Rice_slayer said:
I drove around all last year with fully blacked out bezels/lenses last year and had NO hassle from cops or other drivers at all...
yeah, and you probably wont get bothered about them until someone hits you from behind and claims that the tint made it difficult to see your brake lights. At that point, its not a matter of if they allow light through, its a matter of that they're illegal and shouldn't be tinted. If you're gonna run tinted lenses, I wouldn't leave them in any condition that would give someone a reason to blame you for the accident. I've driven behind people that have sprayed VHT on their lenses and didn't do anything beyond that, it's very difficult to see the brake lights. If you polish them, they will have almost the same light output as they are stock, just with the appearance of a darker lens.
my point is, either way you're screwed if someone rear ends you and tries blame it on your brake lights, so the best way you can avoid that, is to do everything in your ability to make them as visible as possible and prevent any distortion in the light output.
Not to mention, you drove around all last year with a set I did for you, which were polished to all hell, which is probably a big reason as to why you were never bothered about them.
Plus, why would you take all the time to make sure your paint shines real nice and is real smooth, then just completely ignore your tail lights?