has anyone taken apart the taillight housing and painted it flat black? i'm interested in doing this and really get annoyed with the flashy tail. I think the prius looks nice and the taillights just kill it....
I read the title and thought you need nicotine patches for them. Swap for the early gen 11 Prius tail lights, the brake light part is black inside. Someone has a dark grey Prius with tint on the tail lights, looks good.
no... i want the entire thing black... well most of it.. i have to look at the reflective part and make sure what reasonable...
Realize that there were problems on the '04s (and '05s?) when the fins in the tail lights were (are) black. When the car sat in the sun the black allowed the fins to absorb a lot of heat...this led to warping of the fins and I believe some even had issues with the lens warping due to the extreme heat generated. Most of those reports were from people who had to park in full sunlight in places that got extremely hot and a lot of direct sunlight (aka Arizona). I park my car in a garage at home and in a covered area of a parking garage at work so my time in the open sunlight is pretty limited and I've had no issues with the warping. In any case, the reason they changed the fins to the chrome reflective design was to prevent these warping and overheating issues and I've heard no reports of warping since changing to the chrome painted design. So, if you're in a situation where you have little direct sun exposure and this is important to you then, by all means, paint away. I think it looks better as the dark tint of the lower rear window creates a nice continuous line from tail light, through the window to the other tail light and, IMO, looks much nicer than the now chrome lights.
Ok, I tend to group the whole cluster as 'tail lights'...but your definition is clearly more accurate. I'd then say that it's probably a bad idea to paint those black as the reflectors are clearly part of the way that the effectiveness of the lights are enhanced. It may even be illegal to paint those reflectors for safety reasons.
There are at least two threads on this subject already. You may want to do a Google search of PC first. All kinds of info on removing the tail light assemblies, with photos. If you need more info, PM me. I had mine done by a shop in NY. Took about two weeks turnaround time (include shipping).
do you have pictures?? i found two threads... but they didn't have much info... maybe you can enlighten me.. i haven't found one where the person take out the tailights and literally opens it up... removing the taillights from the car is walk in the park.. taking it apart is a little harder...
Yeah both Zen and I have them tinted on the outside. The old link to my thread is here http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-modifications/36301-my-new-tinted-taillights-emblems.html I'm assuming that you will need to heat the lamps up in the oven to loosen the glue on the assembly and pry apart the housing to gain access to the inside. This is just a wild guess as I have done this with other cars in the past, just never a Prius.
