Tinting

Oh, nice truck. Can anyone see you inside?

 

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https://madico.com/blog/automotive/...-factory-tinted-glass-aftermarket-window-tint

 

My truck will be 15% so I want to know if you can see at night.

 

Cant really see in unless in direct sunlight. To each their own on night driving. Some people csnt drive with no tint in broad daylight so it's mainly what each individual is capable of

 

True..

 

Oh, one more thing, how will my insurance and inspection sticker will stick ? On the windshield tint?

 

I’d also make sure the brand of film you use is quality. That autozone shit is just that. Also on the windshield, when you heat shrink it, remember the film is directional. It can only be shrunk to the sides of the roll. Don’t use carbon steel blades when trimming anything out either, you’ll scratch the glass. Olfa or nt cutter stainless blades are best.

 

Where do you plan on buying the tint in the first place? If you’re just going with rolls of tint from your local auto parts store, then honestly even if you’re able to successfully tint with them, they’ll provide little to none heat reflection and not really stop the uv rays at all. And I’m not trying to steer you away from attempting to tint your own truck, but with the cheap tint you can buy from the store, they’re honestly harder to work with than the tint you see professional shops using. With cheap tint, the quality is less than sub par, and because of that, they feel like flimsy sheets of parchment paper. They crease very easily and I’ve seen guys who thought it would be an easy task, end up wasting $20-50 on trying it themselves because they had a hard time either with the trim or it creased on themselves, and they ended up taking it to a shop in the end. The windshield on the other hand is a whole different story. Usually how I used to windshields and I’m pretty sure how most shops still do them is once you trim your film to the outside of the window and you transfer it on the inside, you’ll need to use a heat gun for multiple reasons. With cheap tint, you can’t get any pre-stretch off of the tint, and they really don’t handle well under high heat applications like rolls of film at tint shops do.

 

Understood, I am just basically trying to work on project and if it doesn’t comes out the way I want it, I will just throw it away.

 

Yeah I'd definitely suggest a quality film other then the Gila brand n the other cheap stuff. Tinting might look easy but in all if you havent done it before or even hand cut good luck! Higher priced films as mentioned above are able to have heat put to them in order to heat shrink. Also stated above is yes most guys spend around $50 or so to do it yourself when you could've used that 50 to out towards the price of an actual shop doing it. Another factor if where are you gonna install it at, example inside in a garage or outside in a wind tunnel. Even the smallest amounts of dirt or anything else will contaminate the film and itll come out horrible. Watching a video online of someone applying tint is different than actually doing it yourself many factors are in play. It took me quite a few runs at it before I ended up getting what I would call "good" you gotta start somewhere but diving in head first without the help of a friend or someone was has a general idea is not one way to tackle it.


Edit: Heat shrinking if you've never done it is gonna be a task by itself. Especially using a cheap film you'll end up burning a hole right through it before you even know what happened or where you went wrong. As you said it's a project and you're wanting to try it yourself, no better place to start but remember it also comes at a price.

Other than the windshield you might be better off buying a pre cut tint to see if you are able to even install it yourself.

 

If that’s the case, try the back windows first. See how you feel on those, and if you like the way those came out and you have the patience to do it, tackle your door windows. Door windows definitely take more finessing, only because you’re going to constantly be rolling your window up and down. When you start the actual process of applying the film on, remember there’s two parts of the film, the actual film and the clear underlayment to protect the adhesive. When tinting, don’t roll out any more of the clear protective sheet than you have too. Keep it rolled up so you don’t have the adhesive from the tint exposed. The main thing with tinting your own vehicle is having patience. It’s hard to have patience with cheap tint because it’s literally the hardest stuff to work with, but just take your time with it and you’ll end up with some pretty good results. And my personal tip, don’t waste your money on those overpriced “tint solution bottles” they sell at the store. Get you a new spray bottle, some baby shampoo, and just do a 4-1 water to shampoo ratio in the spray bottle. When applying tint, you want your spray solution so be pretty slippery so you can work with your film for a pretty good amount of time. I’ve noticed with those bottles they sell at the store that they’re usually overpriced and they don’t have enough soap in them to provide ample work times, so you’ll be spraying through a whole bottle before you’re done with your truck.

 

Very good idea, thank you very much

 

Let’s stop saying factory tint. There is no such thing. The trucks come with factory privacy glass or they don’t(which is not a film it’s tinted glass) If they have tint film on them it was done at the dealer by a third party.

 

Thanks Captain Pedantic!

 

Anytime! Must have have taken out your thesaurus.

 

Not everyone is stuck at a 3rd grade reading level.

 

If you dont mind me asking how much does ceramic tint normally cost?

 

Does anyone know how to wire these Led strip with sequential turn signals?

 

It was like $450 for the entire truck. Lifetime guarantee. That’s was a few years back. I’ll call my tint shop tomorrow and post current price tomorrow, just so folks have an idea.