The all-new 2015 Mustang is hot stuff. It’s so hot that there must have been upwards of 50 customized examples of the new Mustang at the recent SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) Show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. These custom jobs ranged from complete builds with hopped-up engines to mild graphics transformations. To give the 2015 Mustang lighting and other areas more style, there are several options available.

The new Mustang is so hot that we’re sure there are a large number of StangTV fans that will soon, if not already, have one parked in the driveway. Some will go hog wild with it, while others will go slow and steady with modifications. Whether you’re planning on charging full-speed ahead or taking it step by step, one of the very first upgrades you may be considering is a cosmetic makeover.

When it comes to looks, many turn to paint for a graphic enhancement. Paint has its pros and cons. There are myriad colors that can be custom blended to achieve exactly the style you desire.

However, paintwork can be costly to have done, messy and complicated to perform yourself unless you’re a professional painter, and of even greater importance to this conversation, paint is permanent.

An excellent alternative to paint are graphic treatments made from high-quality vinyl materials such as those offered by Big Worm Graphix of Fort Worth, Texas. When done right, a top-end graphics transformation will look outstanding, raise the eye-catching quotient of your car, and be fairly easy to apply. It will also cost a whole lot less than paint, allowing you to save money for more modifications.

Even something as simple as a tint placed over your car’s lights can make a big difference in the way it looks. The newest thing from Big Worm Graphix is its headlight and taillight tint kit, and this visually appealing alteration to the car’s look caught our eye. As of this report, it’s the first if not only headlight and taillight tint kit available for the 2015 Mustang that we know of, and it’s made using high-end material. We sat down with David Moderow, owner of Big Worm Graphix to learn more.

Expert Experience And Materials

“I started doing graphics treatments about 1999 because I was racing dirt track oval cars and making lettering and graphics for my car and other’s race cars. That transitioned into doing street cars sometime around 2008. I don’t race anymore, it got too expensive and I wanted to concentrate on the business. I still drag race and autocross, but nothing big. I was racing against teams with 18-wheelers and I had a flat bed, so it didn’t make sense as a business.”

“The graphics business is mostly mail-order, but during holidays we do a lot of installations because people have time off. Installations are also seasonal, sometimes it’s very busy, other times not so much, but the number of cars I do during a week mostly depends on the job. If it’s a complicated job it might take me two days, but I can do as many as eight cars a day if it’s a simple job.”

“I started working on headlight and taillight tint kits because I always liked black cars. I was constantly taking cars apart and painting the red or amber marker lights so the entire car would be black. Then I bought a brand new car and began looking for a better way to do this.”

“I began looking at all the different materials and found Lamin-X. Many others were using just plain transparent sign vinyl, but the Lamin-X material is better. It was specifically designed for going over headlights, and was developed for 24-hour road racing like Le Mans.”

“Lamin-X allows headlights to be covered with a tint while still allowing light through it and to be protected from stone damage. A good kit using Lamin-X is the best investment for a $40,000 car.”

Simple Installation

The installation process is really very simple. However, the first thing you want to do is clean the surface of the lens and surrounding edges before application. Moderow suggests water, Plexus, or Meguiar’s Plastx only. Certain chemicals can cause softening or cracking of the lens.

Spray a light mist of water on the lens and the tint, then align a corner of the tint material on the lens, lightly tacking the film down. If the alignment of any of the corners is off, just carefully pull the tint off and re-tack it into the correct position.

The tint material can easily be stretched or shrunk to compensate for manufacturing tolerances or personal preferences if needed through gentle warming with a heat gun. After the film is completely tacked down, spray the outside with water to help the squeegee slide over the tint material without scratching.

Big Worm Graphix kits come with a special squeegee to smooth out and avoid scratching the tint. Begin in the center and work outwards to avoid bubbles. A heat gun or hair dryer can be used on the curved areas to warm the material first, and should be used on all edges of the tint.

Forty-eight hours after installation, the tint can be washed with the rest of the car, but spraying it with a detailer (Moderow suggests McGuire’s Ulimate Quik detailer) helps maintain the material and color of the tint.

Tips And Tricks

Moderow gave us a few other tips about the headlight and taillight tint kits he produces. “Be sure to thoroughly clean the car so there’s no dust or dirt, and make sure there’s no overspray from detailer or wax on the lights. Take your time, and make sure you’re indoors during installation so that you’re out of the sunlight and wind to keep dust from blowing onto the lights and getting underneath the Lamin-X.”

“We just use water during application, not soapy water like others may recommend. Some soaps have moisturizers and other chemicals that can harm the tint material. Definitely don’t use Windex or anything with alcohol or solvents, because it will damage the tint as well as the light lens.”

“If there are some bubbles that you can’t get out during application, leaving the car out in direct sunlight afterwards can get rid of them, and the tint material may have a little bit of a milky look at first after application, but this will also go away if the car is left out in direct sunlight.”

“The biggest difference is that our kits are made using Lamin-X, not cheap tint materials. There’s even a tinting spray found in some of the big auto parts retailers that is used by some people, but it can get overspray on the car’s body panels, and also damage the lens.

“The best part is that because the Lamin-X can be easily removed, if the laws about tinted lights in your area or state change, or you decide to sell the car, you can easily take it off. We also sell a very light tint that provides the protection of the Lamin-X from stones and other road debris, without any real hint of tinting.”

More Than Lights

Three different shades of light tint kits are available, including Tint (lightest–a subtle effect), Gun Smoke (medium–still allowing the lens color to be visible), and Charcoal (darkest–looks black but still transparent). Fog light tints in Optic Blue, Yellow, Green, and Pink are also available.

Although the headlight and taillight tint kit for the 2015 Ford Mustang is the latest hot item in the Big Worm Graphix product line, the company also offers stripe kits for the brand-new Mustang, as well as tint kits for 1999 and up Mustangs, and stripe kits for 2005 and newer Mustangs. These stripe kits come in a wide variety of colors and styles. New products are always in development, so for the latest list of Mustang kits, and those for other musclecars, be sure to check out the Big Worm Graphix website.