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The DREADED "Altezza" style tail lights, does anyone have them on their truck?

R

RED MONSTER 4X4

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Now before we get all "crazy" and start saying how I want to "RICE OUT" my truck or how only "Paul Walker" would do this, Just give it up now. This thread is for those who have replaced Stock rear lenses with "altezza"(Ebay,LMC etc) style rear lights, and those who have experience with them.

I like the look of the smoked & Black ones, but I am NOT a fan of the all chrome or fake carbon fiber style. I just want something stand-out and custom.

So with that, lets show some pics and experience with these!....I know I can't be the only one who wants or has these.
 
I personally outgrew the look. The current 2wd Burb I have now, the previous owner had it slammed to the ground, everything blacked out, he even took the taillights apart, painted the reflector area all black to give the lens a darker look, still factory, but darker.

Problem was that it wasn't very bright, I don't like that, so I took them back apart, cleaned them up and repainted with some of that chrome paint. It's not really chrome, but more of a really shiny silver. They are REAL bright now.

I see LED lights around a lot, most don't look too great with still using the reflective surface area to project out the light. After being a package delivery dude for awhile, a while back, I ran into some motorcycle shops for deliveries. The dude was cutting out a sheet of tiny LED's for the taillight of a custom bike,, looked really cool. Then I was thinking, why couldn't there be a full sheet of these LED lights, basically secured to the inside of the factory red taillights, right up against the curved area.

It would basically be one full sheet of red light, instead of a reflected light source.

I used to have smoked taillight covers on the back of my Camaro, thay look good, but man do they ever cut down the brightness of the illumination.

I got rear ended in that car from some woman who wasn't paying attention, on her cell phone,,, as we're standing there talking to the cops, one cop mentions about the covers, saying they really aren't that safe, before we really got into the conversation about them, the woman starts blabbing about them being illegal and that's why she hit me, she didn't see my lights... Then the cop stops her, says ma'am, see that light right in the middle of the spoiler, just about the two other lights? As long as that one works, (which it did, and was BRIGHT) that is all that is required in Arizona. (one working taillight)

Shut her up real quick, but she was still fightint it with her insurance company, they even had to come out and take pics of the lights and their brightness.

As far as the chrome, clear lens units with the funky shapes to them, no, not a fan, keep the stockish look, figure out some other form to modify the light.
 
Well, these look "lightly smoked" hahah! not like the GTS or Spray on stuff, I am not heart set on them, just kind of seeing if people have them and what it looks like on the truck. The web is hard pressed to find pictures of them installed......Which in itself could be a sign AHAH! Not sure i want to go with LED's for them either for the same reasons, and if i were to go LED with the smoked clear lenses, it would kind of begin to look like an electronics project gone bad! I am however okay with LED's on the interior of the truck.
tlks-c1073-sm.jpg
 
I have a couple friends with variations of these on their rigs. They ended up hating them (I'm not a fan, either) because no matter how cool they look on the web, they just look rice-y on the truck. And rice-y parts on a 20+ yr old american truck just doesn't mix well IMO.

I have original lights on mine, but in order to provide a little UV protection, I painted over the lenses with clear coat and a tiny bit of black to 'smoke' em. It turned out better than I expected and has kept the sun-cracks away. Mine ended up just a little lighter than the aftermarket ones above.

edit: If you go this route, us a very small amount of 'tint' in your mix and if you want them darker, just add another coat.
 
blazinzuk said:
Kert has em on his mall crawler
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Yep, I do.

Mine were pretty beat up when I redid the crew. Some days I like them, some days I don't. If I had a set of new ones, OEM types, I might switch them out. They work, they're pretty bright so they rank pretty low on my need to mess with list.
 
I have some smoked one on my car and what I dislike is the dim back-up lights. If you want to smoke some clear lights (hard to keep them lit? keep getting headaches?), I would either mask off the back-up light area to keep it clear or put some other backup lights somewhere on the back of the rig.
 
Unless you own a ricer made in Japan, keep that crap off your truck. I want to take a baseball bat to those lights on any rig I see those on that aren't made in Japan ricer crap. But when I see ricer cars I want to take a baseball bat to the car itself.

If you want to make your taillights better, buy some new factory ones, paint them with clearcoat, then put lights in from here: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-...tion=DispPage&Page2Disp=/tail-brake-turn.html I bought the ones that are second down on the list. They work faaar better than stock bulbs ever will. That is money well spent. Those "things" you want to buy, may as well burn it.
 
rebelgregory said:
I have a couple friends with variations of these on their rigs. They ended up hating them (I'm not a fan, either) because no matter how cool they look on the web, they just look rice-y on the truck. And rice-y parts on a 20+ yr old american truck just doesn't mix well IMO.
Click to expand...

What he said. I bet you would like them initially but as time wore on, you would realize that your truck looks like a kids truck and that brand new style lights on a classic don't mix. I remember seeing a good friend of the family sagging his pants all the time, until he went to the USC business school and got his degree. All of a sudden the sagging pants disappeared as he realized that there are some looks that just scream juvenile..... But to each his own.
 
If you don't mind me piggy-backing, is anyone aware of lenses that are factory style, but clearer, and with less of the light diffusing cast into the lens itself?

What I've found is that red LED's have no problem improving the way the turn/brake lights look (they are far better than incandescent, even in the stock lenses) however the reverse light LED's absolutely suck through the opaque/diffused lens that is factory. This is true of the interior as well, which is why clear covers are sold for the interior lights.

Plenty of cheap LED's out on there on Ebay, the 25+ bulb SMD cylindrical bulbs are the only ones worth considering, unless you like the obvious look of the rounded LED's, which are very weak looking.
 
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