Black out around lights?

[Jeff Hamilton]

Ok most cars I see have the headlight / driving light area blacked out. What is the reason for this?
Jeff Hamilton

 

[TonyM]

For me it was just personal preference, it just seemed like way too much color and needed breaking up. I blacked out the side/turning signal areas and left the headlight areas colored. I also blacked out the sections of the doors behind the perspex and also under the glass around the engine cover.

Cheers,

 

[Randy V]

Stepping just beyond that of esthetics - If you ever raced at night, you're dependent on superior vision and visibility. The reflection of light from the headlights and driving lights off of other surfaces would tend to cast stray light out to the sides causing additional glare and shadows etc that are very distracting..

 

[Ian Clark]

Hi Jeff,

I have to go with Tony on the cosmetic value, certainly puts an edge on the look and Randy nailed it on best illumination at night. They actually raced on the cars lights, none of this lit up stuff we have today for the TV cameras

Here's a couple of spins on the black out theme on CAV Canada customer cars, Angelo and John's Gulf livery rockets. Interestingly enough, you can find old pics of the cars racing in 68'9 with and without blacked out lower driving lamp opennings.

On Angelos' car we painted the edges of the driving lamp covers orange as per the original.

Cheers