I asked my tint guy about doing mine. First think out of his mouth was NightShades by VHT. Im not gonna do it myself but ive been going to him for years and was 1 of his first customers when he opened up here. Hes treated me REAL well. All my jobs come cheaper and cheaper every vehicle i bring him. Between me and mama we get a new vehicle at least once a year. Hes treated me REAL well and i trust him big time.

 

I did alot of research on this...and am going with the VHT this time

Vinyl---the translucent vinyl is thick and non-pliable. The non-translucent is too dark for your light. You can do this, but you will get pulled over. They can tow your truck for this! Some people say that you can do this but even with heating and stretching, it will not be thin enough...story in a sec

VHT---you can decide the opacity of the "tint". A professional should be able to do this and make it look like window tint and should do it for less than $100. Tint shops usually do this. You can also tape off your reverse light section and leave it clear, it helps ALOT.

I have dark windows, loud exhaust, HID's, white LED license plate lights, etc. I am NOT the "its illegal don't do it" guy for sure. Anyway, I decided to use black vinyl to tint my 04 Ford superduty's tails/3rd brake. Guess what? Not only did I get a ticket for $350 and almost towed, but less than a month later I got rear ended and had to buy a new bumper (at their cost, but still a hassle)

 

The vinyl tint is not that hard to do. I had never worked with it ever in my life and was able to get all three lights done without any major problems. The one thing I would say is to not buy the precut pieces that you see on eBay. You need some extra to pull and stretch the vinyl to get it to fit right and I just don't know how you can do it with the precut pieces. Just buy a sheet and cut it to fit your applications. Also, as someone else stated, make sure you have a heat gun or hair dryer when you do it. Other than that, it is a snap. The first one took me a little while but after I got the hang of it the process was not bad at all.

The process I followed was I cut the piece a little larger than the light, sprayed it with some soapy solution (mixed some j&j baby shampoo with water), sprayed the light with the solution, laid the piece on and squeegied (sp) out most of the liquid and bubbles then heated it with the hair dryer to get out all the remaining bubbles and pull it tight on the light. Here is how it turned out.

 

im assuming the vinyl is thicker than a standard window tint. those are a little too dark for my application preferences...do they have more transparent vinyl? would window tinting work?

 

your lights look great, I love that look...I am just scared that if I do them as dark as that then this truck will get ruined also, just like my old truck. Do they light up good?

 

^ you could buy silverstar bulbs to make it brighter

 

well I bought them for my furd and it didn't make that much of a difference. Now I guess maybe you could find some super bright LEDs or something??

 

They make the vinyl in different levels of darkness. I am sure you can find something to give you the look you are going for.

 

Off Road Teacher, what do you think about doing 07 lights? those bubbles look like they would be a problem. And I cannot find anything other than jet black?

 

I was a total rookie when I did mine and I don't think I could have done the 07 lights with all those buldges. Now that I have done it once and kind of know what to do I would be willing to try it. If it is your first time you might want to get some help from someone who has done it before.