So I bought some AUG Lens' Painter (Smoke) so that I can darken my headlights to match my tinted taillights and the rest of the car.

Here's the link on what I bought....

http://www.autodynamic.com/det...G-204

....anyway....I was trying to read the instructions on prepping to apply this stuff. There's just one little problem....

EVERYTHING'S IN JAPANESE. And I mean EVERYTHING....except for the product name of course.

Anybody with some experience or know-how with doing this type of thing that can help me out please do so. This is my first time trying something like this so I don't wanna screw it up. The bottle is pretty small so I don't have alot of paint to work with.

And I know some of you are thinking of bringing up the lamin-x idea....but I already tried that route. I don't have access to a heat gun or any special tools to get the film to curve around the sharp edges of the headlight so that idea is out for now.

And i've checked on the legality of it as well and I should be fine.....so please don't bring that up either.

So now i'm gonna experiment with this stuff and hope that it works with good results.

I will post pics of the results as soon as I am finished so again any helpful advice is certainly useful and much-appreciated.

Thanx fellas!

 

bring it to a body shop and have them smoke it, it will cost more but the stuff we use are much higher quality than the RTS rattle bomb stuff.

the percent of tint and level of gloss are all customizable.

 

If this stuff works I would rather give it a shot first. If not then i'll consider your idea.

 

Im guessing the simple clean,tape off, and then paint is not gonna work?

 

That's EXACTLY what i'm trying to find out. Sometimes it's not that simple.

 

I have been looking all over for directions, but all I can come up with is that its "REAL EASY TO USE". I cant find a single thing on how to do it or anything.

 

I think you might have to scuff it up, but DON'T do that until someone verifies. On my older car, I tried cleaning it off with isopropyl alcohol and then painting over that, and it wound up flaking off about a year later

 

I posted this same thread in the Appearance/Cosmetic forum and someone told me to sand the headlight with 2000grit Sandpaper and then apply the paint. Can anybody confirm whether this is a good/bad idea??

Will sanding it disrupt the light output?

 

owhen me and friend did his car we sanded down the the surface with 400 grit sand paper or something like that(forgot what it was called but it was 3M) then we sprayed it till we got it the shade we wanted it

hope it helps

 

I found this after some searching on Google. It is instructions for a 350z, but my guess is that it should work for the Civic as well. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

http://www.350z-tech.com/zwiki...ights


edit: I noticed one place I found that talked about smoking your lights mentioned using a clear coat finish. I don't know how this would work, but it sounds like it would help protect the paint.


Modified by chiggin at 2:08 PM 3/25/2008

 

i used adhesive enhancer..comes in a spray can..you dont have to sand your headlights. it allows the paint to stick..I did it on my taillight and have no problems with it. good luck. you can pick it up @ a local paint shop.

 

Thanx for the help guys. I've got the first coat on the lights already. Gonna do a second light coat tomorrow.

 

Tell me how it comes out, I might wanna do this to my FA5. I like the sticker ones but they come out to dark.

 

Definitely post pics when you get done. I have considered doing this on my SI and I would like to see how it turns out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RICO_ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanx for the help guys. I've got the first coat on the lights already. Gonna do a second light coat tomorrow. </TD></TR></TABLE>

So...did you sand them?

 

Nah. Change of plans. Sanding will only dull the headlight to the point where it severely damages the light output. And without an HID kit that's something I don't want to do.

I sprayed a coat on and it kinda looked okay. But before I did the second coat I had a change of heart. I took a closer look at the headlights and realized that they just had too many chips over time from highway travel. They were still highly noticeable even with the paint over them.

I'm very picky and wasn't satisfied with the way it came out at all. From a distance you can't really tell. But when you turn the lights on they seem hazy/foggy even though the light output was still good. And up close the imperfections are a little too much for my liking.

So i've decided to abandon my little experiment.......

And now i'm getting a set of these instead.....

http://www.nopionline.com/nopi...Civic

Following installation i'll purchase some lamin-x smoke headlight film and give THAT a second shot. I think I rushed it the first time so it wasn't as good as it should have been.

 

Good. I was pretty damn sceptical about sanding your headlights from the beginning lol.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by RICO_ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And now i'm getting a set of these instead.....

http://www.nopionline.com/nopi...Civic
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Those look very good. Have you read any reviews on them? Would an HID setup work with them? I have not been able to find any information on them other than what was on the NOPI site.

 

From what I hear....the HID's should work fine with them.

They just arrived however i've run into a bit of a road block........

https://honda-tech.com/zero...56846