I'm going to red-out the amber part of the taillights. I also want to smoke the lenses. I have read all the stickies concerning this but I would like to know from those who have done this what is best, smoke the outside or the inside of the tails? I know the DTM mod is a bit extreme where the inner housing of the tail was painted black to achieve that smoked-look. However, does this affect the taillights' brightness in daylight or night?

Please chime in and give me your opinion.

**edit**

Which in your opinion looks better, smoking the outside of the lense or DTM?

 

you cant really do DTM on a 95/96. DTM requires you to smoke the inside. if you dont have red clears, you cant smoke the inside of a 95 cus it will just be behind the orrange. you would have to smoke the outside of the tail lights.

 

So I guess the DTM is only visible thru the clear portion of the 97+ tail lenses. I was actually thinking of smoking the inside of the 95 will be noticable thru the redded-out tail lenses (after I paint them). I was going to do this too behind the backup light lenses. What do you think?

 

DTM is only visible through clear lenses. in your case, it will be visible through the reverse lights, but not the turn signals because you still have the amber lenses. even if you red out the amber, it will all show red. spraying tint behind the red wont to anything.

here is a picture of my taillights. i tinted the entire outside portion of the lights.

 

Looks hot!!! However, have you been hassled by cops yet? They look pretty dark. How visible are your taillights, especially the stop lights since it is crucial and needs to be visible in day or night?

 

ive had friends follow me in the middle of the day and they say they can see my lights just fine. ive also had cops drive right behind me, and the few times they do pull me over its for my expired registration, they never say anything about my tail lights.

 

Thanks. I guess I'll be applying the smoke outside the lense after I red-out the tails. I'll probably go lighter though. But I like the tint on yours because it matches the color of your car.

 

if you live in an area where cops are really picky, i would deffinatly suggest you go lighter than me. i dont get hassled cus as bad as the cops here are, they arent THAT bad.

 

get the niteshades spray from www.summitracing.com

Works really good, will post my pics up tommorow

 

Please do so, can't wait to see it. I'm also interested in seeing this on lighter colored Maximas, ie: smoke/gray, beige, white, etc. I'm thinking of going lighter because my max is smoke in color.

 

the pics i posted are my old tails. i jsut got a new set form a friend which has the night shades and the night shades looks identical to the pics i posted.

 

I also forgot to ask, how long have you had the tinting? How are they holding up? And is clear coating still necessary after smoking them?

 

if you use night shades, you dont need to clear coat them. the reason i got rid of my old ones is because i used testors tint spray and didnt clear coat it, eventually it all wore off.

 

Coool...this is good stuff. I'm ordering niteshades now! I'll be posting photos when the mods are done. I gotta smoke my other lights (clearance and bumper lenses) because they are wearing off, I'll use the niteshades on them.