This is a great alternative to eurolights or blackouts, and it only costs about $20 to do. I've sent this out to 3 people in the last 2 months so thought i'd post a how to.
This is a much cheaper way of doing your tails, and can be done in any colour or pattern you like. I'll tell you how i did them and then you can modify the procedure anyway you like.
I bought 4 rolls of chrome 1/4 inch pinstriping and 1 roll of 1/8th inch pinstriping. The 1/8 inch is just used for spacing so it can be in any colour you want as it will not be staying on your car. The vinyl pinstriping goes on easier then the chrome or gold because it stretches a bit, and the vinyl is more transparent when your brake lights are on. You should be able to find it to match the colour of your car.
Find a line on your taillights to use as a starting point to make sure everything goes on straight, i used the seem just above the clear reverse light and the blinker light. do one section of taillight at a time, say start with the outside of the drivers side. Now stick a stripe of the 1/4 inch all the way across the outside section, following the line and rub it on well with your finger. it can hang over the edges of the light for now because your gonna cut all the extra off at the end so that the stripes all line up in the end. Now place an 1/8th inch strip right above that one, and then put another 1/4 inch strip above the 1/8th inch one and rub it on good. Peel the 1/8inch one off and place it above the 2nd 1/4 inch stripe.
You can use the 1/8th inch stripe a couple times before throwing it out. Just keep doing this leapfrog of stripes until you get to the top of the section of tail light, then do the bottom part of the light. when the section of light is covered cut off the extra pinstriping hanging over the edges of the light with a blade and rub all the stripes on again with your finger so that they are well stuck around the edges of the light, you don't want them to peel.
Do the same for the other 3 sections of taillight and your done. Try to get creative, put them on at an angle, or change the direction for each section of tail light. I think i'm gonna cut flames in mine to keep with the pattern on the inside of my car. anyways heres a picture of how mine turned out. I had silver vinyl on mine for 3 years and decided to peel it off and put the chrome one on. My chromes been on for 1 1/2 years now and i will be redoing it again this year as it has a few bubbles in it.
Takes about 2 hours for each section of taillight if you use 1/8th inch spacing, so about 8 hours in total. You get quicker as you go from tail to tail and fall in a groove. Hope this helps.
Post pictures on here after you've done the procedure so everyone can see what they turn out like. Keep modding

thanks for the how-to, and that looks really really good. if only my ho was silver :thumbsup:

it looks pretty cool in your avatar, but if you want it to look like it does in the larger pic, do a bilinear resize...

thats a really different way of doin tail lights..i don't mind it at all :thumbsup:

you just gave me an idea. and i think it's something that even i could do. question tho, what do you guys think it would look like in black?

yea, i saw this a few years ago on a jetta, white car with white pinstripes on the tails... looked nice


and marie, i'd look for a color closer to your car, but black might look good too, it's fairly cheap, so you could try it and if it didnt look good, no big loss...

i think it would look almost like blackouts on yur tails. One advantage to this tho is that you can leave your reverse lights uncovered so you can still see where you're going when backing up. If you put the stripes only 1/8th inch apart you can barely see the red until you step on the brakes. Then the tail is so bright, and the vinyl so thin that it looks like the stripes aren't even there ta all. I did this on my front orange blinkers as well, before i learned how to clear them out :smokin: Let me know if you have any other questions.

can you clear over it?

alright, here's a question that may sound stupid, but where do you get it at? i checked at advance today and they didn't have any.

they have pinstriping here at advanced auto.... try autozone, or oreilly's

In Canada they sell the pinstriping at a store called canadian tire. Like i said its pretty cheap. I don't know where they'd sell it in the states tho.

Thanks guys. I'll check around tomorrow... err.. today rather. If I can get it done, I'll post pics.

yeah post pics as soon as u can b.c i want to see how black would look

Same here....I think that the black would look good on a black car. My only question is this: Will the black pistriping allow enough of the light to emit through so the po-pos won't bother ya? I realise that the stripes in the how-to are an 8th apart, but I'm wondering if the brighter colors of vinyl allow more light through. ;)

Oh, and turtle? could you post a pic of your car farthur ( <---did i spell that right? ) away so that I could see what it looks like as a whole? thanks.

yeah i think that black would look good, im tryin to come up with a design now

[quote]Originally posted by Youngblood77@Aug 15 2004, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bnight04,Aug 15 2004, 11:12 AM Oh, and turtle? could you post a pic of your car farthur ( <---did i spell that right? ) away so that I could see what it looks like as a whole? thanks.

No problem, regarding pigs, i've been followed by em a few times but i think theres enough light shining thru when the brakes are on that they don't care. if they're picky about the blackouts in whatever state you're in tho i'd be prepared to peel it off if they want you to.

looks good^ i got the pinstripe from autozone today and gonna start first thing in the morning when i get off work. and yes, i'll post pics. :)

yeah post pics of your tail sexy :lol:
errr tails that is

that looks cool turtles...can't wait to see it in person :thumbsup:

hahaha... i haven't even tried doing it yet today. my index and middle fingers on my right hand are not wanting to bend today. but i'll get to them as soon as i can...i promise. i did do a crappy MS Paint photo shop tho.

Since mine is black, how do u guys (girls :lol: ) think the chrome would look. (too hokey?) I'm not real keen on blacking out a black car, specially since I don't want to blackout the headlights to match.
Turtle: they look damn good :thumbsup:
countrygirl: photoshop or not, I think the red would look real good.