This is a fun project to tint a Miata's fog lights using yellow vinyl.
Notwithstanding my name here, yellow is pretty cool color that accents all Miatas as well as having some practicality. Let's face it, the anemic Miata fog lights, well I guess they're technically "driving" lights, offer no real functionality for actual driving. IMO, they're better used as fog lights which are meant to be seen as opposed to helping you see the road better.
Despite the rage for white/bluish LEDs, the truth has always been that yellow pierces fog, rain and darkness better than any other Kelvin color. It's why some European cars even have yellow headlights besides yellow fog lights.
I know there are lots of options here from installing 2500K LED or HID (yellowish colored bulbs without touching the lens), go super bright, pure white HID fogs which still suck for visibility and so on. This project is simply about modifying the stock lens with a little effort and laughingly cheap yellow vinyl for not only a great look but effective presence.
Here is the basic kit: a $7-dollar roll of yellow vinyl film from Amazon.com, cool JDM sticker included and your fog light. It's a little deceiving since this is a rather sophisticated sandwich of optically clear, yellow film; a peel-off under layer and an abuse-resistant top layer so there's a little more to it than the photo shows.
No, you don't have to remove your fog lights like I did here because I was doing a remote radar-detector install so it was just a matter of "since I was already there," I decided to just yank mine from the Civic. You should have or buy a 99-cent spray bottle from Walmart along with a gallon of pure water of which 99.9% gets leftover but just try buying an ounce of good water.
Somewhere in your house, you'll have a glass or object that approximates the diameter of your fog light. It's preferable that it's bigger than your light because you can trim it later plus, you're going to get finger prints on the edge which is the only place you can do that or else you'll be replacing the entire piece.
Once you have a general idea of what you'll need, go ahead and use your precision instruments and cut the shape remembering that you'll need a bigger piece than your lens so don't worry. Here, I'm using my Harbor Freight surgical tool and a disposable paper plate to cut my mold. Cut a couple of spares while you're at it in case you screw up later. This stuff is inexpensive:
*Note: you can layer this vinyl for a deeper yellow appearance at the cost of lumens. You can also chose amber instead of yellow. The process is the same but duplicated. Here is an overlap showing doubled and tertiary layers of yellow:
You must prepare your lenses obviously, mostly to get rid of grease or anything that might affect the vinyl's adhesion. Get all the bug guts, road tar and any other imperfections off. If your glass is glazed with 20 years of pitting, you may consider the 3M headlight kit with involves using your drill and a buffing pad to sand down the surface however, the difference between fog lights and headlights is that you do not need perfect clarity with the fogs since you're just adjusting for surface adhesion of a film, not for optical clarity. A little pitting is okay since the film can be melted into place anyway.
Remember what I said about cutting bigger than you need? Well here's why. You need to get your fingers in there to separate the base layer away as you're laying down the vinyl. Peel back the protective layer a millimeter at a time while you rub out air bubbles. Not shown in the photo is that you'll have already sprayed pure water on the lens. (Hey, it's hard to hold vinyl film, a water bottle and a camera at the same time!). The water is necessary to lubricate the surface of the lens long enough to place the vinyl and peeling it back a couple times to reset. Pure or distilled water is better than tap water to avoid calcium or mineral spots. Hell, use Perrier if you want.
Now, there are simple shapes which are completely flat and complex shapes which are curved. Vinyl does not like to easily lay into complex shapes but don't worry. Get your heat gun or hair dryer and mold the edges as best you can. You might need to use some force from a dull object like a big, pink pencil eraser or similar just as long as it's not your finger nail.
If a complex shape, you're going to end up with hard ridges that you can't get rid of. Don't worry here either as you're going to cut them out. See the ridges on the edges?
Now go along with your blade and eliminate most of it. I say most of it because lo and behold, there's a top protective layer that doesn't like curves either but you can abuse it with heat and molding to get things right without disturbing the actual colored layer:
Keep cutting until the ridges are gone:
And then voila! After all your self doubt, you end up with a perfect tint on your very first try! (and I'm stupid clumsy BTW) Congratulations, you did it! Yeah, it's a '16 Civic but don't give me #%$&! Same principle.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Hammerhead
