How to Blackout Taillights + add design
 

I've heard of some people paying as much as $200 for someone to blackout their taillights, which is rediculous. I did both of mine for around $10 in less than 2 hours.

First of all, you need to realize that your lights will be darker (duh), and the light won't be as bright, especially at night. By law (at least in NY), the LIGHT has to be red in color, but I don't think it mentions the plastic itself. Also, if a cop is looking for a reason to pull you over, you're doing him a great favor.
The purpose of the design is to leave some parts clear to allow more light to pass through.

***This is for information purposes only, try at your own risk***

But, if all that is fine with you here's how it's done.

1. Materials.
PAINT

I heard of this paint called Nightshade thats meant for the purpose, but I just used regular Krylon spray paint and clearcoat.
Attachment 1981

SANDPAPER
Use very fine sandpaper, 2000 grit or so

MASKING TAPE

RAZOR BLADE or Xacto knife

GLOVES(opt)

PEN

Attachment 1982

2. Take off the tailight. It's usually held by 2 screws that are covered by the trunk lid.
Label each lamp before you take it off so you remember which hole it goes in to.

3. Clean the taillight. Any dirt will get caught under the paint and thats bad.

4. Put a strip of masking tape IN the grooves. This is so that paint doesn't flow into them and ruin the design. Do this by pressing the tape on one side of the groove, pushing it down with a pen, and then pressing in to the other side.

Attachment 1983

5. Mask off the surfacee of the light, overlapping by about 5mm.

Attachment 1984

6. Draw the design so that a part of each light (brake, reverse, turning, etc.) is a part of it and will not be painted. I'm going with a superman theme for my ride.

Attachment 1985

7. Cut out the design with a razorblade and take off the rest of the masking tape.

Attachment 1986

8. Mask off the edges of the assembly. This way you will have a neat line around the edge and will look professional.

Attachment 1987

9. Lightly sand the unmasked surfaces.

10. Spray from a distance, using quick passes. If you spray too much in one area, it will be too dark or worse, drip. Do 2-3 coats, let each dry 15 mins. Then, take off the masking tape.

***Before doing another coat, hook up the lightbulbs to test how bright the look.***

Attachment 1988

11. Apply clearcoat the same way you did the paint. 2 coats should be enough.

12. Resinstall the taillight. This is a good time to also check your bulbs, as I found 2 bad ones in the process.




Some more pics:
Attachment 1989

Attachment 1990
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