Hi guys, this might be a very silly question, but I'd like to put tinted windows on my car, which is white, and I believe would look awesome, but I am concerned that for the extreme heat in florida, after a while, some bubbles could appear, or maybe part of the tint could peel off, and if that happen, how easy would be to take it off without breaking for example the defrost lines on the rear window.

does anyone know about this and can give me an idea of legal %'s of tinting and how safe it is for the windows?

also, I have a radar detector, and I was told that it loses a lot of reception with tint, does anyone know if that is true?

Thanks for the answers!!

also, does anyone know who will do it really good here in central florida?

Patan.-

PS: sorry about the caps on the title.

 

First of all a tinter that I can resommend whole heartedly is: Flying Window Tinters at 407 N. US Hwy 17/92 in Longwood, FL. 407-695-8468, across the hwy from Cory Fairbanks Mazda in a small strip mall.
There are other tinting places that use the name Flying Window tinters, but they are not the same.
I have had 4 cars tinted by them over the last 10 years and none of the tint faded or bubbled. I also live in Orlando. There are different grades of tint, and all the ones they handle are made by Lumar. My son took his car to another tinter by the same name on East Colonial ( of course he didn't ask the ol' man) and they did a crappy job when they put tint over the dot matrix area of the rear window. It had bubbles and looked bad. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

A good grade of tint will protect your interior and also acts like a safety glaze by holding broken glass together in a crash or some one breaks the window to get inside. There are different types of tint; dye tints and a new, more expensive ceramic tint. Most good dye tints have a metallic element in them and some have been known to interfere with modern GPS, electronics and such. The new ceramics do not have any metal in them. Flying Window tinters on 17/92 and the manufacturer warranty the ceramics to never fade. I had my 2005 Mustang GT done there last January with the ceramic tint and it is beautiful .

A word to the wise about legal tints. Ask for the legal tints, they know what is legal and what is not. Here's how you can tell whether an installed tint is legal or not: The customer will get a written warranty from reputable tinters that will be honored anywhere that brand is sold in the U.S.. If the installer only gives you their business card as the warranty and tells you to bring the business card back if you have a problem, they installed illegal tint. It's all about the paper trail. Trust me on this one, I know this as true.

Also Florida State Law requires the installer put a destructable vinyl type sticker on the left door post stating the type of tint used and the installer's name. No sticker, not legal. Hope this helps. By the way, I paid about $235.00 for my Mustang to be tinted. Buy quality the first time. It's cheaper than buying poor quality, then paying agin when it destructs.

 

Get tint from a reputable shop with a lifetime warranty and you don't have to worry about it long-term. Ask your dealer to recommend someone, or if you're willing to pay extra... leave your car w/ your dealer and they'll have someone come there and do it for you, your dealer should back up their warranty as well.
Legal tint in FL is 30% up front, and 15% in the back.

Edit: That's what I got, and it's perfect IMO.

 

I have lived in H3ll (aka Phoenix) for the past 23 years and have never had a problem with tint fading or bubling from the heat. Any tint shop will know what the legal limit is and the install shouldn't take more than about 2 hours.

 

I thought here in FL, it's 28% up front and 15% in the back

 

Let me get this straight, I post to help the guy out, and you want to roll eyes at me about 2 freakin' percent?

Guess what, if you put on 30 over your stock glass, which is already tinted, you're going to be down to 28%.

 

My question for you folks who have tinted. . .

How has the tint held up agains the glass wipers in the doors? I heard some folks had issues with the factory glass seals scratching the tint.

Any problems like that? With a convertible, my windows will be up and down a lot.

 

I've got just one little scratch, but it's right up past the mirror, so it doesn't bother me. That's it for me, but others have had bigger issues.

 

John, thanks for that feedback. Anyone else with a tint who can chime in?

 

I would like to know if there is any truth to this as well. Can one of you enlighten us? Thanks.

 

Hey, thanks a lot Bill, and the others that gave me all this info.

Do this guys know you as a friend so I can tell them you referred me to them?
I will go see them in the next couple of weeks maybe, that ceramic tint was 235 bucks?
do they have life time warranty there??
Thanks a lot guys.

PS:
does anyone have a nice perf white tinted to see how it looks?

 

I had mine tinted last November, initially I had no problems. I read in the forum about others who had and went back and had felt added to the rubber. Then about May of this year I noticed small scratches. Within a month they were big scratches. Went back to the tinter who added the felt and re-tinted them. So far so good, he did mention that on hot days be careful rolling them up and down alot as sometimes he has seen the adhesive from the felt give way and make a major mess on the window. Does anyone know if Ford has changed the molding on the '06 or late production '05's?

 

I also had the best grade Llumar film installed on mine and it never scratched on my 05. I have an appointment with the same place tomorrow morning to get mine done on the 06.

 

does anyone know if taking the tint away from the rear window will actually break or possibly damage the defroster lines???

 

Well, I went today to get them done to the place on 1792 in Longwood.

I am very satisfied so far, they look awesome, I can also say that the ceramic tints, look a little different than the regular ones, I am no expert, but you can see a little bit of difference, and also, they don't bother the radar detector functionallity( good news for people with r. detectors.)
I paid 249 + tax and they installed for free the soft tissue to avoid scratching the tint.
I also got the legal ones like I was recommended, I believe 35 on front, and 15 on rear.
with these tints I also have lifetime warranty, so that is an extra, and I believe it worth the extra money.

I'll post a few pics tomorrow, it looks really good!!!!

Patan.-

 

I too had my windows tinted at Flying Window Tinters on 17-92 last month and would recommend them.

 

Try this!!

http://www.autowindowtintings.com///tintDemo.ihtml

My April 05 built car has no issues with Llumar window tint installed (no scratches, bubbles, etc).