I'm thinking about doing some tinting to the windows on my M3 (primarily interested in heat/UV rejection). In California, there are severe restrictions on how much tint can legally be applied to front passenger/driver side windows and the windshield. In order to determine what tint can legally be used, one needs to know the visible light transmission prior to any tinting (i.e. just the factory glass). Has anyone found a reliable spec for this or measured it with a VLT meter?
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Has anyone measured the Visible Light Transmittance (VLT) on M3 windows pre-tint?
- Thread starter The805
- Start date
Take your car to a local tint shop and ask them to measure it. Then they can advise you on what to do.
I just had 30% tint done on my front windows and 50% on the rear windows.
That was my hope, but surprisingly the local tint shop didn't have a VLT meter which is why I started the thread. I would expect 30% tint (70% VLT) on the front windows isn't actually legal in California. It looks like the law states on the front windows you must have a total of 70% visible light transmission and that includes the combination of the window tint plus whatever the tint is in the factory windows (and it's clear that the factory front windows have some tint). I might have to break down and buy a VLT meter...
The factory glass is 81% VLT. When we apply 35% STEK ACTION tint the final VLT is 25% FYI.
Thanks @MetropolitanDetail, this is the info I was looking for. That means in California we can only use a film like Llumar Air 90 or 3M Crystalline 90 on the front side windows if we want to stay legal.
