Originally posted by kpaske
Would it be possible to design tinted corner markers / taillights and/or headlights that look blacked out when the lights aren't on, but sufficiently bright (at least as bright as stock lights) when the lights are on? I think the ebony VX would look bad-*** with ALL the lights blacked out, but with the lights bright enough to shine through and still be street legal. Any thoughts on this one?
Anything is possible if you have the $$$ to make it happen. It'd have to be a very custom job, but it's possible to make the headlights appear dark without compromising lighting.

If you go on the watercooled VW sites (like forums.vwvortex.com) and search for "Hella dual rounds" you find some pictures. Basially what Hella did was incorporate a plastic shield that looks like a gun sight: two short cylinders one within the other and two 90 degree cross members (like cross hairs). What this shield does is limit ambient light from entering the lamp and reflecting off of the parabolic reflector. This causes the lamps to look dar during the day. The lamp's lens wasn't tinted at all. Plain clear glass.
Here's a picture... not a good picture but you get the idea.


The other way to do it is to tint the chrome in the reflector so that it's like a darker chrome... almost gun metal-ish but not quite as dark. Doing so would probably sacrifice light output though.