neubs

Sforfun

neubs

mplsbrian

Sorry for the long delay, here's a pic of what I ended up doing: 35% Suntek CXP on everything except the windshield.

Because the windshield is not tinted the car looks lighter depending on which angle you view it from: notice the difference looking through the rear glass (and the rear passenger window behind it) vs. the front driver glass (and untinted windshield behind it.)

If they had a 40% option I would have absolutely done that, but the tint shop I had chosen only offered this film in either 50 or 35 and while I initially had plans to go with 50, it seemed too light on some example cars in their lot and they did a very good job of talking me into the darker option on the spot. No issues with police yet, though I don't really put myself in positions to encounter them if I can help it. The inner city cops where I live have much higher priorities than pulling over late-model, freshly washed, otherwise-unmodified-and-unoffending Audis for a tint check but I am told that Edina police (known for being an extremely snooty full-of-themselves NIMBY suburb and home to terribly uninteresting people) are ruthless about such things.

That said, the heat rejection alone is so excellent and so worth it that I'm now thinking about tinting the damn windshield with something really light but that will reject some heat.

Price installed was $329. Took about 1.5 hours, they had a couple people tag-teaming it.

Minor issues worth noting:

1. There is a bit of chromatic aberration (the rainbow effect) when viewing reflective surfaces (such as other cars' windows) through the tint while wearing polarized sunglasses. I know most of you have ditched polarized shades due to the HUD anyway but it is something worth noting and something I should have asked about/asked to sit in a tinted car with my sunglasses to check out. The aberration was rather pronounced during the first week and has diminished quite a bit as the film has cured over the past month or so I've had it on. I'm due to get new sunglasses anyway so not a big deal, though.
2. On the rear window, due to the raised defroster lines on the glass, any tint film has to go over those lines and this causes the film to not sit uniformly flat against the glass -- and this means a little bit of distortion of whatever you're viewing out the rear window. This is unavoidable with tint, but is going to be more of an issue the thicker the tint is. I'm glad I didn't go with an extremely thick tint like Crystalline as I suspect the distortion would be rather bad. (Side note, there's only one installer in town that even offers Crystalline and they charge over five hundred bucks to do a small sedan like mine with it, not including windshield: it is a good product but an absolute bitch to work with and install, I'm told, due in part to its thickness and reluctance towards stretching.)

PGrefal

looks good Brian, i'm thinking twice about the installer i had contacted to do tints cause they are charging more of a premium 500+ for the cxp and 600+ for cir. It was just convenient because they work out of the same place that i'm also having PPF done. Were you able to notice the heat rejection immediately? Is it that good like let's say after leaving it out under the sun for a couple hours?

mplsbrian

That seems like 2x what it should cost. I would call around and confirm this is the case, and if so pass on this installer but tell them exactly why. If it was 10-20% more that is one thing but 2x what everyone else here is paying is a deal breaker and an "I don't really want to do your car but you can pay me to say yes to it" quote; even if they are able to price match I personally would assume they may be less motivated to do a good job on your car after knowing you price-shopped them and they cut you a "discount" to match a competitor.

The heat rejection is indeed immediate, but it isn't like you are thinking: if your car is parked in the sun for 2-3 hours on a hot day it is going to be 140+ degrees inside no matter what but where tint helps is that it will take 2-3x longer to reach that temperature, and your A/C will have to work 2-3x less hard to keep it at 72 degrees or whatever once you turn the car back on and it works the initial heat out. It also blocks UV so your dash/leather/rear headrests/left arm/etc is far more protected from sun-related damage, cracking and fading, etc if your climate is like this every single day for months on end.

PGrefal

did i forget to mention that those prices included the windshield? would that make it a better deal?

mplsbrian

It would make it a better deal definitely but I don't know if it brings it into "good deal" territory. The windshield is certainly the largest and most difficult piece of glass to tint properly but I don't know what it "should" cost especially with the driver assistance cams / HUD screen / center speakers that I assume they have to work around and take cares to avoid getting wet.

I guess at the end of the day if you like the price/convenience of the option you're being offered and trust the installer will do quality work, then do it and if you don't, don't. There's not necessarily a wrong answer.

Sforfun

ghostrider990

Quick bump for those running their RD's up high near the RV mirror: have any of you installed a windshield tint strip to help hide the unit??
Or for that matter, have any of you with tinting simply installed a highmount strip??

I'd like to be able to run my RD a bit more stealthy-like up near the mirror, from both outside (front) and behind when seen through the rear window.

Another added benefit would be to reduce the transferred heat/uv to the unit itself, by installing a tinted strip on the high part of the windshield.
I've done a bit of research over on the RDF forums, and the concensus it, that many of the better tint films that don't have any metallic content, will not interfere with signal
throughput to the RD unit.

Anyone? Pics??

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