Who has tinted windows ? Pros-Cons ?

[Derek A.]

Thinking about doing a light tint on my windows. Looking for pros & cons. How dark did you go and have you had any legal trouble.

[Bill R.]

bubble everywhere plus it had changed color to a purplish color. On our 3 we have the dark and as i've gotten older i'm not as thrilled with it as i once was, nightime visibility out the side and rear sucks with the really dark tint, I see that now they have some tint thats almost clear but rejects the same amount of UV and heat as the darker ones. We never have legal problems in arizona it seems with tint. Many years ago when i was involved in racing our tow Suburban had dark tint and we'd get ticketed every time we went to California, nowhere else just California.

Thinking about doing a light tint on my windows. Looking for pros & cons. How dark did you go and have you had any legal trouble.

[Johntee540]

I have my car tinted and Pretty dark too in the rear. here is a link to some pics. http://members.cardomain.com/johntee540 Pros are the protection of the leather in the Backseat that takes a huge beating from the sun. Security as people cant see what you have in the back seat. and it looks really really cool.

Cons are the visibility at night while backing issue. Hope this helps - JT

[Rory]

Thinking about doing a light tint on my windows. Looking for pros & cons. How dark did you go and have you had any legal trouble.

Derek,

If you live in a sunshiney climate then it is a great investment IMHO. When I was living in Atlanta it was outstanding. I could run the AC on 1 or 2 in the heat of summer (black leather) and it was comfortable. It also keeps the interior cooler when the car sits (assuming you use a visor too) for a couple hours. The key to tinting is to get a quality job and make sure the film is fully metalic. Dye's will wear over time and fade/turn purple. Metalic films will not fade or wear much over time, so say you have a window smashed in 4 years from now, a shop could put the same piece of metalic film in and it would match perfectly. The downside is that metalic film will absorb laser and radar beams if you use a V1 or similar, greatly cutting down the effectiveness.

Now that I am in Boston for a few years it is not mandatory. But I do like the look of a quality tint job and in the summer it is still pleasant. My film is 5 years old and it looks just as good as when I had it installed. Also, I have had great experience with FormulaOne metalic films. You will pay a bit for them (probably $250-300 for the job) but it comes with a lifetime warranty. My car has a 35% film which offers basically the same protection as a 20% legal rear window limit, but the tint color is uniform on all windows. Also, try to find a shop that does a single piece film for the rear window so there are no creases. YMMV.



Best,
Rory

[Beez540]

I had mine proffessionaly done (which is the ONLY way to go IMO). They use the metallic film. In my case it was a 3M product and it has a lifetime warranty on peeling, fading, color change, etc. (if you scratch it with your seat-belt buckle thats your problem).

In Oregon the legal limit without a Doctors clearance, is 35% light transmission. So basically I'm letting in no less than 35% of the available light shining on my car. It's also 100% UV protected where the tinting is I believe. Obviously the windshield is not tinted, just the band at the top from the factory.

I think it looks great. It makes a car (especially an E34 or something like it) look so much sleeker, even sportier. I have had little to no trouble with visibility, although I've only had it on for about 2 weeks.

You can get all the information you could possibly want by checking out this site, it has links to state laws, tinting possiblities, materials, process, etc.
Check it out: http://www.tintdude.com/

[632 Regal]

do it yourself and save!

lmao

ever see that? usually on some young kids car, tints peeling off and hanging, bubbles dirt hairs fingerprints lmao...

[rickm]

Saw one today, someone at work bought a fairly trashed Expedition. Not sure WHO tinted the windows but they need to go on some drugs or something (or go off of them). None of the places where the glass and trim met were straight, the cuts remind of of the topo maps I have of the Rockies

[Robin-535im]

I've got really dark tint on my 535, and I'm considering taking if off actually. It makes the car look a little too "bad ass" for my taste - so much so that last week the cops pulled me over for "terrorizing and harassing", when all I was doing was driving aimless circles in a parking lot waiting for my car to warm up. I'll have to post the full story sometime, quite a hoot! I personally wouldn't do it if my glass was clear, for the cost to do it right you could probably get some cool part like new injectors or whatever happens to be broken (brake light sensor, washer level sensor, ballast resistor for aux fan, the list is endless!)

[Beez540]

to have my whole car done by the pros only cost me $200 even.

[Derek A.]

I just put a set of injectors, got a new muffler, repainted my wheels - with the exception of a fresh valve adjustment I don't think there is a whole lot of cool stuff to spend money on. May have to get the windows tinted and add some shadowline trim