I have had bed experience with clear coat, but when i nite shaded mine they came out amazing.

 

My opinion its only my opinion. But I say this only because I'm a painter and I have only seen a couple people that have nite shade and it come out anywhere as nice as a nice professional tint job. Don't get me wrong; nite shade is a good product for the DIY job.

But here's my results of using automotive grade paints/clear coats.





Just like candy

 

Just my opinion I have ALL my lights blacked out usin vinyl and they came out sweet not dull. If you use night shade you might as well use an automotive grade paint either way lots of sanding and clear coat. DONT USE R VYNAL there stuff sucks my opinion. I used Stuff from www.decalfx.com had it on there almost two years no problem till someone scuffed my light so I need to buy ( now if i had painted it wet sand and be done lol ) more look at my pictures .

 

niteshade - this is about 5 light coats... turned out great. Ive been pulled over once, but he just told me their illegal and some officers might pull me over for them. if anything, go to a junkyard and get a set of tails you can do it to. then you have the stockers to go back to if need be!

 

okay, i see that opinions are being thrown all over here and it may be a bit confusing.

with night shade, depending on how you apply it, it may come out flat or glossy. the closer you hold it to the light while spraying will determine that. If you hold it too far away it will come out flat. this is the same for the clear coat. you don't have to add a clear coat, but if your car sees winter, after one winter the nightshade will fade.

My example is this, before last winter, i had the tail lights tinted and they looked great, couldnt see any red of the tail light through the tint when the light was off, but could still see the light when it was on. after winter, i could see red just about everywhere on the light, not a ton, but it was visible compared to before the winter started. now, this year, before i sole my tinted tails, i night shaded and cleared them. the clear didn't go on as wet as i liked so i buffed them, and then it looked perfect, and they didnt fade a bit til the day i sold them.

as far as vinyl goes, i tried putting vinyl over the turn signal on my headlight because i didnt like the orange, and it was almost impossible to get to form even on that slight curve, not only that, but i wasn't really a fan of how the vinyl looked compared to the rest of the car, it was kind of dull.

so long story short, i think you should night shade it then clear it, and buff it with compound and something like a powerball, that's if the clear doesnt go on wet enough.

than you will have tail lights that are dark, and glossy like the rest of the car.

you will only need 1 can of night shade and 1 of clear. It's a pretty easy task, just keep your strokes equal as you spray, and like said above, it does tend to run, so being patient inbetween layers will help.

 

That's one reason why I really prefer doing clear on top- that way, with your last coat of niteshade, you're not worrying about getting an even, correct darkness level as well as a wet, smooth finish; you can just worry about getting the level of tint you want, and worry about getting a nice glossy wet coat with the clear where thickness doesn't matter as much.

 

Why would you not use clear on it? Its just like any other spray paint. I agree with all bumpin said above. The way I figure with clear, do one thin coat, so it looks rough. Come back in a half hour and put on a nice wet coat, itll look better than plain nightshades any day.

 

I still say decalfx is the way to go mine are and there glossy
https://montecarloforum.com/forum/pi...pictureid=6096

 

that does look really nice, i still think that the difficulty of just getting the vinyl to form isn't worth it, but that's just my opinion, that's a really nice outcome!

 

it wasnt all that long ago, some guy named drjesus did a write up on how to properly apply niteshades ...

oh wait ...

if you take your time and sand and clearcoat properly, this look can be achieved for less than 40 bucks and about 2 - 3 hours of work, with around 10 hours of drying and waiting ...

oh btw ... for the obvious questions ... yes i left a section cut out to avoid the "illegality" discussion with the local law enforcement