[m3nt0s]

...just don't. I've had a few members on the boards ask about my headlight tint, which is nothing more than "Smoke" colored XPEL, seen below. It will be leaving my R in the not-so-distant future. It will remain on, however, for this weekend's major meet.

Somehow I've gotten away with not driving my R in the rain at night since I had the headlights done. Lucky. Let me put it this way...I had street lamps and fog lights guiding me on the way home tonight - nothing else. I wasn't sure that my headlights were on, and when I turned them off, I noticed not much difference. My decision was made to get rid of the tint when I failed to turn into the correct driveway at the somewhat local bulk food store. No damage, no accident, just a situation which proved to me that it's time for the XPEL to go.

Tinting your headlights is great if you're only going to drive during the day, or at night if you never plan on seeing bad weather. I admit, it was a silly thing to do to the car, but I don't regret something which I liked getting at the time. Hindsight always being 20/20, I obviously would not do it again. As for XPEL - it's a great product, and I'm convinced it's already saved me money for a new headlight assembly. That being said, get something BESIDES the smoke color!

My current plan is to have the XPEL removed, and having a custom tint applied JUST to the turn indicators, or around the entire housing leaving the actual high beam area untinted. Heck of a lot cheaper AND easier than getting those position lenses done...

 

[TravZilla]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

Or just get blue

That's too bad to hear, looked awesome.

 

[soupandspoons]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (TravZilla)

Was this a surprising outcome? It just sounds a little bit like "Hey guys, I tried wearing my sunglasses at night and I had trouble seeing".

In any case, it does have a distinctive look. I'm glad you didn't kill anyone.

Cheers,

J

 

[chinaonnitrous1]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (soupandspoons)

Quote, originally posted by soupandspoons »

Was this a surprising outcome? It just sounds a little bit like "Hey guys, I tried wearing my sunglasses at night and I had trouble seeing". In any case, it does have a distinctive look. I'm glad you didn't kill anyone. Cheers, J

Sometimes it can be okay, its just the R lights were'nt the best to begin with.

Now if you tinted the headlight of a 2003 ish Q45, or a Honda S2000. Thoes headlights wouldn't mind.

 

[ZenZone]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

IMO tinting the tail lights has the same effect - looks cool but hard to see in weather. Got behind a Ford F150 on my road trip last week and could hardly see the guy driving in the rain. Decided to run with my rear fog light on but didn't need it - no one passed me on the leg from Dallas to Kansas City.

 

[sh8kdwn]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

Thank you for posting this as a warning or disclaimer for everyone. Our HIDs do not shed as much light as I would like to begin with. Let me offer an alternative that does not limit the light output of the headlights but still looks good cosmetically.

The process is a bit more involved but in my opinion it's worth it to be able to see at night and during the rain.

 

[Chilled Man]

I used to have mine tinted and you have to run with highs and lows on at the same time to counter act the tint.

I would cut where the headlights shine threw I think that would be a very cool affect and still have most of your headlights tinted but not sacrifice light output .

but erics headlights where he painted them black looks awsome also

 

[T5 for Life]

Thanks for sharing the experience. It takes a big man to admit that something he did to his car actually made things worse.

I love the look of the smoke XPel's and the tinted tails, but it's just not practical for a daily driver. It's bad enough people don't pay attention to NORMAL brake lights, let alone tinted, and that these lights don't put out the lumens you really need.

Now, if we could get those headlights from the Heico C30 on our homepage...

 

[AthruC]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

John - food for thought.

Since the lenses are glass, you can comfortably run a SHARP blade against them and not worry about damaging them. You already have the film applied, why not try one of two things (which is what they'd do for you at SoG anyway)...

1) trace the 'beam pattern' that you can clearly see on the tint/glass and cut it out w/ a blade. It might look somewhat silly, but you don't know 'till you try it.

2) trace around the turn signals and cut w/ a blade and remove everything but that area.

 

[-Pascal]

^^ Very good advice, might as well try it while you have the Xpel applied. http://********************/smile/emthup.gif

It sure looked the part, good thing nothing bad happened!

 

[-Pascal]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (chinaonnitrous1)

Quote, originally posted by chinaonnitrous1 »

Now if you tinted the headlight of a 2003 ish Q45...

Funny you should mention that... I used those projectors to do a retrofit on a little previous gen Toyota Echo (Vitz). Great lights.

Two pics, links to pics, keeping the wh0ring at a minimum...

http://www.fototime.com/1C3E2C10AFF3C83/orig.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/A5904640A7E3EB3/orig.jpg

 

[chinaonnitrous1]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (-Pascal)

Quote, originally posted by -Pascal »

Funny you should mention that... I used those projectors to do a retrofit on a little previous gen Toyota Echo (Vitz). Great lights. Two pics, links to pics, keeping the wh0ring at a minimum... http://www.fototime.com/1C3E2C10AFF3C83/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/A5904640A7E3EB3/orig.jpg

Very nice job. If I could find a way to seal thoes q45 projectors I'd use them as my fog lights on the comming evolve bumper.

 

[AthruC]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (chinaonnitrous1)

Quote, originally posted by chinaonnitrous1 »

Very nice job. If I could find a way to seal thoes q45 projectors I'd use them as my fog lights on the comming evolve bumper.

 

[Sue Esponte]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

We laughed at Corey Hart when he did it. Why is this any different?

In all seriousness, people complain about the R's headlights on a clear night. How could tinting them NOT make them worse?

FWIW, blue is a tint, too. It may not be as dark as "smoke" but any color you put on top of the headlights is going to decrease the amount of light you get from them.

If you're planning on removing it and replacing it anyway, you might try playing around with some of the other options others have suggested, like cutting the XPEL away from everywhere except the flashers.

-Eric

 

[sh8kdwn]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (Sue Esponte)

Razoring the pattern is a great idea. Worst case you take them off anyways. If you need a template use the one below.

 

[m3nt0s]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (sh8kdwn)

Quote, originally posted by sh8kdwn »

Razoring the pattern is a great idea. Worst case you take them off anyways. If you need a template use the one below.

BADASS http://********************/smile/emthup.gif

Quote, originally posted by sh8kdwn »

Thank you for posting this as a warning or disclaimer for everyone. Our HIDs do not shed as much light as I would like to begin with. Let me offer an alternative that does not limit the light output of the headlights but still looks good cosmetically. The process is a bit more involved but in my opinion it's worth it to be able to see at night and during the rain.

I LOVE THIS. How long did it take? What paint did you use? Would you do it again? Will you do this on my car for various favors?

Quote, originally posted by AthruC »

John - food for thought. Since the lenses are glass, you can comfortably run a SHARP blade against them and not worry about damaging them. You already have the film applied, why not try one of two things (which is what they'd do for you at SoG anyway)... 1) trace the 'beam pattern' that you can clearly see on the tint/glass and cut it out w/ a blade. It might look somewhat silly, but you don't know 'till you try it. 2) trace around the turn signals and cut w/ a blade and remove everything but that area.

Here's the thing - if you look closely at my lights (you'll see this weekend) my XPEL is machine cut, and from many angles you can see right through to the yellow/orange of the turn indicator, which I can't stand. I'm going to have the tint hand cut all the way around to make it flush and proper. I love your idea, but the machine cut was terrible to begin with and wouldn't improve the already challenged aesthetics of the situation.

All in all, I'm glad I gave it a try. When it was done, it really looked badass and it evened out the entire look of the car. The biggest thing I wanted to do was cover up the awful yellow/orange of the turn indicators. It still kills me to have that little splotch of yellow on a black/silver/white car. I'll figure something out...

 

[sh8kdwn]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (m3nt0s)

Quote, originally posted by m3nt0s »

I LOVE THIS. How long did it take? What paint did you use? Would you do it again? Will you do this on my car for various favors?

It's a pain to do I'm not going to kid you. It will be much faster for me to do the second time around. If you get me lowering springs for the same price you paid and the same deal on the install...it's a deal.

 

[m3nt0s]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (sh8kdwn)

Quote, originally posted by sh8kdwn »

It's a pain to do I'm not going to kid you. It will be much faster for me to do the second time around. If you get me lowering springs for the same price you paid and the same deal on the install...it's a deal.

I never got lowering springs

But I would love to get springs with a modest drop, installed at a good price

 

[Chilled Man]

Re: If you're thinking about headlight tint... (-Pascal)

Quote, originally posted by -Pascal »

Funny you should mention that... I used those projectors to do a retrofit on a little previous gen Toyota Echo (Vitz). Great lights. Two pics, links to pics, keeping the wh0ring at a minimum... http://www.fototime.com/1C3E2C10AFF3C83/orig.jpg http://www.fototime.com/A5904640A7E3EB3/orig.jpg

Simpley I am just going to leg hump you to death.

If they were so freaking expensive I would tried to fit them in my Projectors for my wagon

 

[m3nt0s]

Alright, I got some editing going to see what could get going on the modified headlight tint.

As I said earlier, I am definitely replacing the tint currently on my car as it's not cut to fit properly.

I'll be going to Shades of Gray to do the tint job, they did a fantastic job on my tails. I'll find out how they feel about doing this kind of custom job, the guys there are like modern artists lol. Here are a couple ideas I've had, feel free to photoshop more if you guys have ideas!

Quote, originally posted by Chilled Man »

I would cut where the headlights shine threw I think that would be a very cool affect and still have most of your headlights tinted but not sacrifice light output

Chilled Man's idea...AKA Chilly Lights:

Quote, originally posted by AthruC »

trace around the turn signals and cut w/ a blade and remove everything but that area.

AthruC's idea...AKA Adam Lights:

Yes, I realize it's an older pic of my car, but it's the newest pic I have WITHOUT the XPEL lol. (I have winglets damn it!)