FR-S smoked tail lights and reverse lights
 

Just had a customer stop by yesterday at the bodyshop to get his tail lights and reverse lights smoked. I use all PPG paint, just a simple clear coat with black paint mixed in and that makes it translucent. Light output is the same as factory, but the lights get that nice smoked looked.

We're color matching the front bumper side markers also but i'm not done painting those yet. Those will have NO light output once completed.

This is just for those who are wondering how it would looked, I do offer the service for those in San Francisco, you would either need to drop your car off for 2-3 days or bring your lights to me off of the car.

On to the pics!!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7269/7...891a9ed505.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7248/7...162bc0cb9c.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7130/7...375c3a882a.jpg

FINISHED RESULTS
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8144/7...0936097f67.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8014/7...9e422535ce.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7267/7...0acb3508f7.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8018/7...56b9b22c4c.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8159/7...72ce7d215e.jpg

Looks great, wish I had an extra set of tail lights I could mail you.:thumbup:

I'm going to start offering these tail lights for sale also

looks great. how much will these go for?

I will keep an eye out. I'm definitely interested. I'm assuming with a core charge of some sort?

Core exchange?

Really diggin that look on the whiteout!

I haven't set a price yet, I just checked with my local dealer and they don't even have the FR-S part numbers in their system so I couldn't get a price. I would set something up with a core exchange to keep costs low.

There's always a cheaper alternative and is to use tint film, but the quality will never be as good, you'll see where it wraps around the edge and it will eventually peel, plus you don't get that shine on top of the light anymore, I like to spray clear coat with tint because it will never fade as long as you take care of them the exact same way you would take care of your car's paint job, and it looks 10x better, from far away and up close.

For those that aren't local to me, if you have a body shop you trust, you could always ask them to do the same thing I did, i'm in no way trying to make money off of everybody, I just want to contribute to the entire FR-S/BRZ crowd.

I use PPG clear coat with a little bit of straight black paint mixed in (however dark you want is how much you would add, it takes a bit of trial and error to get it correct), and you would just prep the surface like normal, give it 3-4 good coats and let it dry, and ENJOY!

I know with vinyl overlays, chrome housings can sometimes look greenish in the sunlight. Do you see any of this with the painted ones? It doesn't look like it in the pictures.

There has been no discoloration or anything weird when we smoke lights, here are some in the past that i've done

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7...b913b6188e.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/7...850cc025c2.jpg
https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._1898631_n.jpg

I love the way the lights look.

How much is the light ouput affected?

He said that the light output wasn't affected. I'm really thinking about having this done as well.

exactly the right amount of smoke on those tail lights but a better picture will determine that