Thread: My quest for highly visible dark tails.

I purchased some led spiders this winter.





I then shipped some stock tails to Flip for a tint job. He asked me " how dark?". I told him dark, thinking the spiders would pwn all. After receiving the tails I installed the spiders and was not happy with the light output in the day. Also with the red lens you couldn't see the shape of the spiders. So I then decided to clear the tinted tails. The spiders looked awesome at night but the daytime brightness was actually less than before clearing. The red lens helps to light up the whole tail.

I then, drove around for about a week with dark tails with next to no light output. I eventually purchased another set of stock tails from morad and had them sent to Flip for a light tint. Flip sent me my tails and he accidently sent me the wrong tails, they were just as dark the ones i already had. I kept the new tails with the red lense and sent him back my tinted and cleared tails. Flip said he would remove the tint and lightly tint them for me.

I asked him to lightly tint the tails so i could feel assured that i wasn't gonna get rearended. Flip does awesome light tint jobs, however i couldn't stand the red reflector and the red lense showing through.

Example of Flip's light tint


I already cleared the tail so the red reflector on the bottom of the tail was the only thing standing in my way. I asked him to tint the red reflector extra dark and the rest of the tail lightly. Flip did an awesome job and later told me lighlty tinting a cleared tail was screwing with him. He usually uses the red lens to tell how dark the tail is.

Here is a pic of the first set of tails he sent me before I cleared them with stock bulbs.



Then the same tails with spiders(don't mind the different car mine didn't have a battery at the time).





Then i cleared the tails(yet again a different car, same tails).



The spiders were clearly visible after clearing(especially at night) but the daytime output went down without the red lense.



^cleared, dark tint and spiders

So after everything and all the shipping and buying an extra set of tails i'm happy with my new tails.



Cleared, lightly tinted with spiders w/ running lights on







Brakes on



Sorry for the book, I'm just glad i got the look and the visibility to feel people can read my signals.


Thanks Flip

How much did those spiders cost and where did you get them from?

i would also like to be able to rest assured that i will have visible lights during the day. mine were initially cleared, then tinted, but i made them dark both on purpose and accident. i like how they look, but the last time i got pulled over the cop expressed that they were kind of hard to see during the light and was concerned i may be rear ended. i never noticed this being the one inside the car, but who knows.

i would love if we had a good set of retrofittable LEDs to run some extremely bright bulbs with extremely dark tails.

Might want to contact Abrasive on here. He had a set that were absolutely perfect and still allowed a great deal of light visibility even with stock bulbs. With the spiders I can only imagine it would be even better. Not that Preotics are not good but just adding there a few different perspectives on this type of work and it may be good to compare with what you have in mind. I know Flip comes highly recommended when it comes to tinted tails.

I got the spiders at Autolumination.com

3157 Tail Light Brake Light Turn Signal LED Bulbs

^Scroll down the page and you'll find SMT spiders.

They are $27.99 a piece.

You need red because

1. if you clear, duh
2. The red lens filters out all light but red and white leds don't have much red light in them.

That's also where you can find the popular switchbacks. If you put spiders in your tails you'll need a modded flasher. So might as well get switchbacks.