Crawlarado Hood Blackout for the 01--04 Tacoma

Hanz

New member
I like it. It "goes" well with the snorkel.

I'll have to get both in the springtime.

Thanks for the photos.
 

Haggis

Appalachian Ridgerunner
That look's pretty sweet Tango, I wonder how doing a similar treatment would look on my Tundybird?

But I have a couple of questions/thoughts...

As an owner of two silver vehicles (a similarly shaped model as yours, ie the Tundra, and one with a flat slab of hood in the form of my LJ) I've never really notice reflected sun glare off the hoods of either vehicle whilst travelling about. I wonder if their really is significant reflection and I'm just use to it or if the reflection one gets of a hood is really trivial or not.

Why does the decal only cover 2/3 of the length of the hood? Does the nose of the hood curve down enough outside of the treatment so as it does not reflect light back or is it an aesthetics consideration?
 

TangoBlue

American Adventurist
As an owner of two silver vehicles (a similarly shaped model as yours, ie the Tundra, and one with a flat slab of hood in the form of my LJ) I've never really notice reflected sun glare off the hoods of either vehicle whilst travelling about. I wonder if their really is significant reflection and I'm just use to it or if the reflection one gets of a hood is really trivial or not.

Why does the decal only cover 2/3 of the length of the hood? Does the nose of the hood curve down enough outside of the treatment so as it does not reflect light back or is it an aesthetics consideration?

After calculating the coefficient of the sun's position in the sky and adding the cotangent of the slope of the hood, and of course applying the reciprocal process of 3 in this calculation, I came to the conclusion... pffft... I don't know - there's just less glare. Maybe it's my position in the seat or slope of the windows, or its all in my head. But it was not a mission stopper for me - I still drove the truck and enjoyed it; it's just better now. So maybe there is something to your observation that you just got used to it.

The vinyl covers just 2/3 as you see but from the drivers position you can't tell - all you see is black. The curve of the hood is severe enough that it doesn't reflect back.

But I think you're missing the real point that I discovered - chicks dig it. :rolleyes:
 

TangoBlue

American Adventurist
Was this discovery from empirical data or by advanced mathematical constructs? Pics or it ain't true. :elkgrin:

This is ExPo - we don't need no stinkin' empirical data... what was it Oxi used to say? "You cannot prove or disprove it, therefor it must be true." :coffeedrink:
 

juicebox

Adventurer
With respect to roof lights specifically, one could almost imagine that a black, low-gloss hood would be WORSE for roof-mounted lights. The last thing one wants is to have light reflected back toward the driver. A shiny smooth hood will send the roof light off down the road. Now, where roof lights lead to reflectance back toward the driver from objects down the road, a black hood may help -- the high light position is exactly the wrong angle for the specular reflection mentioned above, and could be right into the driver's eyes.

Don

Hmmm... Makes sense to me, but also...

I am pretty sure Baja Racers blackout the front fenders so they don't get glare back at them, so it may be the same kinda deal... IMG_3968.jpg

I don't know how or if it works for cutting down on light glare, absorption, etc... But I guess there is proof that the "chicks dig it" function is working great for Tango, and that's better than any product testing research done in any lab.
 

trump

Adventurist
People, it's fact that black doesn't reflect as much as other colors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black

This isn't speculation and can be proven.

That said, the only problem I have with it is dust. The more time you spend off road, more dirt and dust collects on the decal and reduces its effectiveness. This can of course be fixed by brushing off the blackout every once and a while during a multi-day trip. Even with the dust on it though, it still is better than a ______ color hood.
 

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