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April 10, 2006 7:10 PM

Glow in the dark art car? (more glowing inside)

So, we got some cans of glow in the dark paint on clearance and now are trying to figure out ways to put it to use.

One thought was to paint ye olden decaying minivan up with it.

But I got to wondering about the legal aspect of this. Thinking to all of the cars around here that have wierd running blinking lights things on them and snazzy glowing wheel covers. Would it be legal for us to paint something on the van? Or if we found more cans just paint the whole thing?

We live in Minnesota, if different laws apply.

posted by jeribus to Law & Government (4 answers total)

i don't know about the legality, but the fact is that most glow in the dark paints are really not going to be all that noticeable on the outside of a vehicle. Generally, glow in the dark paint is used indoors where you can make it dark enough to be usable. Most places where you are going to have a car, there will be enough ambient light that you won't really see the 'glow'. And if you do happen to find a dark enough spot, it's highly unlikely that it would be in a place that any cops would bother you.

That said, if you do want the glow to be visible, and are willing to put a little extra effort forth, you could add in some UV LEDs. Like little tiny black-lights, they make things fluoresce, especially stuff like glow in the dark paint.

While this is very cool, it will definitely draw more attention, thus coming back to your original question about legality. The nice thing about a system like this though, is that you can turn off the LEDs and make it largely invisible again.
posted by quin at 7:30 PM on April 10, 2006

House of Kolor markets glow in the dark auto paint. Their stuff is made for custom cars, but there's no warning about street use.
posted by 445supermag at 8:43 PM on April 10, 2006

Blacklight LEDs would rule. Do it...
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:30 PM on April 10, 2006

Glow in the dark paints really don't last all that long after exposure to white light. At least not at a very bright level. So I can't imagine much of an impact it would make especially with city driving on well lit streets. Maybe headlights might help to charge it. It's worth a try to experiment with. The worst thing that could happen is that the cops will give you a ticket. Unless you use radium, then the worst thing that will happen is that you get cancer and you'll set off all of the Homeland Security radiation detectors in New York.
posted by JJ86 at 6:27 AM on April 11, 2006