tinted parking lights NA

rossburns · Postby **rossburns** » Sat May 30, 2015 4:32 pm

Has anyone tinted there parking lights on an NA, and how did you do it :beer:

rossburns · Postby **rossburns** » Sat May 30, 2015 4:49 pm

Ok I can answer my own question, VHT make a spray on lens tinter, next question, is it legal to tint the lenses on the parking lights
:beer:

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Sun May 31, 2015 2:05 am

Tinting lenses is not a good idea. Lens colours are defined by lighting laws. I can tell you that it was quite common practise to spray lenses for signal colours and it was legal ie a clear lense sprayed Amber or red but it was never as good as using an acrylic which was already compounded in the right colour.it was done for low volume runs or lamps that sold in low volume. If a lense was moulded in clear acrylic it can be painted in red or Amber but it deteriorates much faster than a compounded acrylic. ps a park light in front is clear and a park light on the rear is red. A turn signal is Amber etc.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Sun May 31, 2015 2:11 am

The VHT stuff works, but from what i've seen it's not a smooth glossy tint like a tint film, it's a slightly rough looking tint. (granted, maybe the one's i've seen were applied badly? I doubt it since it's been pretty much all of the ones i've seen)

Tint film will look nicer.

Or alternatively, I know there's a company that make replacement units with the tint as part of the lens. They looks really good, and from what i've seen are just as bright as the originals (the replacement has tinted inner reflectors, so it looks darker without having to tint the lens too much)

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:57 am

Lighting companies only paint lenses for low volumes because it is no where near as durable as compounded material. For diys if a lense has faded by all means repainted a lense if it was faded. A Moulder will buy an acrylic to a spec so a signal colour a clear or red or Amber must be an approved material and its tint is already compounded into the product ie you mould an Amber lense and it comes out of the die Amber same for clear etc. you can also mould 3 colours in the same cycle time - all with very expensive tools and only where volume supports it. Many rear combination lamps now have 3 colour lenses- not separately moulded.