Window tinting - windows in or out?

[novadosed]

bought some window tint today, limo black for the rears and thinking of getting a dark smoke for the front. is it best to take the windows out to tint them with the film or is it just as easy doing it with them in?

any more help appreciated as i have never done this before...cheers!

chris

[Nemesis]

The ONLY easy way of tinting windows is:

Windows out. Do it all underwater (in yer bath or summat!?)

Any other way will be hard and probably look gash!

[novadosed]

will i need a sealant to put around the window when i put them back in, or are new seals adviseable?

[CraigG]

old seals will be fine, if you fit them right, youll need a second pair of hands for fitting them.

tinting will be 100times easier out of the car

use loads of water, in a spray bottle, soak the window, and the tinting film,
place the film on the window and soak it again,
use a squeege to remove the water from between the tint and window,
make sure you have plenty water on the side you squeeging, because if its not wet enough, the squeege will tear the tint.
continue adding water and using squeege until there is no airbubbles between the glass and tint.
then trim the edges and seal them with some clear nail varnish, leave the windows to cure in a hot enviroment(boiler cupboard?) for atleast a day before refitting
because of this, id get a spare set of glass from the scrappy, and tint that, doing it with the spare glass will show you how to get the glass out aswell, without risking damaging your own glass

remember and give your windows a good clean before you tint also, cause once the tint is on, you cant clean it :P silly mistake, but sometimes in the excitment to get it done, you forget *whistle*

[novadosed]

cheers matey! gona give it a go tonight. cheers

[novadosed]

here goes!!! post my progress 2nite!! argh

[Ian H]

should be loads easier with the windows out, i done the back ones on my corsa with them in and they dont look THAT bad, just not perfect lol. The very back window is a bitch to do though, at least mine was

[shavenwookiee]

here goes!!! post my progress 2nite!! argh

I'd say if its contoured glass its really important to have a heat gun so that you can shrink the 'fingers' that appear around the edges of the window. Hold it there for a second untill the tint reacts, then use your hard card to flatten it out. Continue with the 2 fingers that then appear either side.

Keep going as the fingers get smaller and smaller.

A good tip is that make sure that when you flatten out the finger, that the new finger (or fingers) appear in a different place to the original one. You want even shrinking, as if you try and heat a finger thats in the same place repeatedly, you will dry the glue and it will never stick to the window again, visa ve, the finger becomes permanant.

Making sure the glass is super clean is another good idea

As well as making sure the knife you use is super sharp.

I wouldnt even bother attempting it if you dont have a heatgun - Will look terrible, and a hairdryer tends not to be enough to make the tint react.

Either way, good luck with it mate

[novadosed]

didnt use a heatgun, 1st one was ****, tried it on my own, it was ok but alot of creases. dad came home, said 'come on i'll give u a hand and try it again, 2nd one.. perfect, 2 cuts about 1.5" long where i pressed too hard, 2nd attempt on 1st window, couple of creases and trimmed a bit too far in so u can see the rubber from the outside but it looks ok, windows were really easy to put in and take out also.

how long does it usually take for all the moisture to dry out as there are still like streaky marks under the tint???

cheers

well chuffed, need to do rear screen and front side windows now

[shavenwookiee]

About 12 hours... make sure those streaky marks arnt *a lot* of water though...

[GSi-R]

The ONLY easy way of tinting windows is:

Windows out. Do it all underwater (in yer bath or summat!?)

Any other way will be hard and probably look gash!

I did my old ones in a kiddie's outdoor swimming pool Worked well.

Got my present tints done professionally @£220

5% rear screen
20% rear doors and rear small window
40% front doors

The higher the %, the lighter the tint.

[shavenwookiee]

I assume thats the amount of light let through then?

[novadosed]

oh well time will tell, passenger side looks really good but drivers side is a nasty area where it looks like its not goin to stick. wait til the morning and see what its like i suppose!

[jimmay]

best thing with tints is to get a pro to do it! i've been a signwriter for 6 years and i still can't get the damn things right!

[novadosed]

the drivers side is ok but the passenger side is quite streaky still so mite give it another go. guna do the fronts soon aswell.

[morphin]

I assume thats the amount of light let through then?

the percentage is the vlt (Visual Light Transference) the higher the % of vlt the more light gets through so high % = faint tint low % = dark tint.

[shavenwookiee]

Well done, only 5 months late.