FAQ: Window Tint Info

thank you

im from MN also. grand rapids area and you can get it done for 100 bucks..

I love My Tint, At night backing out my driveway is a pain in the ass since there is no lights so its blacker then black

I just spent about 2 hours with a razor and adheasive remover removing the tint from my rear passenger windows. It's just not necessary and it doesn't look very good to me.

Suggestion for those going to get your windows tinted: Take all the trim and paneling off that's in the way yourself before you bring it, especially if you're getting it done cheap. Tint that stops before the visible edge of the window doesn't look very good.

2x on the backing out issue. Our rear visibility isn't great to start with. With any moderate tint, the back window is useless at night - just a warning. Only good thing is it helps keep bright lights behind you out of your face.

Wow, that's just you guys. I have no problems backing up at night at all and I have very dark tinted windows. Every car I've driven since I started driving has had dark tinted windows so maybe I'm that much more for the better. Non-tinted cars are absolutely hideous and I will never own a car that doesn't have tinted windows. No need for every fuckwad with a truck/SUV who comes up behind me at night to be able to light my insides up so everyone around me can see.

Some people might like being blinded and shit by those lights, I don't. I've always thought the Riv was very easy to back in/up, again just you guys who have that problem. No offense but as much as I've heard people complain about how hard their cars are to drive (i.e. Tauruses and the like), it's damn pitiful. You can't tell me at 18 I'm that much better at parking than people who are older than me - and I'm not trying to brag. The longer you drive, the better you should drive (Until a certain point where you're too old). I could back in and drive a Crown Vic or Impala SS/Caprice like nothing if I had one. Just take me a few weeks to get used to it.

It's not really a matter of yours vs our god-given ability to see through opaque surfaces. It's the type of driveway. Your driveway is something like mine where its more than a lane wide and there is space to see things on either side, and it's not 2 busses long. In my driveway, I have no problem. In my 2nd homes driveway, however, which is sandwiched between two buildings and then bushes and stuff everywhere except for the actual sidewalk, no street lights, and a high frequency of children and animals going down the sidewalk even at night, it's a problem. It's all dependent on the situation. I rarely have problems but there is a time here and there where the rear window is useful.

It's very easy to drive a car tinted. It's very easy to drive a car with a blind fold on too. The complaint is about how much effort and care is required to drive the car safely and most of us don't need the extra barriers.

I don't know why you wouldn't want to be seen in such a fine automobile, Shintsu.

Our driveway is a double wide so yes, it has plenty of room. I've still had to park in some pretty narrow areas and had no problems. In fact, had quite a fun challenge driving through the boonies yesterday to pick up a receiver for the living room. We brought the GPS and it so conveniently directed us towards the highway and right to the train tracks which had a train that was totally stopped on it. That was a fun 15 minute wait...

Regardless, it's not about not wanting to be seen in it - I'd roll my windows down if I wanted people to see me. I like the privacy of no one else knowing what I look like. I'm sure I piss people off regularly and I look over at other people driving all the time. I would hate for them to take my looks as interest when it is expressing great distaste towards them or their vehicle. When I was in the truck, I wanted to look over at these people standing around a few spaces over but with no tinted windows they would've seen me and judging by the type of people they were, they looked like the "You got a problem!?" type - tinted windows they don't know I'm looking at them.

Still, I have no extra effort when backing the car up at night or day. I figure it's best to learn how to drive big cars first. After that, anything smaller is even easier to drive. If I were to drive a Civic hatchback now, I'd have a pure breeze driving it but I can still drive a big car well.

Quote :

Non-tinted cars are absolutely hideous and I will never own a car that doesn't have tinted windows. No need for every fuckwad with a truck/SUV who comes up behind me at night to be able to light my insides up so everyone around me can see.

Hmm. Why don't some cars come with stock tint? Are the automotive designers unaware that all of their cars are ugly due to lack of tint?

I cannot remember the last time an SUV or any other vehicle came up close to my rear bumper at night. I almost never let anyone behind me get close behind me. I leave them in the dust. Besides, the Riv comes with auto-dimming rear view mirror to correct situations like that. In the daytime, I wear sunglasses.

I'm thinking either 20 or 35%. What do you guys think? I'm leaning towards 35 as I think that would be a little more subtle. The Regal has 20 and it is DARK.

I have 35% but watch out for the police!!!

Here in OH the window tint law is 70% visibility for the front windshield, and 50% visibility for all other windows. Plus or minus 3%.

Something I'm unclear on with tint is, when you guys say "I have 35% windows." Does that mean it's 35% visibility, or 35% opaque?

uno and i have allways done 20% on our call cars. i think its perfect. dark enaf for not seeing so good inside car. and can see very good out.
95% and so on are just same as paintign the window whit black color lol...

and i meaned that for back window and back side windows. in Finland and in estonia side front an windsheald are not allowed to be tinted atall.

I like 35% the best.

I had a shop who did 10% I believe on a black Probe GT I owned (Eric, it was CWC I believe in Plainfield) and it was too dark. I had a brow done and at night I was always ducking to see under it.

This would be for the side windows and rear window. I want to do the same % all the way around. After looking at my Regal again today, I'm beginning to fall in love with the darker tint shade again. I think that would look best on a black car.

A better question would be: does anyone have a pic of tint on their black Riv?

I would love to remove the tint that was put on my rear window. I have the tint remover spray and stuff. Am I going to have a problem with the defroster? Is there any good way to deal with it?

turtleman wrote:

I would love to remove the tint that was put on my rear window. I have the tint remover spray and stuff. Am I going to have a problem with the defroster? Is there any good way to deal with it?

WD40 let it soak on for 20 seconds than wipe er' off

tinted windows come in handy when ur changing clothes or doing other things in a car ;-)

xxxneeduwhenicry wrote:

tinted windows come in handy when ur changing clothes or doing other things in a car ;-)

lol

Ok this is how it went for me on the back window. Once I got a little area that I could start peeling away, The whole sheet came up in about one piece. It had a tendancy to start to tear while I pulled it but you can work that out as you go. It took about 1-2 minutes to get the actual tint off. From that point I had pretty much an entire window full of adhesive. The crappy tint remover stuff I had did nothing to it at all. (this stuff was deionized water and amonia or something) I used 3M spray adhesive remover to soak into it and then went at it with a hard-ish bristle brush. With a little scrubbing, the adhesive all comes up and basically turns into boogers. From there, I sprayed more adhesive remover at it and wiped it really good with paper towels to pretty much pick up all the shit. It's best done in sections because the adhesive remover does dry up after a short while. It's a slightly messy, moderately uncomfortable process to do the whole back window but that technique works decent. There doesn't appear to be any damage to the defroster elements but I don't know how I could test it in 80* weather.

In retrospect, I spent a lot longer removing the tint from the rear side windows using the same adhesive remover and a razor and my hands hurt more after that so this wasn't terrible. The 3M stuff has a moderately unpleasant scent to it, of course, but it goes away fast enough, unlike some of the other adhesive removers like goo gone (strong citrus scent).

Just wondering if anyone else has tried to tint there Riv? I bought pre-cut tint offline and boy oh boy let me tell you DON'T BOTHER TRYING IT! Man what a PITA. The windows are just to big IMO. I even heat shrank all the windows with no luck. Just a heads up for those who are thinking of trying it themselves.

is there an official window tint thread somewhere here on the forums? if so can someone please direct me with a link please..

last time i did a search, i found a couple threads here and there. but nothing solely of showcasing everyone's tint. unless i may have missed it.

if not, can you please post up pics of your Riv with tint and state the %

I did 5% all around. So far I got $20 into it and it makes it look awesome. Just buy a heat gun for $20

Looks really good Shawn, subtle but noticeable. Not to hijack the thread but I'd love to see more pics and info on that hood scoop...

20% on mine. Any darker and it would be a bitch to back up at night.

Derek wrote:

Looks really good Shawn, subtle but noticeable. Not to hijack the thread but I'd love to see more pics and info on that hood scoop...

hood scoop? i cant see it?