I'm thinking about buying some Lamin-X for my 7th gen tails within the next couple of weeks. But I'm not sure of what percentage I truly want. I want my tails to be dark (when not illuminated) but pretty bright when I hit the brakes. Probably going to leave the reverse light white tho. I was thinking of getting smoked or charcoal since I have super black, but I'm not sure. Any suggestions? Pics would be nice too!

 

I would go with the Charcoal since you have a black car but if you want more light to shine thru then go with the Smoke. I just ordered the charcoal set yesterday, waiting for them to arrive. i will post pics after installed but that will be about a week from now

 

Please post some pics and how and how hard the install was.... I am considering these same vinyl's but am weary of installation.

 

Best check to see what's actually legal first. People on other fora have been stopped and ticketed for doing exactly this mod.

As far as appearance is concerned, the rear of your tinted-taillight Max won't look so good when somebody who didn't notice your brake lights quite soon enough hits you (and by tinting them you will be found to have been at least partially at fault). So if you absolutely cannot live without tinting these lights, start by thinking in terms of a lighter tint than your emotional side wants. And buy one or two steps lighter still. I'd also suggest getting brighter tail/brake light bulbs, except I don't think there are any.

Perhaps you should use the 2001 5th Gen 20th Anniversary Edition taillight assembly for guidance, as those were somewhat darker overall but obviously 100% legal everywhere. I could take a picture or two of my 20AE later today and either post them to my garage or email them out if you think it would help any.


Norm

 

Good point. I wouldn't want to give them any reason to accuse me of fault. I want my tail lights to be as bright as possible and turn on as fast as possible.

I'm not OP, obviously. I just like your point.

 

DAMNIT...good point... now I am not going to get it done...

 

thanks for your post. I already took that into consideration and decided to do it anyways. I will most likely leaving the 3rd brake light un-tinted so I'm not worried...will post pics when I put them on~

 

Anyone have pics of their tinted tail lights when the brake is hit? I ordered my vinyl's from bluebatmobile but didn't think anything would tint them so dark that the person behind you can't tell if you're hitting the brakes! Anyone have pics or a video of the tinted lights when the brake is/isn't on?? That'd be mad helpful.

 

Same here. I'm not worried since I have a spoiler with a brake light and the brake light inside.

 

If I get a light smoke overlay for tails, would I still get hasseled over it?

 

unless you're putting a vinyl that has absolutely no transparency the brake lights will still shine thru for sure. The 'charcoal' tints from LaminX are the darkest ones and they block 30% of the light, which surely wont prevent vehicles behind me from seeing 70% of the bulbs output.

I will post pics and a video once I have them on, should be about 10 days from now.

 

I highly doubt it but it depends on your local laws and/or the actual cop who may be having a bad day & decides he wants to be an *** hole

 

Well I painted my tail black n hasn't been hasseled

 

Correct me if I'm wrong...
I thought the BLUEBATMOBILE tints were designed with the cutouts for each LED as to allow stock brightness to show through with the tint basiclly covering everything else. That is what I would be looking for...and with no hassles from the cops.

 

Id rather get a smoked overlay then to just black them out completley.

 

I would suggest spending the extra couple of bucks and get the overlays installed by a professional i ordered taillight tints before and attempted to install them myself they didnt turn out good at all. i had to rip them off and pay another 70 dollars for the pros to do it.

P.S. i've got stopped many times because of my tinted windows but not once did they mention about my smoked taillights and my friend has the same overlay as me for my taillights n he also never had a problem about his smoked taillights.

 

Yeah I'm getting mine done by a pro. He's charging me $15 a light.

 

Just got my charcoal LaminX tints today. Tried to install one, having never done it before, and had trouble with it. Our lights have some tricky contours and it wasnt very warm out so working out the bubbles proved to be a real b!tch! I finished one but wasnt happy with the stretch marks so I ripped it off. The charcoal was definitely the right choice tho, the shade was perfect. Now I have to decide if I want to order another LaminX single piece or consider another option. I'm sure the install would have been successful if it was nice and hot out. Oh well, you live & learn.

 

you need to use a heat gun to install it works like window tint you need to forum it.

 

Yeah even though I had the same troubles installing mine, with bubbles and such, come to find out the overlays Bluebatmobile sent me were not cut correctly. On the front side of the tail light I had like 3-4 inches extra of material (next to the turn signal cut-out so I couldn't just cut this off) and was trying to figure out how to shrink it with the heat gun and most of my struggles came from trying to figure out what to do with the extra material.

Some tips for others I think they can learn from both of us :

- Make sure your overlays are cut correctly! Some apparently are not and you are wasting your time. Mine were close but definitely not cut right and had extra material in weird places. I contacted BlueBat and he apologized and is sending another set, so I'm impressed with this vendor definitely! Just blown I wasted time trying something that wasn't possible to begin with.

- Do this on a warm day, the heat helps with making the material fit around curves easily

- Use a heat gun, but PRACTICE FIRST if you haven't before. Low temps, never hold in one place, wave it around. Patience grasshopper.

- If you're ordering pre-cut overlays and haven't done this before get a sheet of tinting to practice with first so you can get a feel for how it applies and how the heat gun affects it.

Sucks because I agree the color was perfect, I loved the overall look how it pulled everything together. Can't wait for the replacements to come in, although I'm considering paying a pro to put them on just because I want them perfect.

 

u need to resize your sig pic

 

What, seriously? That's awesome I'd do that in a heart beat.

 

I used a hair dryer on high but like I said it was my first time so I learned my lesson. Also, how did u guys who cut out the clear reverse section do it? Did u cut it after the film was installed? And if so I assume that would leave razor cuts on the plastic lens. To pre-cut out that section would be very difficult to get it right on

 

I ordered mine pre-cut for this exact concern. Didn't want to razor up my tail light housing.

 

Good call! Where did u order them from? I checked ur album for pics of ur tails but didnt see any. U got pics?

 

Read a couple posts up.

I ordered mine but they weren't sized right. I also am new at this so wasn't having a lot of success conforming to the curves. I'm getting some replacements in but when they come in I might pay a pro to do it. Mine I got from Bluebatmobile, he doesn't have a site but I can give you his email address he quotes you and you pay via Paypal, he's helped a lot of people on this site he's legit.

 

I actually had the same issues with my Lamin-X overlays... I had a sign place install them when I had my Maxima but the curves still proved to be a PITA... As far as BlueBat he doesn't have a website but he uses his photobucket to showcase his products; here is the link BlueBatMobile.net. There is also a contact album somewhere in the mix that will have his email address for purchasing and contacting.

 

Hey danielevans83, when you rdered the Stillen front lip did you have to paint it? another thing at night can people see you with your 30% tints? because I want to get 15%. Any difference between Stillen and Takeda Intake?

 

Makc1kNYC - you will have to get the lip painted as it comes raw from Stillen. about the 30% tints, you would probably not be able to see inside much at night. I have 20% and its dark. but I tinted my windshield 50% too so it makes it look darker

 

Lamin-X was gonna send me out a single pre-cut but I decided to get a local shop to tint the tails today. Turned out nice, got the 3rd brake light done too.

 

looks nice! main question I have is how bright are your reverse lights now at night?

 

thanks. I will check tonight when it gets dark and take a pic for you. I went with the medium film, the guy said it only blocks 30% of the light output so I'm not worried but I'm also interested to see how it looks at night since I literaly just got back from having it done an hour ago

 

I'm at a professional installer and one hour in to the install they are only done with the fogs and the headlights. And these guys know what they are doing. They handle custom vehicle wraps for major corporations including the Miami Heat. I am so glad I did not attempt to do this myself. Oh, btw it is looking super sweet!

 

Ok, so I ran out of time and had to leave. They ended up only finishing the front, so I will go back and have them do the rear sometime this week. Here are a few cell phone pics of the front.

 

You should have your replacement set Daniel . Did you get my installers contact info I emailed you? Looking forward to the pics!

B@t

 

Yes I got the replacements, thanks so much! I got the installer contact info as well, waiting until the weekend to head up there. I called a local installer and they tried talking me into painting my lights for 250 so I'm almost nervous that they'll ruin the install just to get me to buy the paint job.

 

Sweet!

B@t

 

Your installer seems like a great bet, only $80 for installation and has a guarantee on the work so if it ever peels or anything he'll fix it. Thanks for the hook up! He also invited me to a G35/37 car show so good stuff!

 

Nice looking ride!

 

I have the lighter ones installed from Lamin-X It only blocks 6% of the brightness. It takes the bright red edge off of the taillights and the headlights are a little darker. I don't want to get stopped by the po po
You can see other pics at: http://forums.maxima.org/7th-generat...-max-pics.html