Thinking of blacking out everything. Yes? No? Opinions?

 

The biggest question I would ask is "How much of an ass are the cops around you?"

It's technically illegal. Some police enforce blacked-out lights really hard, others ignore it. Personally, I run blacked out tails lights on my car. the cops take a lot of notice, but so far, no tickets.

if you're wanting to do your headlights, I would suggest getting some brighter bulbs to compensate

 

looks cool i like the turn signals smoked but in personal opinion i wouldnt do headlights nor the hellas just cause you actually need that light!

 

Lets say for the purpose of this thread my toyota is an offroad vehicle only.

Do the blackouts really affect the light output that much?

 

Start with all the damn chrome ... grille, bumper, door handles, windshield surround ...

While you're doing that, save up for the Hella Black Magic offroad lights, then consider the headlights.

 

i just did that today if u want pictures of how it looks

 

You can do the military black out lights and then you get the look you want and still have the clear area for the light to come through just my .02

 

I'd appreciate it if u could post them up

 

do u have the link to these? I haven't heard of this,

thanks

 

OlHarleyMan, do you mean metal louvered covers over the lights? Could be a cool look. I've never seen it done on a Toyota.

 

black out on a black car or it looks weird..

 

Yea that or paint the majority of the light black and only minimal clear where the light beam is shot out like on the Humvee and tank in the army

 

im gonna do the head lights soon but not as dark

 

Did you use VHT nightshade to paint these? Are you thinking of doing your headlights with the VHT?

 

yea i used that stuff, only 2 medium coats to get them where they are. and im going to do the headlights sometime this week when i dont have work but probaly only 2 light coats on the head lights

 

i'm gonna "smoke" mine...i don't want em to be black..just kinda smoke'd lol

 

Well I photoshoped the picture so it probably wont be that dark but its a plastic cover that is smoked that goes over the headlight.

 

This is JUST my opinion: I understand personal styling and such are important to a lot of us, but to me blacked out lights says "I spent my time and money on something that didn't increase, and might even have decreased the functionality of the vehicle". That being said, its your time, your money, and your truck, so do whatever you want!

 

Not really going for an increase in functionality but i certainly don't want a decrease in it either. I was lead to believe that black outs don't affect light output but I guess I'm wrong. I sort of like the looks of the black outs as it makes the truck unique and stand out but if it's gonna make my lights dimmer than I think I just might hold off on it.

 

Well like I said, it's your truck, do whatever makes you happy. My spray painted black wheels certainly didn't affect functionality, but I like them more now.

Maybe the headlights would dim, but it would take a WHOLE lot of smoking to dim those Hellas!