At first, I went the commonly-taken route for tinting my lights and used a spray-on tint. NightShades is a great product. I spray tinted my plastic lights but not my glass foglights. Problem is that even with a couple layers of wetsanded clearcoat, it still had a rather dull flat finish.
In the end, I wanted all of my front lighting to match � exactly. Also, the added protection of the film reduces the risk of cracked or smashed foglight lenses.
I found a vendor on the Internet selling Laminix colored film. It was originally designed to protect your headlights and foglights from damage. However, the manufacturer recently started offering colored films:
According to Rockblocker.com:
These films give more character to your car and provide excellent lense protection at the same time. The light film is made of 16.5 mil Heavy Duty softened PVC vinyl film that is impact resistant. These films are designed and produced to not affect optical clarity of your lights and you will not visually notice any difference in beam pattern with the films applied.
Here is a shot of my front lighting with my flash penetrating the lenses so you can get a sense of the film�s transparency:
Application Instructions
The film is thick yet can stretch a bit. For small applications like foglights, try to take the light out of the bumper so you can easily install the film; (1) merely cut a template with some film hanging over; (2) give the film a little stretch in both directions; (3) carefully apply over the foglight making sure to leave no bubbles; (4) make sure you uniformly cover all of the corners and ends; (5) take out a heat gun and lightly heat up the film and the edges so the glue behind the film will start to set; and (6) make sure it�s all where you want it to be and smooth out the edges.
BTW � you have a couple of minutes to pull up the film and re-apply, if needed. Just reseal with the heat gun. For larger lights, you can apply the film wet like normal tinting.
I�d let the film and the glue set up for several days before washing my car. I�d also avoid power washing those lights for a while too.
Now we don�t have to spend hours sanding our lights, prepping, spraying several coats, wetsanding, clearcoating � all to use the spray tint.
In just one hour, I had cut three templates and installed my smoke film on a set of foglights, reflectors, and turn signals. So for about $20 for the 7� x 16� sheet of smoked film, I saved more than more than $150! That 7� x 16� sheet will cover all of your non-headlight front lights.
I highly recommend smoked film over the smoked factory items for the savings and the light protection.
Any other questions? Email me at [email protected]
Thanks.