is it better to have them "painted" or a tinted film ? or one or the other? any pros or cons?

 

It all depends on your preference. Do you want your headlight housing painted so you can still see inside the headlight, or do you want to black it out totally by putting a film on it? There are cons to both methods. Opening your headlight to paint the housing is not too easy and you'll have to seal the headlight back perfectly otherwise you'll have problems. Any any overlay tint you put on your headlights will cause stress cracks and will look bad once you take the film off.

 

well im not really sure, i like not seeing inside, thats all i have even seen it as, this is a better pic of what i want to it to look like -http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.decalfx.com/smoked_tail_light_film_3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.decalfx.com/smoked_tail_light_film.html&usg=__OzTeghfDepIrD5q1x30ssTL0mM s=&h=500&w=477&sz=42&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=ICjZagt9dSCGHM:&tbn h=130&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3D350z%2Bblack%2Btail%2Blights%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3De n]

 

would that be considered "smoked"?

 

You run the risk of getting tickets if you smoke your taillights and headlights. I would suggest you get your headlights opened up and painted black. You can probably find someone in the regional thread to do it for you or you could buy someones blacked out headlights and sell your stocks.

 

I made the mistake of putting on an overlay and destroyed my headlights. I had to buy a new set but got them painted and it looks 10x better.