Smoked Taillight Lenses
September 2002
When I purchased the M3 back in April, I knew I wanted to get smoked euro lenses for the front corners, the side markers, and the taillight lenses, so that was one of the first things I purchased for the M3. I purchased the smoked front and side lenses from Bavarian Autosport first, and installed them with no problems (they're all manufactured by InPro). They looked great and the fit and finish were fine (no gaps and they didn't look cheesy). I purchased the InPro smoked taillights from Bavarian Autosport several weeks later. My initial impressions of the taillights were not as good as the front and side lenses. They had a silver outer mesh-like appearence to them (the reflective properties of the lens) so at certain angles they appear to be silver instead of smoked, and the area around the brake light bulb was clear with an integral red bulb cover inside the assembly (see first pic). I personally would've prefered a smoked lens that was solid red all the way across the bottom, and clear at the top (like traditional OEM euro taillights only darker), but these were on the borderline of looking like the cheesy all-clear taillights that you see on many imports. The bulb socket openings in the factory housings were nice and sharp, but the InPro housings were rounded off and had a very vauge feel when installing the bulb sockets due to poor casting quality. I went ahead and installed them because to my knowledge there wasn't any other commercially available smoked taillights out in the market for the E36. After they'd been on the car for a few weeks, I started to get used to the look, but wasn't completely happy with them.
A few weeks later, I started getting the dreaded "Brake Light Circuit" error message on my on-board computer. I opened the trunk to check out the taillights, and noticed that the taillight housings were melting around the brake light bulb socket, and allowing the bulb socket to be loose in the housing causing the error message!I pushed the bulb sockets back in firmly, and drove the car for a day or two before getting another error message. I checked the taillights again, and they were melting even worse. I reinstalled the factory taillights and returned the InPro taillights to Bavarian Autosport for an exchange. When I got the new InPro taillights back and installed, they lasted about three weeks before they started melting too! I personally believe that the integral red bulb cover over the brake light bulb was creating too much heat (too close to the bulb), along with low quality plastic of the housings, and they couldn't hold their form. They were melting so badly that the metal contact traces were pulling free from the housing as well. You might think that I had the wrong wattage bulbs in there (I verified with Bavarian Autosport that they were the correct wattage), or some other problem with my car, but the factory housings were not affected at all. So, I sent them back for a refund.
Since there was no other manufacturer for smoked BMW E36 taillights that I knew of, I decided to try experimenting with my factory taillights.The lenses of the E36 taillights are permanently glued to the housings, so it's nearly impossible to take them apart in order to tint them from the inside of the lens, so I experimented with smoking them from the outside. I taped off everything that I didn't want "smoked" (i.e. - inside edge trim, the rear housings, and the two separating strips on the lens face), and lightly misted the lenses with glossy black Krylon spray paint (yes, I used Krylon). By "misting" I mean: placing the taillights on the floor and holding the can about 3 to 4 feet away (instead of the normal 8 to 12 inches away), and just BARELY coating them with a light mist of paint by basically letting the paint float onto them like overspray. It's really easy to get them too dark too quick, so you have to be real careful not to get too much paint on them. Then I sprayed them with several coats of clear Krylon spray paint to seal them (normal spray and distance). The clear paint made the lenses a little foggy looking, so after they were completely dry, I wet sanded them with real fine wet sanding paper, polished and waxed them, and they turned out really nice (see pics below)!
Keep in mind that I used Krylon spray paint for experimental purposes only, and I'm planning on purchasing new OEM BMW euro taillights and smoking them myself again using high quality automotive paint (misting on black, then clear coat) with an air compressor and paint gun, but the factory taillights look so good with the Krylon smoke job that I'm going to see how long they last before getting the new taillights!
