It's tint not gunsmoke. He says so in the thread.
Ah. Good stuff; -hard to tell sometimes.
-but that actually raises another aspect which kind of surprised me about the product... Depending on the light, the light angle and the viewing angle, ths 'tint' varies between looking dark and moody at some times and lightly-smoked and moody at other times. -Sometimes you can walk round the car and see it look DRAMATICALLY different from a couple of different angles... I have to say I'm astonished with the 'dynamic' aspect of its changing appearance, if you know what I mean...
I was left with quite a few little bubbles in mine. So much so that my dad's next door neighbour saw and tried to help me put getting rid of them until I told him not to bother. They have literally ALL gone. It's pretty astonishing actually!
That's VERY encouraging indeed to hear. -I was contemplating getting a tiny sewing needle and 'helping' to bleed the bubbles, but I'll give it a while if you say so. One headlight looks factory-perfect, the other has more bubbles than a Busby Berkley dream sequence!
One thing about light cut-down... I did mine at twilight, and parked in front of my garage door which is a VERY pale cream colour, (and great for aligning headlight patterns on!) and when I'd done the first one, I switched on the lights to compare the done half from the not-done half. I have Halogens in mine, and both sides have the PIAA bulbs in, which are already SLIGHTLY 'colder-blue' than usual yellow-ish halogen.
That's where I get my 5% light attenuation estimate from. After doing both sides I re-did the comparison and both sides were the same again. -I would have taken pictures, but light was fading and I was hurrying to do the second one (which was the one I put bubbles in, up due to rushing and poor light, as it happens!) so I didn't stop to take photos.
I'd estimate that the reduction in light output is about as negligible as the APPARENT brightness 'gain' from going to PIAA bulbs (which aren't the cheapest, but aren't 'chav').
So I'm probably back to more-or-less stock light output, but with a MUCH improved 'broody' look in daylight.
It's a rockin' product. -I also got mine from a place which was having a sale, so it was $40 for mine... probably about £30 for both headlights AND both fogs.
Bargain.
Pics as soon as I can get the ****** thing washed... I'm too embarrassed of the water=spots on the paintwork at the moment.
Keith