grey and dark grey in the falcon models iirc, and body coloured in the T-series.

I seriously doubt anyone that has painted their headlight bezel has ever had any question asked of them by any means of law enforcement.

[blackau02]

This is the video that I've watched and he paints the reflective part of the head light, does this only work on his mazda because they have lenses for the globe? The light on his car is still very bright after this mod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok1a9jyfRYw

[MAD]

The only reason that the headlights could be painted the way they were in the video is if a) you dont want a useable highbeam anymore, or b) the projector is a Bi-Xenon which means it does both high and low beam, in which case you can stand to lose the useability of the halogen highbeam.

You can not paint your AU headlights like in that video and expect to have anything better than a couple of candles worth of light coming out of them.
And with headlights painted like that, you would be a very obvious target for 'extra attention'.

[blackau02]

Originally Posted by MAD

The only reason that the headlights could be painted the way they were in the video is if a) you dont want a useable highbeam anymore, or b) the projector is a Bi-Xenon which means it does both high and low beam, in which case you can stand to lose the useability of the halogen highbeam.

You can not paint your AU headlights like in that video and expect to have anything better than a couple of candles worth of light coming out of them.
And with headlights painted like that, you would be a very obvious target for 'extra attention'.

So there is no legal way to achieve that look, thats very boring considering the amount interesting lights (Stock) that are around on other makes I just think the stock lights make it look very dated, I wish there was a way to make that work it would make the au look so badass but at the end of day if its not legal its not worth it.

[blackau02]

Originally Posted by my671fordv8

Here is my au headlights and tail lights

Attachment 68159

Sorry mate didnt notice the lens inside the AU light, how did you do that?

[MAD]

No, there's no 'legal' way to do it.

You can make your headlights look similar to those on the RX8 by fitting a projector kit like this one (http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pro...oo1ddsc5uq5agq)
Then you could paint the entire inside whatever colour you wanted and it wouldnt affect the light output of the projector.
This is still not legal, but your light output will be much better than if you just painted your reflectors all black.