Tinting lights/Smoking

[.Kevin.]

Is it legal to tint your headlights and taillights , to be specific in BC Canada? I googled and didn't find anything.

Was thinking of getting my tails tinted, and going for a corolla look on my headlights but nothing extremely dark.

First photo is what I want for headlights, how dark is that tint? Don't want it too dark since my car is silver.

Second photo is the color I want for tail lights, what percentage is that? Not BLACK BLACK more likee of a greyish so that my lights show I don't want cops bugging me.

and last photo same thing for windows but what percentage is that? Black to the poiint where you can only see inside at point blank range. I only plan to do my 3 back windows

I appreciate photos of examples if anyone here has done it yet.

[custom Lftback]

I dont known about canada but most places, any tint on the headlights is illegal. For the first picture, the headlights aren't tinted at all. It's the inside of the housing that is black. And the second pic, i don't know what percentage that is but people will generally use a tint spray or black paint and clear coat mixed to tint their tails. The more coats you put on, the darker it gets, so you can stop when you get to the desired effect.

[JBougie]

I painted the inside housings of my headlights so they look tinted - and then for the tails, I painted mine really dark but they have the taillight film that you can buy for $19 on Ebay and get as light or as dark as you'd like. Then if you get pulled over, you have the ability to claim that you had no idea and peel it off right thereon the spot, it may get you out of the ticket.

I am pretty sure that I heard taillight tinting is illegal in Canada - but I can't be for sure. Tinting here in TN is illegal also, but the cops don't care (and actually like sitting out on the strip and watching the cars sometimes) so we have it made :)

[Focus_Sh1ft]

Tinting headlights and taillights is pretty much illegal anywhere as far as I know. However the only reason it's illegal is because there's enough idiots out there that paint their lights using that clear coat mixture. They end up putting wayyyyy too many coats on and greatly affect the light output from their heads/tails.

I have both my heads and tails tinted, and haven't had any problems. The reason being that at night my light output is unaffected...

Using the Eurolight stuff Garm sells will get you that exact look on the headlights. As for tails, I used dark tint from Rvinyl. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it looks great and isn't permanent.

[cali yaris]

The Eurolight kit is really nice for a subtle tint. If you want something more aggressive/darker, you'd have to paint/spray or go with film.

[Betrivent]

In BC, it is illegal to tint your tails only if your reflectors are no longer visible.

[.Kevin.]

Originally Posted by Betrivent

In BC, it is illegal to tint your tails only if your reflectors are no longer visible.

ALRIGHT what are the reflectors on the yaris? Or yo umean the whole taillight reflective in general?

And can we tint headlights?

How much does it cost to get the inside housing tinted? I wanted the corolla S headlight look.

And garm if my purchase all goes fine, then I will be buying ALOT more than a little can of spray paint off ya.

[Betrivent]

uhh headlights I'm not so sure. Tailights.. I mean the part that is reflective, not shiny. Not sure if the sedan has one of those. Like the kind of reflective road signs are.

[Betrivent]

Conversely you could just stick some reflectors on your rear bumper, that would be legal I'm sure. But it would also look terribad.

EDIT: I don't see ANY tint in the first picture.

[SAV912]

The first picture isn't tinted. The inside of the headlight is painted. The inside of the Corolla S headlights that you're referring to is also painted. They aren't tinted. Headlight tinting is illegal nearly everywhere, as is for taillights. I don't mind a light smoke on the taillights, but I wouldn't do anything with tint to the headlights. Painting the bezels like many have done here is fine, as that doesn't actually affect the output.

With that said, if you must tint, Lamin-X (link here: http://www.lamin-x.com/) has both pre-cut colors and square sheets that you can order for about $20-40USD that apply over the lens. I had some yellow tint on my fogs before I went for Nokya Yellows instead.

-SAV

[.Kevin.]

Originally Posted by Betrivent

Conversely you could just stick some reflectors on your rear bumper, that would be legal I'm sure. But it would also look terribad.

EDIT: I don't see ANY tint in the first picture.

I think my reflectors look pretty decent if you ask me, went for the corolla look lol

any idea how much headlight housing painting costs? and tails?

[Freedan]

I don't know but smoked head/tail light really only look good on certain color cars.

Black cars with smoked head/tail light looks just plain evil!
Red cars gets that emo/goth look going.
White cars get that cool panda look.
Yellow car has that bumble bee thing going on.
Blue cars can pull off the black and blue look if other parts of the car are also painted black.

Just throwing out my .02 cents out there because at the end of the day, you will be the one that is driving your car.

[severous01]

completely illegal in all 50 states to modify lights

unless, you modify the lights with DOT approved lights and are properly aligned to pass state inspection.

so, you cannot run a 65w light in a front low beam...55w only. you cannot put a blue or pink or green bulb in any lens...white or amber in the front, amber, white and red only in the rear. lenses must be clear and allow visibility from a certain distance and must not glare in on-coming traffic...tails must be bright enough to be visible in full sun at a distance of 200+feet. bla bla bla

any modifications must be DOT approved....and tinting is not approved.

[.Kevin.]

I'm from canada, what is DOT?

HOW MUCH does it cost to get the inside of lights colored black?

[SAV912]

DOT = Department of Transportation. I'm sure there's something similar in Canada. DOT regulations are usually enforced at state inspection stations.

You usually don't pay a shop to take apart your headlights and paint them and put them back together. If you utilize the search feature, there are many members that outline how to do this without involving a lot of cost. It does involve skill though, including disassembly of the front of your car to get the headlights out, an oven to heat the headlights enough to soften and loosen the glue, paint to go on the outer edges of chrome (you DO NOT want to paint the actual reflectors), more heat and some silicone gel to seal the lights back up (must be done patiently and properly, else you'll get gaps and foggy/moisture filled lenses on cold mornings or inclement weather) and then more time to mount them back to the car and aim them. I haven't done mine yet because I don't have a spare set. I'm not comfortable cooking my lights in the oven without having a backup set in case things go wrong. You may feel differently.

Again: SEARCH. I've seen you post a lot of questions that have been answered multiple times. There are outlines for nearly every modification you have planned to do to your car dotted all along the forum as stickies and .pdf files.

Hopefully this helps.

-SAV

[donchae]

Originally Posted by SAV912

Again: SEARCH. I've seen you post a lot of questions that have been answered multiple times. There are outlines for nearly every modification you have planned to do to your car dotted all along the forum as stickies and .pdf files.

-SAV

^ whatever he said :)

Originally Posted by Betrivent

In BC, it is illegal to tint your tails only if your reflectors are no longer visible.

+1

here in vic, there are a lot of people running with tinted lights