Blacked out taillights

Okay, before anyone frags me, I have conducted a search but have not found any information on this topic. I am looking for a set of blacked out taillights for an F355. I don't exactly know if they make them for this model but I have seen them on a 360 and other late model F cars and think they look great especially on a black car.

Any insight from the guys at Ricambi?

 

Novitec Rossa does it, not sure if they can make up some for ya, another solution is go to a "custom shop" in your local area, and they can tint them black for ya, there are various ways from taking apart the asembaly and tinting via a spray, to a "film" you put over it. hope that helps

 

mercedesbenze55amg,

Thanks for the info. I had considered the "spray" on tint but wanted a more permanent solution. I may try going the custom route and check to see if a local custom shop can do the tinting. As you suggested, I'm assuming they would have to spray the asssembly from the inside some how to darken the taillights to give it that dark tinted look.

The purist will probably hate me for this but my ultimate plan is to completely customize my 355 starting with wheels and tires, then slowly making my way to interior improvements. Although I enjoy the simplistic interior of the 355, I feel that MY 355 would look better with updated circular vents rather than the square ones and a host of other "personal" changes. I know it's madness but I like to be original and create something that is purely mine.

And of course...no post would be complete without pics so WHEN I start these mods, I will be sure to post pics so noone raises the BS flag on me.

Lastly, I had considered a twin turbo kit for the 355. The kit from Australia is definitely out of the question due to it's hefty price tag. Realistically, has anyone purchased this kit? To me, this kit doesn't quite make sense. With a 355, and a price tag of $79,000 (average cost of a used 355), how many people would be willing to spend roughly $40,000 more on a TT kit? For that type of money, it would make more sense to step into a 360, dare I say Aston Martin Vantage, or for a little more cheddar, a Gallardo.

Not to take anything away from the guys that developed this kit as I'm sure tons of R&D went into it but why price a kit out of the range that most people are willing to spend for performance? From a business stand point, wouldn't it make more sense to price it within reason, to move more units, and increase you profit margin (inventory sitting on your shelf is only good for one thing and that's collecting dust)?

As a disclaimer, I am not trying to stir up the coals as I'm sure this topic has been covered several times over. I just figured I could voice my opinion to see if the guys sellings these kits will lower the price so more of us that want to go the extra mile with our 355's can get them.

I know it was way off topic from the original subject but was thinking about it and thought I could get additional opinions on this matter.

 

www.eurospeedz.com does that kind of stuff all day long. Ask for shawn.

 

gothspeed,

Thanks for the info on the taillights. I will give Shawn a call tomorrow. When he does the tinting, are they a direct replacement or is he opening up the housing of the taillights and tinting the inside?

Daniel at Ricambi was nice enough to give me some insight on taillights for the 355. As of right now, Novitec makes blacked out taillights for the 360. Daniel commented that the part numbers for the 360 and 355 are identical so if I ordered them from Novitec, they should fit my car.

I may go the eurospeedz route first and check to see if they offer a direct replacement. I'm guessing their price may be slightly less expensive than Novitec's.

Thanks again to Daniel and gothspeed.

 

How legal is it to blackout the taillights and how dark can I go?

 

I dont think its illegal....I asked a police officer about it one time and he said "the colors need to be clearly visible when they are on".

 

gothspeed,

I spoke to Cecil at eurospeedz and he said he can do it. Thanks for the contact. I also pm'ed 285ferrari and he said that in his state, blacked-out taillights are illegal but more so due to the inability to see them clearly when the brakelights are engaged. Robbie (285ferrari) said that visual distance on taillights has to be 500 feet. I also think that if I put in super bright LED's, that may brighten them enough to be considered "legal". Do you think that might work?

 

I have seen eurospeedz "blackout" and it does not mute the brightness of the light very much if at all. It usually only "looks" dark until you hit your lights.

Brighter bulbs should be more than you will need. They do take "visibility" into consideration when formulating "black out levels".

They are a good group of guys too.

 

Infact i have cleared out my lights and they look quite amazing

 

fmomen,

How did you clear them out? Did it require you to break out the red on the inside of the taillight? If that is the case, I would prefer someone to tint the inside of the lens vs the outside to avoid chipping.

 

I used this to black out the tail-lights on my S-500 Benz and it works great. I did two coats of the blackout followed by several coats of clear coat and it matches my black car perfectly. Paid 8.99 a can at Oreileys and here is what the Mfg says:

VHT Nite-Shades is a transparent black tail light lens coating for creating a custom European styling. When applied to tail lights, fog lights or turn indicators, VHT Nite-Shades appears black until they are lit, then the natural red color appears.

 

Sounds like something I need to do on my "side markers" . I like the looks of the rest of my lights