In the pursuit of being different I plan to smoke all the amber parts on my car. After reasearching for about a week I've found a cheap and very easy way to do it. I used Model Master Transparent Black window tint #2949(I found it right next to the Testors brand paints). I picked it up at a local hobby store for about 5 bucks for a 3oz can(which for 2 cans equals the price of VHT niteshades, or window tint...if you can find either of those). I liked the password sidemarkers and considered buying them...till I found out they were 50 bucks!!!

One very important thing of advice, this is not a normal paint but more watery and wants to run, spray it on @ about 6-8" away and do very quick light coats!!!!!
By quick and light I mean start spraying about 1/2" of to the side and in one quick motion go across the entire marker

The can(sorry for it being kind of blurry but you get the general idea of what to look for)


"the gun" (turns almost all spray paint cans into the feeling of a more controlable gun, picked it up @ pepboys for 3 bucks)


maksing job(I used the 2" wide blue masking tape and then with a razor cut along the indentation between the amber part and the housing itself)


after two thin coats:


Drying in the sun:

Finished product in a dark area(decided to add 1 more coat...3 total per side marker) :


Finished product in a well lit area:


Compare to:
http://www.passwordjdm.com/pro...D=365

before:

Overall I'm pleased, I mean the smoked ones @ password are 50, I paid 25 for these a while back when I still had the hatch(never got around to installing them)...used a gun I already had and paid about 5 for the tint...30 for smoke amber done by myself or 50 for paword's sidemarkers.

Total time including masking and paint to dry...less than 30 minutes(only about 4-5 metallica songs on my ipod ) from start to finish.

Here's some pics of the parts on the car I smoked.

Smoked Tailights:


Pic of side reflector and sidemarker installed(also both smoked like tails):

Side shot showing extent of body work I had to do....(a previous owner was a real ricer, riveted on sideskirts in a "W" pattern on both the front fenders and rear 1/4 panels)I know I accidently cut the side markers too high....but it'll have to do until hmotors or password gets some jdm fenders in(which at this rate might be never):



Modified by broketuner-sol_si at 7:16 PM 8/27/2006

 

looks aite.

 

if u would of sanded down the original finish to a dull color i think it would of turned out better. looks nice anyway tho

 

wow, these kinda thing is getting ridiculous, they trying to make money out of everybody. first it was amber, now is smoke. im guessing if you want to be cool, you have to rock smoke side marker now?

 

after buying the paint , tape and spray gun to do this not to mention the time spent . you could have bought the 30 dollar side markers......but they look cool

 

nice write up. Ill try this out sometime.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ATS*Hella_JDM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">after buying the paint , tape and spray gun to do this not to mention the time spent . you could have bought the 30 dollar side markers......but they look cool</TD></TR></TABLE>

well, I had the tape and gun left over from another DIY paint job I did, but where can you find the smoked sidemarkers for 30(that are the true jdm stanley markers)???? The only place I've ever seen them offered is password for 50. But anyways, I bought the sidemarkers to use on my hatch but never got around to install them before I traded it, so I already had those too.

 

the 2 coats of tint look better IMO

 

nice write up. Ill try this out sometime.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RARE_EG2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the 2 coats of tint look better IMO </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah I think so too...may end up redoing it later or something if I end up not liking it.

As for why I didn't sand the parts before hand, I wanted people to see that these were the real stanley markers and not some knockoffs, plus it came out fine IMO without sanding it, very nice glossy finish

 

looks good.

 

sweet

 

cleanly done

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RARE_EG2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the 2 coats of tint look better IMO </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

what kinda gun is that

 

mad respect it came out clean I admire people that DIY they own ish instead of buying something like that for a ridiculous amount. Not everyone got money like that especially for some overpriced bullish! when your broke, your get creative, thats my word

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RockLee` &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what kinda gun is that</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's made by krylon...it's called "the can gun". Picked it up @ pepboys for a little over 3 bucks, it's right next to all the spraycans and body work stuff.

NOTE: the paint was bought at a hobby store though, pepboys had nothing like this.


Modified by broketuner-sol_si at 4:44 PM 8/11/2006

 

Nice! Good write up too!

 

Thanks for all the comments so far...I'm thinking about doing a couple of layers of clear and then color/wet sanding them to see if I like it any better...right now with 2 thin coats and 1 slightly thicker, they are very dark...look almost black in a shaded area, in the daylight they look good though. I'll probally make a big seperate thread when for I go to do my tails, bumper reflectors and front corners(have to wait till I get my headlights to do it though.

 

Well unfortunately I didn't use my own advice on taking it slow for the tailights(here's another piece of advice, if you get pissed off at something don't bother working on your car ), so needless to say they came out looking like **** and got runs in them I'll just redo them tommorrow doing one coat at a time only, letting each coat dry and then do the next coat. the sidemarkers on the other hand look great(mainly because I took it very slow). After I redo the tailights and the bumper reflectors I'll post them up too.

This paint doesn't even really need to be color sanded, on the sidemarkers it is very glossy and looks good

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sleptonEH2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mad respect it came out clean I admire people that DIY they own ish instead of buying something like that for a ridiculous amount. Not everyone got money like that especially for some overpriced bullish! when your broke, your get creative, thats my word </TD></TR></TABLE>
X2

 

pics and how to for the tailights will be up soon.

 

cool

 

those password ones are a DIY by password too, they have the same part number as normal amber sidemarkers

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by shynop &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cleanly done </TD></TR></TABLE>