Veil vs Tinting headlights?

[nox1s]

Would tinting the headlamps produce the same results as VEIL would? My headlamps are $350 a piece and that isn't very cheap.. plus I would love the look of tinting them better and adds more protection then veil would..

I know VEIL comes right off but i'm still skeptical of "painting" my headlights AND I really suck at painting as well..

[Stealth Stalker]

No.

[category4]

Tinting will be no help.

[nox1s]

Fair enough...guess i'll have to purchase some Veil then..!

Anyone care to go into more detail as what Veil does that tinting doesn't? Just out of curiosity.

(I figured if it was "dark" it would be harder to reflect light off of.. especially tint)

[Stealth Stalker]

It blocks ifrared light. Tinting, at best, only blocks ultraviolet light. Laser is infrared.

[nox1s]

It blocks ifrared light. Tinting, at best, only blocks ultraviolet light. Laser is infrared.

Ah, I see. Thanks a lot, that clears it up!

[TSi+WRX]

To achieve the level of IR-reduction seen with VEIL, more "common" tinting would have to be nearly opaque.

This is seen with alpinestars's "Satty of Death," with its near-opaque aftermarket lighting covers - a vehicle (a previous-generation Saturn sedan) which, with hobbyist testing, shows a LIDAR profile that's far smaller than what a "normal" counterpart would be capable of.

Unless you wanted to go that dark, nox1s, VEIL is a better bet.

[snoopyc4]

Tinting will be no help.

X2

[turbocooper]

I thought about this too not knowing that tinting would do nothing... Good thing I decided Veil looked better anyways

[TSi+WRX]

I thought about this too not knowing that tinting would do nothing...

^ It's not that tinting "does nothing" - rather, it's that tinting is more or less designed to be aesthetic, and for the vast part, in making a cosmetic statement, it's about changing the VISIBLE characteristics of the setup, and although such tinting may impact the IR side of the story, it's not nearly as direct of a correlation as addressing it with VEIL, whose design is to specifically cut IR, yet preserve visible-light transmission as much as possible.

This is why "nearly opaque" tinting can and will work to cut LIDAR reflectivity - alpinestars's setup proves this - but in doing so, you would end up with a setup which is totally un-usable at night and in foul weather, as well as, if applied to the tail-lights, be quite dangerous to following traffic, too.