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Smoked/tinted tail light pictures

152K views 202 replies 49 participants last post by  Don Nguyen 
#1 ·
In addition to doing all of the other graphic/vinyl work, I've been getting a lot of people who come by asking if I can do smoke/tint for their tail lights as well. I had the film and material available to me, so I decided to give it a shot.

Material is supplies from lamin-x, however, it is cut in house at our location, versus coming pre cut from lamin-x. This way I can have it come out the exact way I want it and how it should be. Some lamin-x pieces end slightly shorter than the actual tail light, leaving exposed areas around its edges. I have mine slightly oversized (~2mm), just enough to be able to wrap around the edges and give the user more working area/room. This gives it a cleaner/complete look, and helps prevents dirt from building up on the direct edges of the tail light.

Been slowly finding local cars to do it, so I can do some test fitments and get some pictures. Whatever pictures of the cars you see means that's what I have and what's available. New cars are always welcomed, if you're a local or in the area.









-Don
 
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#149 ·
For this new white Mercedes Benz CLS550 sedan, I vinyl wrapped the tail lights with my light tint/smoke film material. On this car, I we decided to do the whole tail light. I didn't take pictures of it before, but the first picture does show the driver side as tinted/smoked (left) and the passenger (right) untinted. The lighting of it inside kind of makes it hard to gauge, but in the other pictures where I took them outside will help you better see the differences. As you can notice, as the lighting changes, the appearance of the darkness of the shade changes as well.









-Don Nguyen

Donathon@gmail.com
 
#150 ·
For this new white Mercedes Benz CLS550 sedan, I vinyl wrapped the tail lights with my light tint/smoke film material. On this car, I we decided to do the whole tail light. I didn't take pictures of it before, but the first picture does show the driver side as tinted/smoked (left) and the passenger (right) untinted. The lighting of it inside kind of makes it hard to gauge, but in the other pictures where I took them outside will help you better see the differences. As you can notice, as the lighting changes, the appearance of the darkness of the shade changes as well.









-Don Nguyen

Donathon@gmail.com
 
#151 · (Edited)
The owner of this brand new white VW TDI wagon brought his car by to have me lightly tint / smoke the tail lights and third brake light on his car. I took some pictures from side to side, showing how the tint looks like in directly sunlight and in some shade. As you can see, it's fairly dynamic and changes depending on the lighting. I haven't had anyone have any issues with this shade though, as far as light output or having any issues with law authorities though, so that is a plus. The owner of this car I believe was from around Pasadena and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills / Orange County to get the work done.

Before:




During (driver/left side tinted, passenger/right side stock) -




After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#152 ·
Tinted / smoked the center clear portion of the tail lights on this brand new white Mercedes E350 sedan. In addition to tinting the tail lights with my light film material, I also wrapped the trunk spoiler in the 3M 1080 gloss carbon fiber material and blacked out the chrome trunk handle with my matte black vinyl material. Overall, the light shade of tint was a nice slight change in the look of the car, without making it too dark and is still visible during the day/night.

Most spoilers aren't practical to wrap, but this one happen to work out.

Before:




Driver side tinted/smoked - passenger side stock:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#154 ·
Some requests for these pictures, so I figure I'll post them up here. This is one of the cars that I did while I was up in the bay area (san jose) / norcal area last time. I tinted / smoked the tail lights on this new Mercedes Benz E63 AMG. In addition to the tail lights, I also blacked out the chrome / brushed aluminum window trim on his car with my matte black vinyl material. Everything worked and tied in together pretty nicely with the rest of the theme of his car:

Before:




Left/driver side stock - Right/passenger side tinted/smoked




After:
















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#155 ·
The owner of this black VW Passat drove out to me in Orange County / Anaheim Hills from Los Angeles county to get some vinyl work done. He wanted me to black out the chrome / brushed aluminum around his windows and to also lightly tint his tail lights. The pictures may seem over exposed in some of them, but I did that on purpose, as to capture how the tail lights looked at those exact moments and in those lighting conditions. For the window trim, we went with my matte black vinyl material.

Before:











After (note - far right tail light piece is not tinted, but the other 3 to the left of it are):












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#156 ·
The owner of this dark blue Subaru WRX hatchback wanted me to red out his tail lights, to make it not so white/clear. So what I did for him was use my clear red vinyl film and applied it over his rear tail lights. He wanted me to cut out the reverse light and turn signal portions so that they would show through their original colors still. However, I took in progress pictures to show you guys how it would have looked like if they weren't cut out, so you can compare and contrast which style/look you'd prefer more.

Before:


In progress/during




After:








-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#157 ·
Made a RCR type layout for a few months


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#161 · (Edited)
I worked on this blue VW R32 MkV while up in norcal/bay area. For this car, I used my light smoke/tint film material on the car's tail lights. I took some before, during, and after pictures to show you guys the progression and how it compares to stock side by side. Overall, the shade of vinyl that I use is fairly light and gives the car that OEM+ look without being/looking too dark.

Before:




During (driver/left side stock - passenger/ride side smoked)




After:






-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#162 ·
Did a light tint/smoke install on this darker grey/gunmetal BMW 750i sedan F01. I took some before, during, and after pictures to give you guys a better picture of how the subtle changes/progress is like with my light tint/smoke vinyl material. I think the tail lights being slightly darker gave it a nice OEM+ look without making it look too modified, which is what the owner was trying to maintain. In addition to the tails, I also dod the reflectors in the bumpers to make sure that everything matched in the rear. The owner of this car drove from Los Angeles out to me in Orange County/Anaheim Hills to get the work done.



















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#163 ·
The owner of this dark blue Subaru WRX had me my clear/transparent red vinyl film on his tail lights. I know most people are used to seeing me use my smoke/tint shade on tail lights, but I also have other colors such as red and yellow for tail lights, fog lights, etc. I took some pictures of the progress, for those who want to see how it is done. Also, some people also prefer the look of the whole tail lights completely red versus having the center portions cut out to be clear. The owner of this car drove from Tustin to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have me vinyl his tail lights.

Before:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#164 ·
This is a long time customer of mine that has had me worked on several his past/previous cars. The owner of this X6M had me lightly tint the tail lights of his car with my light tint/smoke vinyl film. The lighting wasn't that great, but hopefully you guys can see the back to back comparisons between the before and after pictures. The owner of this car was located in Irvine/Orange County. I like this light tint film shade, because it gives the car a very OEM+ look and looks good on both a stock car or a modified car.

Before:


After:



Before:


After:


-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#165 ·
This black Porsche Turbo S brought his car in to have me lightly tint/smoke both the headlights and tail lights on his car all around. I took some pictures of the car outside and inside to help better show you guys the subtle slight changes in how the lights looked with my light smoke/tint film applied. Also took some pictures of one of the lights stock and the other tinted/smoked to show you how they look like side by side. The owner of this car was from Irvine and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the work done. Overall, I think the light shade was a nice subtle change to the look of this black car.

Before:




After:


During - Passenger/left side stock, driver/right side tinted/smoked:


During - Passenger/right side stock, driver/left side tinted/smoked:


After:












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#166 ·
Here's pictures of one of the cars that I did on one of my norcal vinyl wrapping trips up to the bay/San Jose area. I make these trips once or twice a year, depending on how my schedule is like down here in socal/orange county. The owner of this white BMW E92 335i coupe had me vinyl wrap the roof of his car in my gloss black vinyl material and also lightly tint/smoke his tail lights as well. He opted to not have the side roof rails wrapped, so these pictures will help those who were thinking about if they should get their rails wrapped or not.





















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#167 ·
***Note - This is a darker shade that is a completely different and a lot darker shade than all of my other tinted tail light pictures, this is not the standard shade I use***

The owner of this black Maserati brought me his car to tint/smoke the headlights and tail lights of his car with a very dark vinyl film. He was basically going for the blacked out look. This is not a typical shade/darkness that I use, which is always a very light shade. The owner of this car was also in Orange County and drove out to me in Anaheim Hills to get the work done. Light out put is going to be definitely affected by going this dark, but if you're trying to achieve a completely blacked out or murdered out type of look, then this would be it.

Before:






During:


After:








-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#168 ·
These aren’t the best pictures that I have taken, but I had someone request me to post some pictures of work that I’ve done on the new Lexus GS350. For this silver/grey GS350, I vinyl wrapped the roof in gloss black, lightly tinted/smoked the tail lights, and blacked out the center middle section of the front bumper. The owner of this car brought their car to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the work done. I think overall, the subtle changes to the car gave it a nice different/change of look without making it look too aftermarket or modified.

Before:








Driver/left side tinted/smoked - passenger ride side stock:


After:
















-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#169 ·
Not many people know that I use/have other colors of head/tail light film in addition to the normal tint/smoke films that most people typically have me use on their cars. The owner of this Mini Cooper brought his car by to have me tint his head lights yellow and his tail lights with red. I know the yellow headlights isn’t for everybody, but the owner of this Mini wanted to do something different, and it’s always possible to go back to stock/reversible with vinyl. The owner of this car drove out from Inland Empire to me in Anaheim hills/Orange county to have the work done.

Before:




After (note the headlights are on in these pictures):












-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
#170 ·
Hey Don,

What would be your turn around time if I shipped some Dodge Ram headlights to you to have them tinted? I am in Boise ID, so shipping shouldn't be too bad. If your turn around is decent I might have to ship the lights to you this summer. I can drive my weekend car for a week or so while waiting for the headlights to come back. And what would I be looking at for cost?
 
#172 ·
I always do enjoy having modified cars come by to have work done on their cars. The owner of this carbon black BMW E39 M5 came by to have me apply my light tint material to his whole tail light. This is the same material/shade that you see me using in all of my previous pictures of tinted tail lights. It may appear slightly lighter on this specific car, but that***8217;s because on darker colored cars (IE black, dark grey, etc) the contrast between the tint shade and the car is not as big, so it***8217;ll appear lighter than it does on lighter colored cars (IE white, silver, etc). He drove out to me in Anaheim Hills/Orange County to have the vinyl work done.

Before:




Left/driver side tinted - Right/passenger side stock:


After:










-Don Nguyen

donathon@gmail.com
 
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