I just got a friend of mine who owns his own custom paint and body shop to smoke my tail lights for me. It was done using a paint called PPG Candy Smoke (a transparent candy smoke base coat) then he added 4 coats of clear on top of the base coat and baked them at 120 degrees in the paint booth. I didn't want to go totally crazy dark as not to attract to much police attention, I just wanted to knock some of the Euro look out of the tail lights, so he hit them with 3 coats of the smoke (as you know everytime you apply a coat of a candy paint it gets a shade darker), they came out perfect.

 

Looks great IMO

 

Great look, how did it compare in cost from purchasing smoked lights?

 

Thanks bro. These pics were taken in the shade also. He buffed them to a mirror finish when they came out of the paint booth after drying. When the sun hits them they really pop...they have that deep 3 dimensional look because of the 4 coats of clear. At night and during the day, the tail lights function as normal, I guess this is because of the transparent properties of the base coat. I love them.

 

He charged me $60 to do all 3 ($20 a light)....but that's because we're friends. I got a hell of a deal... The materials alone by far exceed that price...but he was doing a bunch of custom bikes lights and hot rod lights, so he called me and said come on by, I'll spray yours while I do these....