thought other people may find this useful, it's the process i used to tint the rear/front light and side repeaters
LEGAL this is not an official guide and you should check out the legalitys of this for yourself, what i am aware of is that you should have a non tinted reflector (so mask them or put new ones on) and any more than a light tint, ie if you start to impare the amount of light emitted, you may end up in trouble, i dont think you are supposed to do the fronts lights, and i dont know how any of the tints may affect your insurance.
if you still want to go ahead -
1 - thoroughly clean lights with alchohol wipes or similar to get rid of any grease or grime and allow to dry.
2 - carefully mask all around the area of where your tinting, mask a lot to alllow for any gusts of wind that may carry the spray onto your paintwork (easy to remove if it happens)
i did this by using sheets of paper around the lights, i left a one inch gap between the edge of the paper and the lights so that i could mask perfectly around the lights using the tape, spend a bit of time on this and make sure the tape is tucked behind the lights, there should be no exposed paintwork/body and the tape shouldn't be touching the lights anywhere you are tinting (didn't photo this but the see the peeling off pic for an idea of what i mean)
should look something like this (the small bit of top bumper on show at the rear ended up with a little tint on it, so masking a large area really is crucial, (or removing the lights from the car lol!)
3 - you can now apply the spray, you need to use light coats and allow 10-15 minutes inbetween coats for it to dry a little, (if you put on too much too quickly it will run)
hold the can between 15-25 cm away and use long strokes of spray, you should run on/off as well by this i mean start spraying on the paper to the left of the light, continue spraying as you swing your arm slowly to the right, and dont release the spray top untill you are on the paper to the right of the light. the reason for this is as you start/stop the spray you get little droplets, so always start/stop on the paper.
continue untill you have the desired darkness, i went quite dark on mine (8 coats rear 2 front) but there is still plenty of light showing through, i asked the guy that does my MOT's if there would be a problem and then had to explain what i had done as he couldn't tell they weren't standard!
4 - after the last coat allow about 1 hour for the tint to go completely touch dry, then remove all the paper/masking tape from the car.
i left the tape aropund the lights till last and really carefully peeled it off in one big strip/circle, this was because )a - i didnt want to mark the still soft tint and )b - means i was able to get all the masking tape without having to pick little bits out from under the edges of the lights
5 - dont touch the lights for 24 hours, you can drive and rain etc is ok i just mean dont wash them
6 - once the 24 hours have passed give the lights a good polish with T-cut then wax em, and admire!
this is mine PRE polish so they are a bit shinier now, although youd prob not see the difference in these low res pics anyway
note the new debadge and fabia wiper!
IF you decide you don't like your tints/mess up and want to start over, then worry not! it comes off super easy with some nailpaint remover on a cloth, literally just wipes off.
if you get it how you like and decide you are defo keeping them tinted you can laquer the lights for a deeper shine, but this will make it much harder to remove the tint when selling/getting told off by the fuzz (hasnt happened to me yet)
you can also try different ways of doing the masking for cool effects, there is a guy on here (can't remember name) with a platinum leon that masked different bits of the rear lights before spraying, and it looks wicked, im thinking of redoing my rears with the clear bit left clear to see how that looks.
if anyone does any of this maybe you could post the pics here?
hope people find this useful
LEGAL this is not an official guide and you should check out the legalitys of this for yourself, what i am aware of is that you should have a non tinted reflector (so mask them or put new ones on) and any more than a light tint, ie if you start to impare the amount of light emitted, you may end up in trouble, i dont think you are supposed to do the fronts lights, and i dont know how any of the tints may affect your insurance.
if you still want to go ahead -
1 - thoroughly clean lights with alchohol wipes or similar to get rid of any grease or grime and allow to dry.
2 - carefully mask all around the area of where your tinting, mask a lot to alllow for any gusts of wind that may carry the spray onto your paintwork (easy to remove if it happens)
i did this by using sheets of paper around the lights, i left a one inch gap between the edge of the paper and the lights so that i could mask perfectly around the lights using the tape, spend a bit of time on this and make sure the tape is tucked behind the lights, there should be no exposed paintwork/body and the tape shouldn't be touching the lights anywhere you are tinting (didn't photo this but the see the peeling off pic for an idea of what i mean)
should look something like this (the small bit of top bumper on show at the rear ended up with a little tint on it, so masking a large area really is crucial, (or removing the lights from the car lol!)
3 - you can now apply the spray, you need to use light coats and allow 10-15 minutes inbetween coats for it to dry a little, (if you put on too much too quickly it will run)
hold the can between 15-25 cm away and use long strokes of spray, you should run on/off as well by this i mean start spraying on the paper to the left of the light, continue spraying as you swing your arm slowly to the right, and dont release the spray top untill you are on the paper to the right of the light. the reason for this is as you start/stop the spray you get little droplets, so always start/stop on the paper.
continue untill you have the desired darkness, i went quite dark on mine (8 coats rear 2 front) but there is still plenty of light showing through, i asked the guy that does my MOT's if there would be a problem and then had to explain what i had done as he couldn't tell they weren't standard!
4 - after the last coat allow about 1 hour for the tint to go completely touch dry, then remove all the paper/masking tape from the car.
i left the tape aropund the lights till last and really carefully peeled it off in one big strip/circle, this was because )a - i didnt want to mark the still soft tint and )b - means i was able to get all the masking tape without having to pick little bits out from under the edges of the lights
5 - dont touch the lights for 24 hours, you can drive and rain etc is ok i just mean dont wash them
6 - once the 24 hours have passed give the lights a good polish with T-cut then wax em, and admire!
this is mine PRE polish so they are a bit shinier now, although youd prob not see the difference in these low res pics anyway
note the new debadge and fabia wiper!
IF you decide you don't like your tints/mess up and want to start over, then worry not! it comes off super easy with some nailpaint remover on a cloth, literally just wipes off.
if you get it how you like and decide you are defo keeping them tinted you can laquer the lights for a deeper shine, but this will make it much harder to remove the tint when selling/getting told off by the fuzz (hasnt happened to me yet)
you can also try different ways of doing the masking for cool effects, there is a guy on here (can't remember name) with a platinum leon that masked different bits of the rear lights before spraying, and it looks wicked, im thinking of redoing my rears with the clear bit left clear to see how that looks.
if anyone does any of this maybe you could post the pics here?
hope people find this useful
might have saved a bit of effort in the long run!
