Half of the posts I see regarding tail lights have people wanting purely clear lights, while the other half seem to want dark tinted tail lights.

What's the deal with either? And what's wrong with the ones we have direct from Mini?

 

Color coordination and styling sense is what most tailight mods are about. What matches each persons tastes and MINI paint Job or window tinting too.

 

i don't understand it either, i personally like the stock tail lights over tinted or whited out tail lights. tinted tail lights are ok but whited out tail lights.. no way!
no offense!!

 

The clear (white) tailights remind me too much of most sport compacts like my old Civic Hatchback or Lexus cars. I may add a smoke tint to my MINI after I tint the windows.

 

I've never liked the look of clear tail lights on any car (no offense to anyone intended). I did consider tinting mine when I get the car (thought it would look good with IB), but decided that I'm just a little too old for it. I know, you're only as old as you feel, but it just felt like a younger man's mod. Can't explain it any better than that.

So I'm leaving the stock lights alone.

 

The best color of the tail lights is largely subjective based on:
The color of your car and roof combination-any MINI with a white roof may look OK with the white lights
Light colors contrast with dark colors and vice versa, too much contrast might be harder on the eye. Moderate colors like the electric blue or pure silver can go either way.
The white tail lights for the MINI are unlike almost any other white style light- it is completely white and only the bulbs are colored. For most other cars the light reflector is white while the brake and directional light plastic are colored yellow and red- this is the altezza look.

The tinted lights are usually darker for a stealthy look and may contrast well with darker colors such as dark silver.

Finally there are tail light covers that are body colored and reshape the light outline to smaller shapes for the lights from the stock tail light.

So pick your combination and enjoy. I have the white lights on indy blue and think that look and work great. I get compliments all of the time. I did the jumpers on the tail lights in #1 and #5 and got the upper red bulbs to be on all the time and only the bottom lights go on with the brake so when I have the lights on the entire rear light looks completely red and is brighter (on the bottom) with the brakes on.

 

I have the clear taillights on my CR/W with tinted windows and it really looks sharp. The color combo plus the tint makes it so.

 

I tinted mine because it went with my pure silver/black color scheme.
I find nothing wrong with the lights on the MINI at all....I am just aiming at a certain scheme for my car and the tinted lights did it for me.

 

L, do you have any pictures with your tinted lights?

 

Here's the pic from the thread I posted right after I did them. :smile:

 

The darkly tinted taillights for L.Mini's silver with black roof mini works because the dark colors coordinate just as a white light and white roof combination would. The dark colors are more steathly-not sure if this is completely legal. If you look at the car with tinted lights from the rear at night and shine light on the rear reflectors-do they still reflect red so that you can see the car parked with it's lights off from 200 feet? If so then that is good.

 

hey, I saw a car the other night that had tail lights that looked normal when you got close but had a little dot in the center that made them appear purple as you got farther away?! The effect is cool. Anyone know where you can get these dots (if trhat's what they are)?

 

>>hey, I saw a car the other night that had tail lights that looked normal when you got close but had a little dot in the center that made them appear purple as you got farther away?! The effect is cool. Anyone know where you can get these dots (if trhat's what they are)?

I have seen them at motorcycle shops. In most states they are illegal. I have a friend who was ticketed for having them. I believe the objection is they have a bluish hue that they interpret as the color reserved for cop cars.

 

They are still very visible at night...and I did the taillight mod that, while making your brake lights blind people with no tint on there...they are very noticeable through the tint as well.

 

I would only do the tint once i did the tailight fog-brake conversion but I still am pondering the white ones jsut because of the white/black motif I have so far

 

I bet a million dollars if asian or "ricer" kids didn't have clear tail lights on their cars, you wouldn't mind buying them for your MINI. Clear tail lights aren't a young thing. It just depends on what matches your car best. I agree that certain cars look good with the standard factory lights, but some cars just lookway better with the clears. The look of my car would not be the same without clear tail lights.

 

I agree...if my MINI were solid silver like Ivan's I would have likely gone with the clear tails as well. :smile:

 

your tail lights look much ... brighter, shinier, with more sparkle than all of the others I've seen (which looked dull). I'd never have considered it before I saw yours. Where did you get them????

 

I got these lights @ minispares.com I don't think they're any different from the ones they sell anywhere else. I just brought my car to a well lit place at night and that's why it sparkles alot. I guess it just depends on what color car you have.

 

L's tailights and jivanvan does look really great! Maybe it's the gray car that makes those tailight modes look so good.

That said, I think my Chili Red looks best with the stock tail lights. Not all color combinations look good with all the available modes. But I do think both those tailight modes on the r gray car look 'mahvelous'

 

I have clear tail lights on my Chilli Red and they look awesome. Then again I also have tinted windows and I think that adds to the look.

You can kinda see it here....

 

Are the ones from MINI clear, or are they actually white? Seems like the aftermarket ones are just as good (and a lot cheaper), if they're all just clear. Pardon my ignorance if I'm totally wrong here, and please set me straight. :smile:

 

I like the white outs on a IB/White MINI.. but my standard reds look great on my CR/W... What I don't get is the black out look... If you've modded the rear fogs to be breaks, I don't think there would be much light difference, but I just can't figure out why someone would want to diminish the amount of light coming from the break lights... I have the same confusion with blacked out headlights also...

Rocketboy_X

 

I'm with Rocketboy_X. The tinted rears may look good but, cutting down on the visibility of my car to the guy on the phone behind me, just doesn't strike me as quite sane. I got behind an SUV the other night with tinted rears on a fairly well lit road. You could not even see his taillights were on and the brake lights were a joke. It'd have been real easy to run up his tailpipe if you weren't paying explicit attention to him. This mod should've stayed on the car show floor.

While there's no argument the clear ones don't hamper the light, there's millions of ricers out there with them, as JivanIvan pointed out. I, for one, don't want to do anything to my car that'll confuse people into thinking I'm part of that group!

 

WOW IVAN

SWEET RIDE!