Help with Window Tinting Before I Tint

Its been a while and I really have not received much help on getting my windows tinted, however I have called every tint shop in my local area and no one has Ceramic Tint. One person says there was problems with it in Germany and it is no longer made, besides being very expensive.

I am told by every tint shop they install metalized tint on the Toyota Prius all the time and they never have any issues with them. Also, one guy told me if it was a concern of mine, I should use Carbon Fiber tint, but it was extreamely expensive, like more than double the cost of metal tint. The brand is Llumar that everyone here is using, there is another brand called Suntek, available, however there are not many people selling the Suntek.

I would appreciate all comments on this from people. Thanks.

 

The Tire Pressure sensors work on a wireless signal (Radio Frequency). Some tints have metal particles in the tint. Metal attenuates Radio Waves or "Blocks" the Radio Signal.

Not to mention that there is the issue with AM radio reception if you have metal tint on your windows as the AM receiving antenna I believe is in the glass. The owners manual in my 2008 says not to use metal tint as this will affect AM radio reception.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Even the Toyota Dealership uses Metalized Tint on the Prius and says it is fine, you won't have any problems but then again, what does a salesman know and I don't think Toyota would have printed that if it was not an issue.

So for now, I roast in my hot car with no tint till I can come up with a solution since there doesn't seem to be any tint in my neck of the woods without metal in it. Ceramic Tint I am told is super expensive and they all tell me its not longer made, none of the tint dealers here sell anything but metal tint or the cheap stuff that has no metal in it but they all say will turn purple in 2-3 years if not sooner.

 

FL only allows the very light tint in the windows and that is worthless as far as I'm concerned. If I have them tint using the darker stuff (non-legal tint), then they will not give you anything in writing not even a receipt and they take only cash payments for that. I'm basically screwed. I just may go with the Carbon Fiber tint. Its the only thing out there that I have found that has no metal in it but man they want between $400 & $600 to do the car in it. It offers slightly less of a heat blocking % than the metal, but only 5%. Still thinking about it. The Metal Tint they will do for $150 give or take.

 

Re: Help with Window Tinting Before I Tint - Finalized

Well, just thought I would post a conclusion to my dilemma. I finally got my windows tinted 2 months ago and had a nice long test of the tint. I wound up using the same brand tint I have used on all of my cars for the past 25 years, Llumar Tint. I used their metal tint on all the side windows and on the back window that has the AM antenna in it, I used their tint that did not have the metal particles in it, and I used the non-metal tint in the front strip that is their limo tint (really dark 5%). I know that the GPS antenna is located on top of the MFD inside the display and it will work with or without metal tint on the front strip, however, it does decrease the signal of the GPS reception. I did not want to cut that down at all. Bottom line, if your in an area w/o metal tint on the front strip where GPS signal is very low, say mountains, then with the metal strip, you will get even lower or no signal. I opted for max signal wherever I am. Also the same is true with the back window and the AM antenna. I listen to AM and do not want to lower my AM receive, so I opted for non-metal there. There is no such thing as Titanium tint other than a blatant name they put on it, nor is there Carbon Fiber (another name for Tint), or Ceramic tint as this is not made any longer due to issues with the process and it IS still metalized particles, not true ceramic. I got this information for 3 different Tint manufactures. I used Llumar ATR15% on my side windows w/metal, the front was ATHR 5%, no metal and the back was ATHR 15% no metal. $150 paid and full Lifetime warranty in writing. So there you have it. That's the way to go!


PS> Forgot to mention, that the amount of heat that my tint keeps out of my car is totally unbelievable! My car used to be 130 degrees in the car w/o tint, 2 days later, though several weeks, it didn't get past 110 in the hot sun. The lame Prius AC system, cooled the car off so much quicker with the tint on the windows. I do notice that the front and back window tint gets much hotter than the sides as it has less solar reflectivity w/o the metal in it, but that is the sacrifice I made for good GPS coverage and 100% perfect AM reception.

 

No, you absolutely MUST use a heat gun to shrink/bend the tint on the rear window. There is just enough curve in the glass to require this.