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| 1991 VW Golf Mk2 Big Bumper with Smoked Front & Side Indicators |
Car: 1991 VW Golf Mk2
Colour: Marine Blue
Orange Indicators look really naff on most vehicles. Yet they are so easily rectified.
Some cars have orange lenses and some cars will use orange bulbs.
If you have orange lenses then you can usually obtain after market clear or smoked light clusters to replace the originals. This will often work out to be quite expensive especially when trying to replace orange lenses front side, and rear!
A much cheaper option is simply to spray tint the lenses. This is a very cheap option and yet will still be a vast improvement.
Front and side orange indicator lenses are usually separate from other lights and so are easy to spray. You can spray them on or off the vehicle. Spraying them off the vehicle will allow for easier rotation and a more even coverage though.
You should spray them with special smoke spray for indicators, it is important that you do not use normal car spray paints for this. Smoke spay tint is made to be transparent so the light will still pass through, normal paint will just block the light.
Rear lights are normally harder to tint, this is due to the fact that the indicator lights are normally combined with the other lights in the rear light cluster. Rear light clusters will also often contain the rear reflectors. Depending on the law where you are, you will usually find it is illegal not to have these rear reflectors. Therefore it is important not to spray the reflectors too dark (unless you are mounting 2 new reflectors elsewhere on the rear of the vehicle).
The darkness of the tint is controlled by the thickness of the tint spray. The thicker the paint is sprayed on the darker the lens will go. Therefore try and spray the rear light clusters in thin coats, building the thickness up to until the correct thickness is acheived.
It may be better to mask off the rear reflectors on the light, that way you will not spray them too dark to reflect properly. Then when you have sprayed the rest of the light cluster almost dark enough, remove the masking tape from the reflectors, and spray the whole light unit. This will then give you the desired look, yet keeping the car road legal.
Lens tint spray also comes in other colours as well as the smoke, you can usually buy it in red, green or blue. The smoke colour normally gives the best finish though, as it usually looks more natural.
Even if you have a car with clear lenses as standard, the indicators will often be fitted with orange coloured bulbs. These can very easily be replaced with special bulbs that look silver, but will flash orange. It is still important though to choose bulbs that are E marked to the correct standard, or use bulbs that meet any legal requirements in your country.
We have also painted the VW badge to give a more dramatic effect, giving the car a meaner, but neater look. The badge was painted using Humbrol Enamel Paint and not the Smoke Paint Spray.
Remember, Have Fun, but Keep it Legal!
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