Tinting film

[bigmastif]

well done bro, if your happy then dont matter what others think, they look good to me, but i aint a limo fan personally

[d&d plumbing]

Anyone know what the light transmission limit is on front windows? (I have clear glass currently)

[johny transit]

30 or 35% I think - but sometimes it's specified as what gets stopped, and sometimes as what gets let through, so 70% has to get through I think, bit confusing when you are buying film

[chubba676]

ULTRA LIGHT SMOKE - 50% LIGHT BLOCK WITH 99% UV RESISTANCE is the lightest and not considered road legal either

[bigmastif]

the law is 70% of light to pass through the side windows, and 75% for the windscreen, anything after the b pillar you can go as dark as you want

[TheSaint_Norway]

Well in the end I decided to order some Max Power stuff - if only for the fact that at least it is a brand you see around a lot, thus if any good I could use it in future and if no good avoid. However, the stuff the shop have actually sent is "Urban X Solar window film" and I am not best pleased as I really want to get on. On examination this stuff appears thicker than the small offcut of good stuff I had from a shop, but not quite as thick as the rubish stuff I had off ebay. I don't think it's a quality film at all, does not look as even when you scrutinise it so undecided wether to use or return it.
On a similar note, I have noticed that the side windows I intend to fit, have a slight compound curve on them, which is what makes applying the film tricky for us amatuers (bizzarely the glass that slides is compound curved, not seemingly the fixed bit, according to my straight edge anyway). So, having seen the use of a heat gun on high setting I am wondering wether to try a bit of heat shrinking (shrinking to the outside with backing still on, before fitting to inside, as per the pros). What are the chances of cracking the glass with heat? On the really excellent video I saw of this, the guy managed not to melt the film, or the window rubber, or peel the paintwork, or crack the glass (he was working with windows in situ), it looked easy enough but then it always does when you see the pros.

Just tougth i should mention this i have been tinting windows as a professional for some years now. Even thoug am actually a car reconditioner. My favorit brands of tint film is: Johnson, 3M and SunGuard. But i have also done tinting with cheep stuf. (Not as a pro.) The biggest difference betwen the pro films and the ebay stuff is the qality. Pro film still have the same tint collour after 5+ years. And pro film is a lot easyer to work with. I would not recomend using a heat gun on ebay films. Since many of them will be discolloured. I shrink tint film with my heat gun at 680 celsius. And I use two heat guns taped together. So I can heat a large aria fast and even. If you heat up a very cold window it can crack. So I always wait until the car has the same temprature as the room I work in. Or do it in the summer. The tint film shrinks wery fast so melting rubber or peeling paint would not be a problem even for amaturs. But keep in mind not melting the film. Transit windows is so little curved that I usualy dont shrink the film. Since good qality film will stretch a litle when you aplay it. (In temprature 20+ celsius or more.) Hope this can be of help for any of you wanting to tint youre own windows.

When it comes to regulations i do not know for GB. But here in Norway its illegal to tint front side windows and windscreen. The reason for this is that you should be able to breake the front side windows if you drive in to water. But I have actually tinted front side windows on police cars. So who realy cares about whats illegal? Just dont make them to dark. Good luck with youre tinting.