Tails. Tint? Smoke? Stock?
 

So i have been crusing the site for about 2 hours now...looking to see what i want to do with my tails.

I had plans of tinting..then i saw a pair of smoked tails...then i saw that if you dont have many mods you should leave stock..so idk now.
but i have the vht niteshades paint out in my car in my driveway right now.


what to do??

smoke em, do it naow

depends on if you are going for a theme or not. If you wanna tint your tails dark, then clear ur corners and paint bezels black i think it would look nice. If you are just looking for an off stock smoke, then that would be nice by itself.
Either way, just do it and don't look back.

How many coats do you have on yours?

Maybe a dumb question but can you use nightshade on the bezels?

sure, just might take a few coats to get it dark enough to where you want it. Just imagine... you could be the first alero with tinted bezels!

i did like 5 coats, but i colorsanded afterwards, and then buffed teh shit outta them

1. Wet sand tails with 2000 grit wet sand paper.
2. Wipe clean with alcohol.
3. Three coats of vht, 5 minutes between even coats. (Would not suggest more than three)
4. Allow 15 minutes dry time.
5. Four to five coats of clear. (gloss)
6. Wet sand again with 2000 grits wet sand paper.
7. Get some buffing supplies. ( I used McGuire's Ultimate Compound, wal-mart) Cover entire tail then rub vigorously until all of it appears to be rubbed in.
8. Wipe off excess, if any with a microfiber towel.

Do not try to tint your headlights. Just use regular spray paint on your bezels if you do so choose to paint them if you tear the assembly apart.

Good Luck! :thumb:

Bezel:


Tails:


Ignore the wing. What a ricer...

do you think that if you put a light coat on the bezels it would still show the chrome thru the nightshade?

sooo...your telling me i cant just take my tails off and then spray 2 coats vht. let em dry and put em in? can i do that or no?

pics of bezels in?

hell no! u gotta prep em for the paint first. and then buff em when theyre done. u dont neeed to clear em if u have nightshades. and to prep em just sand with 1500g and some soapy water. u can go over em with alcohol when ur done. sand em till the light gets nice and dull. u dont want any shiny spots before you paint em

will look like shit? or whaT?

Can you? Absolutely!

Would you be happy with it? Ummm... Possibly.

Will they look good? Meh.

Only way to know would be to try it. I would recommend going the extra mile, but you can do whatever you want man. Worst case, just hit them with some paint thinner or something and start over. Everything else you would need to do it the longer way is readily available at Wal-Mart or most other stores as such. Cost me $20.00 in supplies, and an hour.

Chrome coated amber 194 bulb in corners. Silverstar Ultra 3157's next to them. $20.00 in new bulbs, and 5 hours of baking headlights... lol

check out my thread pics about tails. I didn't prep them at all, just dusted them off and sprayed one coat. if you have nothing else though I would smoke them first and then see how you like them then go from there.

link to thread?

You might be able to see a little bit of chrome through there, but honestly, you should just get separate paint for that project, unless you intend on tinting your headlight assembly, as opposed to just the bezel. It might not look bad, probably about the same as a headlight cover?

Also, these how to threads are there for a good reason, most of your questions have most likely already been asked and dealt with under a questionably judgmental base of alero owners who have made mistakes or epic wins and shared results. Cashdollar's explanation of how to do it is about the same as i did mine, and most likely the way most everyone else did theirs. Just be sure to mask off the back up light if you still want to use it.