I’m sorry it was months ago and I can’t quickly find it. I’ll try to look for it and post it. They guy went around the car with some kind of heat meter to test all the windows with/without tint IIRC.
Sorry, but I don't know why the picture are showing sideways.. But here it is with 70% windshield, back windows, trunk lift gate, 20% front windows and roof. The same as model 3 we have.. It's a must.. We did a road trip to Maine from NJ without the tint and I could def feel the difference in heat and UV rejection! My arms were burning up in the model Y but I've never felt that in my model 3 with the tint all around.
could you let me know what the % means exactly? 20% means transparent light 20% or 80%? Thanks for your help.
Visible light transmission (VLT). The higher the VLT percentage is, the lighter the tint will be. 80% would mean 80% of visible light is passing through the window and it essentially would look clear. 20% would be 20% of the light is passing through and the rest is being absorbed/blocked and the tint will be fairly dark. If your interior is dark (black) then 20% looks VERY dark, if the interior is very bright (white) then even the 20% looks moderate and you can see the inside of the vehicle.
Its funny how after getting good tint (Xpel XR Prime Plus 35 from and 70 all other glass) I suddenly notice the IR heat from the front windshield. I thought of a very light windshield tint, but in AZ is guaranteed you will be replacing a windshield due to rocks within a year. So financially, not a good investment.
I lived in AZ for 5 or 6 years and never had to replace a windshield... in fact we still have one of those cars now in WA and it's been another five years with the same windshield. Get a 70 or 80% on the windshield and then just leave more follow distance between you and the cars/trucks in front of you.
Depends on your insurance. I've had the windshields tinted on my last 8 or so cars and had the windshields replaced on two of them, both times USAA covered getting them re-tinted.
What percentage tint did you do for the glass roof and how did it turn out? I’m out here in la too digging the way your car looks and might have to check out the same shop.
If you live in an area with temps over 90, it gets plenty of heat transfer through the roof. Big difference once I tinted. Now I may not use the window shade I bought.
I get that but the sunshade I got off Amazon also has a reflective insert. Living in SoCal we get plenty of hot days but I just found it cheaper to have the sunshade versus the cost of tinting. Plus, I have a 2 month old and tint wouldn’t be enough to get the sun out of her eyes. I also didn’t want to change the panoramic view for when I’m not using the shade. Ceramic tinting creates reflections in all my cars.
Do you have any more shots of your car in different lights? I'm considering the same thing and wondering if 30 is too much for me.
I can say that I have “20%” which is actually 24% VLT on the front and 70% (71% VLT) on the rear and the front and rear now almost look the same with the back being slightly darker. 30% would be a decent amount lighter than the rears.
I did XPEL ceramic all around. 55% roof, 70% windshield/rear windows and 15% front windows. I wanted a uniform look from the side and lite coverage looking out. I'm happy with the results
Thanks for that. I think the back is pretty dark and as much as I'd like the uniform look, I want god visibility at night and just want to get away from the current look of crystal clear up front and black in the back - I have black interior on the blue point so the back windows look totally black to me.
Good point! I have white, which changes the way the tint looks considerably! I feel like I have good visibility in the front, but I do notice a darker look at night. Previous to the Y I had a 3 that I tinted with XR+ 35 (38% VLT) and felt like you could see right in without any problems. If you opened the door and looked at the sky you could tell the glass was tinted, but with the door closed it almost didn’t look tinted at all. You probably want 35% to 45%. All ceramic tints are going to do a great job with heat reduction, even the 70%+ almost total clear ones, so if it doesn’t get totally the right shade for you’re liking, at least temperature wise you won’t have a problem. You also might be able to ask they just tint one wind first and let you swing by and look at it. I don’t know how hard fresh tint is to remove, but I do know it’s removable. Could be that you’re only out a couple hundred bucks if you need to change that first window before getting the other one done. (Still highly recommend getting the rears and windshield done with 70%+ though for heat rejection!)
The only time I have visibility issues (my pics are somewhere earlier in this thread) with my tint are on poorly lit streets. Otherwise, I think it is fine.