My first Nissan Midnight Mod. Taillights *pics*

[nickelmedia]

First of all, for future reference, When I do something new to the car, I take TONS of pictures, so when you see *pics* in the subject, expect BWW.

Tonight, I tapped upon my Vinyl Shop's resources and tried a few things out. What my business partner and I came up with looks pretty good IMO.

Start with stock s13 tails.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail1.jpg

Put a layer of smoked vinyl over the 3rd brake light (note this method is used to apply all vinyl in this project)

Spray the surface with water, lay the strip of vinyl, xacto around the edges, peel away the excess, blowdry out the water as you fold the edges over the light.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail2.jpg

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail3.jpg

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail4.jpg

Next we get the transparent red vinyl ready to cover the amber section of the tails.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail5.jpg

Red vinyl applied using same method described above.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail6.jpg

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail7.jpg

Next we add a layer of black over the center section and xacto out the reverse lights.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail8.jpg

And last but not least, we add the same smoked vinyl over the tails as we did the 3rd brake light (using the same method of course)

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail9.jpg

The final product matches the paint perfectly and looks great.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/tail10.jpg

Total time invested? About 45 minutes (drying time mostly). This is a great alternative to paint as I can remove this anytime I want. This vinyl will also last for about 7 years before it needs replacing.

Total cost for this mod? I can't give away trade secrets :P

Let me know what you think!

[drkpnoy]

looks good.

[w1ngzer0]

lol its like a freaky transformation :)

[driftyour40]

I like it, good job man. :wiggle:

[Muzzy]

wow....lite look good! i've see the red blinkers b4....but i didnt know how they did it!! prety dope....

oh....wuts with the junk-o aerospeed exhaust??? ...thats your next mod...get real exhaust :D

[HyperTek]

looks good... i like all red tooo with teh regular center piece..

[nickelmedia]

wow....lite look good! i've see the red blinkers b4....but i didnt know how they did it!! prety dope....

oh....wuts with the junk-o aerospeed exhaust??? ...thats your next mod...get real exhaust :D

I almost kicked this exhaust off before I bought it.. I HATE this exhaust. Tanabe is soon on my list.

[kazuo]

Gotta join the rest of the pack.. nice job, looks VERY clean.

I think it would HOT if you cleared the turn signals. :)

[TiNMAN]

looks real sweet..i bet you that ran you about $10, sucker

[nistech]

u should vinyl your tail lights and put 3 circles around them and then u could be like look i got a supra rear end conversion

[G_Fish240]

u should vinyl your tail lights and put 3 circles around them and then u could be like look i got a supra rear end conversion
:barf: do not do this!

[AllenRPS13]

that's real good, man! i like it very much

[sideviewcivic]

:barf: do not do this!

agreed. please do not allow your wild interpretations of vinyl cleanliness to be violated by a dream to see such a horrible nightmare of supra tail-lights. ideas such as that remind me of that s14 with the ghey r34 front and rearend.

-Aaron

[tegasaurus]

sign me up for some vinyl! looks damn good

appx cost = (pm me!)

[Dousan_PG]

u should vinyl your tail lights and put 3 circles around them and then u could be like look i got a supra rear end conversion



HAHAHAHA
this is a joke right?




looks good those light mod there. its 'clean' :p

[nocomedown]

that looks awesome. definitely not a bad start.

[Gjohnson7]

Looks great, I guess we can expect a full writeup by then end of the week, right?

[amolao]

Thats a sweet mod, and it doesnt sound expensive or complicated, which make its even better. Question: Whats he actual use of the vinyl??? Is it used on other applications?? thanks for the pics, man.... :boink:

[MugenHonda]

Good job man!! Looks good. Anybody want to buy some brand new OEM Kouki tail lights, center garnish, lock cylinder, lower garnish?

[TheTimanator]

i guess my only question is how much does this effect the light output? It might look nice and all but I am sure this hinders the light output to some degree.

Take night pics with the lights on.

[nickelmedia]

Thats a sweet mod, and it doesnt sound expensive or complicated, which make its even better. Question: Whats he actual use of the vinyl??? Is it used on other applications?? thanks for the pics, man.... :boink:

This is the same vinyl we use to do car graphics, decals, storefronts.. whatever. The clear vinyls are the same material, just not pigmented as much as the vinyl you get with the decals etc. It's thicker than window tint, but gives a similar look.

We've covered just about every light on every car. We used yellow vinyl on my Audi's headlights before an AutoX event.

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/audi/yellowday.jpg

That film over the headlights is the same vinyl we used on the 240 just a different color.

I know in JDM, red is where it's at for tails, but I think even smoked tails look good. Unfortunately I only have Audi pics right now since I've only had the 240 for 2 days.

Here is smoked vinyl over stock red tails

http://www.iplaydirty.com/images/audi/smoked1.jpg

If you smoked the 240 tails, you would not be able to differentiate between the red and amber lenses. The smoke would make it look as though it were one color.

:D

[ICKY]

Those taillights are the shiznit! One of the best I've seen yet! I think the best one I saw was an S14 that looked like it had them all black, but they blinked the right colors ex - brake lights were red. It was pretty clean too, like yours.

[ScottMan]

That looks very good. I might have to use that same red vinyl on my tail lights to get them all one color. Very clean! One question though. Have you thought about continuing the radius of the amber part up and into the smoked part? In other words, cut the smoked vinyl at an angle to match the curve of the blinker lens so that the transition from center panel to tail light lens would be a little less harsh and vertical. That way they would look a bit more like Kouki taillights.
http://www.pdm-racing.com/products/imag/taillights2.jpg

[TokyoNights]

Looks good, I was trying to yellow tint my headlights le mans, dtm style or whatever also but it didnt work out, the kouki headlight has too many curves and the film wouldnt lay flat without v shapes or finger bubbles. I know most tint shops cut the film into strips for curved windows but the koukis have angled bends in them, any suggestion on how to make it look right? Sould I go the vinyl way instead of tint? I know you cant cover plastic with the tint cause it will make it opaque and I was planning on doing the corner lights too(which are plastic). Heres what I did(doesnt look that bad in pics but in person it was worse.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/607000-607999/607865_173_full.jpg

[Ian]

not following the actual lines of the tail lights would look bad, they look awesome the way they are

modifying the tails to change the colors=good

modifying the tails to emulate the hype?=ghey

[Sil Beer S13]

good jorb!!!

[nickelmedia]

That looks very good. I might have to use that same red vinyl on my tail lights to get them all one color. Very clean! One question though. Have you thought about continuing the radius of the amber part up and into the smoked part? In other words, cut the smoked vinyl at an angle to match the curve of the blinker lens so that the transition from center panel to tail light lens would be a little less harsh and vertical. That way they would look a bit more like Kouki taillights.
http://www.pdm-racing.com/products/imag/taillights2.jpg

I completely understand what you are saying. The only issue with that is that we followed the lines of the car and wrapped the tiny bit of excess over the lenses and lines. If you put black vinyl over that part of the amber, there will be nothing to wrap to which would create a seam, which would be visible. I Enjoy the fact that EVERYONE that sees it thinks it's paint.

[nickelmedia]

Looks good, I was trying to yellow tint my headlights le mans, dtm style or whatever also but it didnt work out, the kouki headlight has too many curves and the film wouldnt lay flat without v shapes or finger bubbles. I know most tint shops cut the film into strips for curved windows but the koukis have angled bends in them, any suggestion on how to make it look right? Sould I go the vinyl way instead of tint? I know you cant cover plastic with the tint cause it will make it opaque and I was planning on doing the corner lights too(which are plastic). Heres what I did(doesnt look that bad in pics but in person it was worse.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/607000-607999/607865_173_full.jpg

We don't deal in tint (it's 10x harder to work with) so unfortunately I can't give you a comparison, but I can tell you that on the Audi, I wrapped the headlights (which compared to the lights in your pic have a much more aggresive curve) without even removing them from the car. Tint tears easily, whereas vinyl has some flexibility. Plus, you spray the surface with water first so you do have some time to move the vinyl around after it's laid.

[Doriftomodachi]

Just wondering, if you put clear vinyl over zenki s14 headlamps would that help to prevent the accursed "yellowing" of the headlamps?

[cdlong]

i suprised how well the amber matches the original red. looks good.

[Ian]

does plastic wrap help keep mold off food? if you sealed the zenki lamps right after cleaning them of course it'll help...you can also clear coat them from what i hear and it's 100 times easier to clean cuz it dosent stain and get all hazy like the plastic does

[ThatGuy]

i guess my only question is how much does this effect the light output? It might look nice and all but I am sure this hinders the light output to some degree.

Take night pics with the lights on.

I agree with this statement. It's one of the things that has affected my decsion to tint my Coupe Taillights. Is there a noticeable difference in light output? :confused:

[nickelmedia]

I agree with this statement. It's one of the things that has affected my decsion to tint my Coupe Taillights. Is there a noticeable difference in light output? :confused:

Definitely not, I'll get pics when I have someone here to hold in the clutch.. I was absolutely amazed when I saw them as bright as ever. walking by the car during the day, at first glance you would think they were black like the rest of the hatch. At night, no difference from stock. I lit my entire driveway as I backed out.

[aa87]

you guys gonna do anything crazy to coupe taillights?!?!?!?

[TokyoNights]

We don't deal in tint (it's 10x harder to work with) so unfortunately I can't give you a comparison, but I can tell you that on the Audi, I wrapped the headlights (which compared to the lights in your pic have a much more aggresive curve) without even removing them from the car. Tint tears easily, whereas vinyl has some flexibility. Plus, you spray the surface with water first so you do have some time to move the vinyl around after it's laid.
I see what youre saying, thanks for your input but the curve isnt the problem its a crease that goes across the face(horizontaly) of the light. I might try to make 2 pieces 1 for each half of the light. I would buy some of the vinyl stuff from you but I think it would do the same. The gila yellow has some chrome tint to it so it will look pimp as hell, If it still comes out fucked up I might try your stuff and if that dont work Ill get some proffesionals to do it :eek3d:
you can kinda see the crease in the glass here:
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/7/web/607000-607999/607865_174_full.jpg
btw sorry for taking up your thread

[nickelmedia]

you guys gonna do anything crazy to coupe taillights?!?!?!?

My business partner is in the market for a coupe now. As soon as he has one, expect more pics :)

[projectRDM]

Definitely not, I'll get pics when I have someone here to hold in the clutch.. I was absolutely amazed when I saw them as bright as ever. walking by the car during the day, at first glance you would think they were black like the rest of the hatch. At night, no difference from stock. I lit my entire driveway as I backed out.

FYI, the reverse lights come on with the key, you don't need it running to take the picture.

[morpheus8486]

Where is this vinyl available? I've always wanted to do something about the amber in the tail-lights or possibly smoke them a bit but I havn't wanted to fuss with painting them.

[ThatGuy]

Definitely not, I'll get pics when I have someone here to hold in the clutch.. I was absolutely amazed when I saw them as bright as ever. walking by the car during the day, at first glance you would think they were black like the rest of the hatch. At night, no difference from stock. I lit my entire driveway as I backed out.


I was referring more to the turn signals. I'm not really worried about the back-up lights as I wouldn't tint those on my coupe anyway. Plus back-up lights aren't even required in NC, LOL!

[NismoSilvia270R]

can you get us good prices on sheets?

i put absolutely no effort into seeing how much vinyl costs, so if its already cheap, i apologise..

[nickelmedia]

Where is this vinyl available? I've always wanted to do something about the amber in the tail-lights or possibly smoke them a bit but I havn't wanted to fuss with painting them.

click the link in my sig :P

[nickelmedia]

can you get us good prices on sheets?

i put absolutely no effort into seeing how much vinyl costs, so if its already cheap, i apologise..

We sell the taillights for $35 but this doesn't include the center plastic or smoked reverse/3rd brake. We're currently working on different package options with my setup being the premium package. The tails only need 1/2 the vinyl of normal tails IF all you want to do is turn the amber red like mine (smoked vinyl would be a full tail) so I can't see us charging a full $35. I'll let you know as soon as we work the numbers (probably tonight.)

[Logan]

i don't mean to take away from nickelmedia's business, but a cheaper way you could do this is get some vinyl smoke tint from home depot for home windows.

i just put some on my windows (house) and its removable but is applied in the same way. if i remember correctly it was like 5 bucks for a pretty large sheet, enough to cover taillights for sure.

[mr_240sx]

good looking mod! im very surprised on how it actually turned out?

[nickelmedia]

i don't mean to take away from nickelmedia's business, but a cheaper way you could do this is get some vinyl smoke tint from home depot for home windows.

i just put some on my windows (house) and its removable but is applied in the same way. if i remember correctly it was like 5 bucks for a pretty large sheet, enough to cover taillights for sure.

This is always an option, however, window film is designed for indoor use only. Our vinyl is intended for outdoor use and is rated to last 7 years against all of the elements.

[Inland180]

well done job!!!1

[projectRDM]

i don't mean to take away from nickelmedia's business, but a cheaper way you could do this is get some vinyl smoke tint from home depot for home windows.

i just put some on my windows (house) and its removable but is applied in the same way. if i remember correctly it was like 5 bucks for a pretty large sheet, enough to cover taillights for sure.

Go pressure wash the car and tell us how well it holds up.

[wootwoot]

I remember hearing you talk about this what, three days ago maybe? Good to see that you have some hussle and can do quality work =)

[linkwpc]

Just wondering, if you put clear vinyl over zenki s14 headlamps would that help to prevent the accursed "yellowing" of the headlamps?
I was think the same thing but I was thinking of smoking my front head light. I wonder how that would look?

[SRT Motorsports]

:naughtyd: looks great!

[nickelmedia]

Go pressure wash the car and tell us how well it holds up.

Holds up great.. I do it all the time.

[ThatGuy]

Holds up great.. I do it all the time.

I believe he was referring to the window tint not holding up.

[nickelmedia]

I believe he was referring to the window tint not holding up.

Ohhhh.. I guess I should read the quotes next time.. Good call :)

[ThatGuy]

No problem, I'm here to help. BTW you wouldn't happen to be giving any kind of Zilvia Discount, would you? :D I might be interested in some smoke film for my '93 coupes tails.

[NismoSilvia270R]

No problem, I'm here to help. BTW you wouldn't happen to be giving any kind of Zilvia Discount, would you? :D I might be interested in some smoke film for my '93 coupes tails.

werd. i lika da coupe in red or smoke

[nickelmedia]

No problem, I'm here to help. BTW you wouldn't happen to be giving any kind of Zilvia Discount, would you? :D I might be interested in some smoke film for my '93 coupes tails.

I'm waiting on a reply from WeST regarding advertising, but when we finally get it, YES, we will have a zilvia only discount coupon.

[tastyratz]

this is something ive been considering doing for a long time now on my own but been too lazy, now you guys did this! can vinyl be layered? like if i wanted to lay down some red, then smoke over both (i doubt smoked yellow would truly look red id have to see it...) then possibly get a custom design cut that sticks over the whole thing in some way? over complicated but i think it could have potential done tastefully...

[nickelmedia]

this is something ive been considering doing for a long time now on my own but been too lazy, now you guys did this! can vinyl be layered? like if i wanted to lay down some red, then smoke over both (i doubt smoked yellow would truly look red id have to see it...) then possibly get a custom design cut that sticks over the whole thing in some way? over complicated but i think it could have potential done tastefully...

Yes this can definitely be done. Also yes, red over yellow = red.

[aa87]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid36/p8abe50805231d7fa4a523a2d4e671789/fd221f94.jpg

SOOO HOTTTT, WANT TO TOUCH THE HEINY!!!

borrowed from Pg's website.

[nickelmedia]

fyi for those interested, we've worked up some specials.
http://www.advanceg.com/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=473

[NismoDan]

Definitely waiting to see some coupe pics!

[Chillaxed 240sx]

Some pictures of the hatch lights at night would be very nice ... cops in my area are very uppity about lights and shit ... I don't want to get pulled over and written a ticket over some vinyl.

[superman0234]

wait, im confused, so which package is 18 dollars? The bronze? And then the gold is 25 more?! Seems pretty rediculous, even if i do love how it looks.

[tastyratzz]

yea some night pictures to show how much they light up, preferably with the light HALF covered with a sticker to show the before and after in a way thats less likely to have variables would be nice, and yea your prices are rediculous for some cheap machine cut vinyl. id consider the precut plug n play but at those prices i wont be buying your best package anytime soon...

[daverussell]

it looks good. i like how you did that.