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Blacked Out Thread

52K views 142 replies 43 participants last post by  D3l7a3ch0 
#1 ·
I'm planning on blacking out my rear tail lights, reverse lights, as well as blacking out the rest of the front of my V.

Post up pics of how you have your fronts\rears blacked. Did you keep the chrome outline on the grill? Did you black it all out? Did you black half the fog light? The whole thing?

I'm interested in seeing pictures so I can decide what I should and shouldn't do.

Right now, I have blacked wheels, half blacked fogs (signals), mesh in grill blacked with chrome outline, blacked side markers, but nothing done at the rear. I also haven't had the chance on blacking out the bottom grill, but I'm thinking whether I should black the entire thing, or try to leave some of the silver trim on the sides.




 
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#64 ·
I think you've seen the link to the black abs plastic grille, but I think it's worth mentioning again: for 60-70 bucks shipped, it's worth the work it saves, although the badge holder is very bulky and it caused me to decide to do without one. (a cadillac badge)

My stock grille is hanging on my wall. Gaudy, and it would lead a person to think the car is dead (and the grille is a memento), but anyone who would see my room would know the car is alive and well, so. It's a nice reminder for when I'm in my room and the V is out of view.
 
#65 ·
Wow, VHT ruined my day (and night). :-/ I've been at it all day, taking everything apart, wet sanding like mofo, and I even did my headlight perimeter in gloss black (which looks awesome!).

When it was time for VHT I was feeling pretty good. Prepped the hell out of everything. First light coat went fine. Second medium coat seemed ok until I looked back at my headlights. But loads of cracks in them. Seemed like the VHT cracked but no, there are actually cracks in the plastic. So pissed.

The rest actually seem to have come out ok. I'm just going to spray some VHT back on the headlight so I can clear coat everything and throw it back together tomorrow.

Looks like I'll be getting those dual halo head lights sooner than I expected. Still pretty bummed though.
 
#67 ·
Another plug for the black plastic grille: they support the bumper better. Where the mesh chrome stainless steel is free-floating in the chrome frame, the black plastic grille is one piece. There is much more rigidity to the bumper as a result.



The halos are a great option. I've noticed aftermarket lights more than usual, now that I've made that jump (and am more conscious of the appearance), and I don't know how dual halos could look better than these. A lot of aftermarket headlight options just don't look right, but these do. Maybe it's the styling of the 1st gen CTS that accepts the increased detail in the lights, I'm not sure.

However. One thing you should be aware of, that is not apparent in the pictures: they come with "yellow" conventional bulbs in them, and they're plug-and-play, but you lose the oh-so-perfectly-bright stock bulbs.

The square mounting frame for the ballast (controller box thing) on the underside of the housing is there, but it is sealed off from the inside of the housing. It requires some modification to open it up.

Also, the back half of the eagle eye lens is mated to a shorter cone/reflector for the simpler "yellow" bulb.

I've run out of steam for the time being, but to use the stock bulbs would probably require reuse of the complete eagle eye lens and cone assembly, as the aftermarket cone has a different retention clip layout. The stock bulb assembly is definitely bigger.

Plenty bright, but yellow and hot.

The cone is mated to the lens via spot melting, and surgery to replace just the cones is impractical.

The plug also required some melting via heated flathead screwdriver(with the stove), because the retention latch was molded too close to the base of the plug, and the stock male end would not click into the receptacle.

I'll take some pics this week, especially if you are going to make the jump to them.

Sorry about your experience; it is what I imagined would happen to mine, and made the $200 price of the aftermarkets seem more reasonable.

View attachment 105958 View attachment 105959
Not nearly complete. But it will be Blacked way out.
Holy shit, do want. Is that paint or vinyl? Judging by the structure the V is parked in, I'm guessing vinyl? Either way, how much?? A painter who knows how to work matte properly is hard to find... I know a vinyl shop owner who quoted me $3000, but I wouldn't feel right about covering up an old paint job, so if it will be repainted first, I think I might as well just paint it matte..

Holy shit that looks villainous

Is that a paint sprayer? There's no way you shot that in open air... did you?
 
#68 ·
Thanks for the info on the headlights. I already planned on buying them after seeing them on your car and a couple other cars. That also the reason I decided to give nightshade a shot on my headlights. Got everything buttoned up tonight and took it for a spin. It's already too dark, I can tell. I'll post some pics tomorrow though.
 
#73 ·
$200... for the pair! I posted the ebay link a page or two back.

there are a lot of ebay sellers of this headlight, I picked the one that was ten bucks more than the lowest offer, but included a pair of random LED lights... looks like a row of 4 or 5 LEDs in a plastic body 5 inches by 1 inch, with rounded ends.

I would post a picture of them, but I don't remember where I put them (hah)
 
#78 ·
Just playing! Nah, I already expect that I'm going to have to reverse some of the things I've done but I knew this car would look amazing blacked out. I'm just kinda playing with my setup.

I think I'll end up with some of the black dual halos with the border painted black and some hids in them (just read the 13 page thread and I'll probably try to copy what fuzzy or etctsv have done) and maybe do the led tail lights with a light tint on them.

We'll see. I probably won't do anything until the cops tell me I have to.

By the way, I like the look of the blacked out headlights but WOW, I had hoped the light would shine through a little bit better. It's pretty dark at night. :-/
 
#84 ·
Ludacrisvp said:
You should have opened them and sprayed the inside instead leaving the lens clear and having normal output and then _maybe_ a very light coating outside as well.
Ya, I thought about this and wanted to do it, I just didn't know how well I would have done. Honestly, I painted the surround a gloss black and it looked great. I should have just stopped there. Buuuuut, I didn't. Haha.

I thought about taking them off and wet sanding it all down and starting over but it was kind of a pain in the a$$ the first time plus the vht actually made cracks in the surface of the headlights so I just sprayed em with clear coat and slapped em on.

I'll fix them soon (or as soon as I get a fix it ticket).
 
#85 ·


Finally got around to getting the windows tinted today. I have to go back tomorrow to get the back window done. He ran out of 4%. Anyway, it's 15% on the front two windows and 4% on the backseat windows and back window.

Sorry she isn't clean. The dealership owes me a car wash, so I'm going to get that done after I get the back window tinted tomorrow.
 
#86 ·
Destram said:
Finally got around to getting the windows tinted today. I have to go back tomorrow to get the back window done. He ran out of 4%. Anyway, it's 15% on the front two windows and 4% on the backseat windows and back window.

Sorry she isn't clean. The dealership owes me a car wash, so I'm going to get that done after I get the back window tinted tomorrow.
You may want to wait a few days on the car wash, if I remember correctly it could mess up your tint if you don't let it dry for a couple days before washing. Ask your tint guy though, he should tell you.
 
#88 ·
Yeah, he always tells me not to roll down the windows for a couple days. We had an extra hot day the day he tinted it. By the end of the day, I could already tell a difference from when he first tinted it.

It's supposed to rain this weekend, so I'm gonna see if I can get the car wash at the dealership Monday instead. The tint will be good then for sure.
 
#89 ·
Just my $0.02, but black cars and courtesy washes don't mix. The jackasses used a brush on mine last time leaving some ugly surface scratches. I spent a whole day buffing and re-Appying Zaino. You're probably better off washing it yourself :) LOL.

Love the dark tint, I could only go 35% due to annual inspections and its not dark enough for my liking. JEALOUS!
 
#90 ·
**** courtesy washes.

"no thanks keep your hands off my shit"

:-D

would you let someone courtesy wash your girlfriend? no, you're supposed to enjoy doing that yourself. or use a machine

wait. bad example. neither is my girlfriend black nor do I have one.
 
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