After custom fitting a sheet of tinted lamin-x to the front and rear signals for a few months, the thickness of the film (17 mil) started to get the better of me. Since the film was so thick, there was a very noticeable outline of where the lamin-x was placed and frankly, looked really cheap... so I decided to spray tint them
Now the directions for most spray tints i.e. VHT Night Shades instruct you to clean the surface of the lens then spray it directly on. This is all wrong and the final product will suffer greatly not only in terms of shine and finish, but also with durability. My car is a daily driver and here up in the Northeast, winter salt takes a toll on any unprotected finish. This DIY is how to spray tint that not only looks good, but will also stand up to the elements.
Time for DIY : ~2hrs
Parts needed
- 800, 1500, 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper
- Blue painters tape
- Newspaper
- Soapy water (in both spray bottle and bowl)
- 2 cans Tint spray (I used a spray tint made by Tamiya found at most hobby stores. Two cans were plenty for the signal lights but if you're doing the entire lamp, buy more.)
- 1 can Clear coat (I used Tamiya clear. Again, buy more if you're planning on doing the entire lamp)
- Buffer (PC 7424)
- Medium and Fine Polishing compound (Menzerna IP & FPII)
Step 1: Mask
Mask the area you want to tint with blue painters tape.
Step 2: Surface prep
Dunk the 800 grit sandpaper into the bowl of soapy water, spray the area to be sanded a few times and begin sanding. Continue wetsanding while keeping both the area and the sandpaper well lubricated. Stop when you have sanded away the gloss. Note: That's soapy water in the Zaino bottle.
Step 3: Mask again (if necessary)
My sanding job ate away at the painters tape so I re-taped and masked a larger area with newspaper in preparation for paint.
Step 4: Painting
Not necessary, but a trick people like to use when painting with rattle cans is to lightly heat the can before spraying. This atomizes the paint better which allows for a more even coat. Do this by running the can under warm water for 5 seconds and then shaking the can. Repeat until the can is slightly warm after shaking.
Caution: Do at your own risk. Heating a sealed canister with a propellant may cause the canister to explode. Warm water only. Don't think you can save some time by breaking out your heat gun 
. Paint using long even strokes. Start spraying
before the area and end
after. Remember to use lighter coats instead of thicker coats to prevent running. Allow 5-10 minutes in between coats. Stop when you have achieved the proper darkness. Apply the clear the same as you did the tint. Three coats of clear is sufficient.
After first coat
Since I wanted a darker tint, I sprayed an additional 6
thin coats. Here is a picture after the clear.
Step 5: Removing orange peel
The purpose of this step is to remove the orange peel that has occurred during the painting process. Gently wetsand beginning with the 1500 grit then work up to the 2000. It is especially important to keep the surface and sand paper wet during this step as the finer grit sandpapers tend to gunk up quickly. Your goal here is to remove the orange peel while minimizing the amount of clear removed. It may help to wipe down the area occasionally to make sure you aren't sanding through the surface layer.
If you don't know what orange peel looks like...
After sanding, your lights should look like this:
Step 6: Polishing
At this point, you're probably wondering why you just ruined your perfectly glossy finish. Before you send me an angry pm about how you just wasted an hour prepping and painting just to end up with a horrible product, break out your buffer. For this process I used combination of an orange pad with IP followed with a white pad with FPII, with an isopropyl wipedown in between products. Follow up with your favorite sealant and voila, you're done!
