Smoked LED head & tail lights Options

[Jokester]

So I'm planning to smoke out all of my lights (heads, tails, side indicators, front turn signals) and I have a couple of questions. And I'm planning on using the tint film instead of the paint cause I'm scared I might effed it up if I use paint. So...

1. Does a smoked headlights look good on a 6g celi? Cause I've seen many with smoked tails, but not with the heads. If anyone has a pic of their celi with smoked heads, it would be great if you could post it.

2. Switch to LED/SMD bulbs?? At first I thought this would be an obvious choice because with the lights being smoked, the bulbs need to be brighter to be seen thru the smoked layer. But after reading several forums, there are many controversies with using LEDs for tail light. I was just wondering what are your guys opinion on this? If I do get LEDs, I will get colored LEDs (red for stop/parking light, yellow for turning, white for reverse). So hopefully that would help with the brightness?

Btw, I'm planning on using these LED bulbs if I do get them.

Or these

[Tigawoods]

if you smoke the headlights i would use laminx. so you can remove it just in case. you will get in more trouble having smoked headlights than tails.

[Jokester]

Have you used film before to smoke your lights? Any tips on installing them? haha

But yea, that was my thought for using film, so it would be easily removed if I had to. I've seen car with blue or yellow tint for their heads, it look nice but since I live in CA, cops are pretty strict

[SupraKid]

Blacked out headlights are a BIG no no in CA, tails are allowed to a certain degree, but it must be pretty light.I just attempted this with LEDs...The bulbs in the taillights are dual filament, IE one for running and one for brakes. Normal LEDs will only give you brake lights. Same with front blinkers and running lights, so youll need to figure something out.


Where are you in CA?

This post has been edited by SupraKid: Jan 16, 2012 - 4:39 PM

[Jokester]

In San Jose. Theres always something going on around here so I'm hoping cops have better things to do than to pull me over for a head/tail lights haha


But yea, I probably won't smoke the heads then. As for the tail, I'm also gonna put on some red reflective tape cuz I know smoking the tail would block the reflectors in the tails. Hopefully that will help?

For the tail light LED issue, correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that when its in running, the LED would only show "half" brightness, and then when the brake are pressed, the LED would show "full" brightness".

[199celica]

hey man i'm not to sure if you know about this stuff but what i used is what is called a fly eyes kit the link to the site is Flyeyeskit.co.uk its pretty affordable and its nice because you maintain almost full visibility of your lights you lose maybe 10% id say but it looks great ive had it on my car for about 2 years now and the only downside is it isn't friendly to people trying to peel it. at my college kids were always trying to peel it to see what it was and i would have to say that is the only downside.

[SupraKid]

I know when I did it with the front blinkers I had no running lights, just blinkers. So i assume its the same for the tail lights.

[mkernz22]

superbrightleds.com sells a dual stage LED bulb for the brake lights

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/sto...brake-turn.html

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Jan 16, 2012 - 11:25 PM

[Jokester]

hey man i'm not to sure if you know about this stuff but what i used is what is called a fly eyes kit the link to the site is Flyeyeskit.co.uk its pretty affordable and its nice because you maintain almost full visibility of your lights you lose maybe 10% id say but it looks great ive had it on my car for about 2 years now and the only downside is it isn't friendly to people trying to peel it. at my college kids were always trying to peel it to see what it was and i would have to say that is the only downside.

I didn't know about that. It they look good and pretty easy to install. A little expensive but seem pretty legit.
One of the thing I'm worried about when smoking the light is blocking the reflectors. But with the film from your website, it say the reflectors aren't affected so thats pretty interesting. Is that true?

superbrightleds.com sells a dual stage LED bulb for the brake lights

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/sto...brake-turn.html

yea I checked that site out too, just wished they were a little cheaper haha. I'm a cheapass I know

[rave2n]

SC and FL no tinting on any kind of indication lights or front beams.

Been pulled once by State Patrol, got a warning. Acted stupid.

[199celica]

Yeah its true it doesnt block the reflectors if u look on my profile u can see what it looks like and i believe u can even see the reflectors in the pic.

[mkernz22]

SC and FL no tinting on any kind of indication lights or front beams.

Been pulled once by State Patrol, got a warning. Acted stupid.

In Florida you can't? But I thought everything was legal there

[Jokester]

Yeah its true it doesnt block the reflectors if u look on my profile u can see what it looks like and i believe u can even see the reflectors in the pic.

I noticed that you're in CA too, have you had any trouble with the cops about your tail light?

[199celica]

Honestly i always get pulled over because one of my bulbs keeps going out cuz of moisture they have never said anything to me about my tail lights. And the shade i have is the lighter black i got a darker one as well and put it on my buddies old accord R.IP.

[199celica]

O ive got a good pic of my car at night where i used flash and u can clearly see the reflectors if u want the pics lemme kno or pm me ur number and ill shoot them your way

[Jokester]

yea, a pic would be great! Would you be able to post it on here?

[199celica]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/74988807@N05/6749501351/" title="Resampled_2011-11-01_18-17-19_121 by ecuadorianpballer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7172/6749501351_2b22417b84.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Resampled_2011-11-01_18-17-19_121"></a>

i tried man im super frusterated i feel like an idiot with all this code bs sorry man

[199celica]

Fly eyes kit reflector performance.

[96ST205]

cant beat properly tinted lights on a Black faff.......

[Jokester]

i tried man im super frusterated i feel like an idiot with all this code bs sorry man

Its all good dude. I just copy and paste the link, saw the pic. Thats cool how it can still reflect. Do you use stock light bulb for your tails?

[Jokester]

cant beat properly tinted lights on a Black faff.......

Thats some clean smoking. How come you didn't also smoke the third brake light?

[96ST205]

it is tinted but for some reason it appears quite light in that pic, ive also done the side indicators(turn signal) and front indicators(turn signal)

[199celica]

yeah i used the stock bulbs. so you did see the picture?

[k-weaver]

I had my rears blacked out for a while. Got pulled over one too many times in CA so I gave up on it. I used the VHS nightshades to tint, worked well. After getting ticketed I used too strong of a paint thinner to remove the tint. My tails are full of scratches now. I threw a couple of light coats back on there to cover the scratches. They are darker than stock but you can still see the red/amber color. its just a deeper color now, not as bright.

As far as your LED idea goes the lights won't be all that much brighter. You can purchase (as someone as linked to) dual stage bulbs (part 1157), i have some right now in my turn signals. I put a set just like your first pic into my wife's honda for her brake lights and they weren't nearly as bright as regular halogen bulbs.

Pic of mine when they were black:

[199celica]

Did you ever figure out what you are going to do?

[Jokester]

Yea. So I used tint film to smoke the tail light, the front parking/turning lights, and the front side markers.
For the tails, I used a mixture of LED and the stock bulbs. I have a coupe, so the tail housing is different from a hatchback. In each housing, theres the bulbs for the reverse, the turn signals, and 2 bulbs for the stop light. So for one of the bulb for the stop light, I replaced that with the red LED. So comparing that to the stock stop light halogen, the brightness is the same, but the LED light up quicker. As for the brightness if the rest of the lights, i don't see a difference. Same bightness as without the tint. However, the front turning lights is dimmer than it was before.

I'll post up pics soon.

[199celica]

Did you use the fly eyes kit or another vinyl? Idk y but i love the look of our cars with tinted tail lights

[Jokester]

I used vinyl from rvinyl.com. When you told me about the fly eyes kit, I had unfortunately already ordered from rvinyl. But the fly eyes kit does look better.

[96ST205]

just tinted front & side indicator/turn signals look best for the front



This post has been edited by 96ST205: Feb 5, 2012 - 10:06 AM

[199celica]

Well it looks good jokester i like it best of luck with the police man ive never been pulled over for it and neither have my friends so you shouldnt have an issue, other than that looks real good nice clean coupe

[Jokester]

just tinted front & side indicator/turn signals look best for the front

Nice! It always look a lot nicer on a black car. Same with k-weaver's car. I like your wheel by the way. What kind is that?

Well it looks good jokester i like it best of luck with the police man ive never been pulled over for it and neither have my friends so you shouldnt have an issue, other than that looks real good nice clean coupe

Thanks man. Appreciate it. I'll let you know if I do get pull over. haha

[96ST205]

just tinted front & side indicator/turn signals look best for the front

Nice! It always look a lot nicer on a black car. Same with k-weaver's car. I like your wheel by the way. What kind is that?

They are Enkei RP01

[Superfly]

if you smoke the headlights i would use laminx. so you can remove it just in case. you will get in more trouble having smoked headlights than tails.

hai. do you know where i can find clear taillights for my Celica.

[trdproven]

tinted lights dont look as good as if the lens itself were actually smoked, the ones ive seen are hellafail.

between your two leds, the 1st ones are more of directional leds as you noticed its facing forward, so you have to plan what type of leds you need to use to create the correct output of light.

2nd pic looks like a 360 degree led and is SMD, which means you will get better light coverage, a cleaner light than the first one,

you need to look at how the lenses you are putting on, figure out how the bulb sits inside, figure out the bulb temp you want, color, how many leds on each bulb, and LED bulb design (many different types for different purposes). for example, you dont want a bulb that faces forward but the bulb inside the lens sits sideways so you wont really get a good light output from the side of the bulb. if you go to superbrightleds.com it will tell you the temp and degree coverage.

This post has been edited by trdproven: Aug 22, 2012 - 8:11 PM