I would like some opinions about tinting.

I am replacing the tint that is on my eclipse. It had started to wrinkle real bad, making it impossible to see out of my rear window, and is faded to a purple color. So, I am going to remove the tint (back window and little back-side windows) and take it to a shop to get all windows (except for the windshield of course) tinted. They will put on whatever tint I want.

Now, I would like to try to keep it kinda legal, so what I was thinking was to get the rear window and little back-side windows tinted to 20% and get the side windows 35%, or should I just get all windows at 20%?

Would it look silly with the 35% up front and 20% rear? My car is a '96 black eclipse GS. I would rather have it all one shade, but am afraid I will not be able to see out of the side windows at night if I go 20% all around. Also, I live in MD and as I understand, the tinting law says 35% side windows and pretty much whatever in the rear.

Thnx.

I would go with the 35% for the sides and 20% on the rears (I think that's what I have but I can't remember exactly. Anyhow, I have different tint on the sides than I do on the rear and I think it looks good. Mine is technically illegal but I have never had anyone say anything about it. Nothing like spending $$$ on a tint job just to get pulled over on the way home and have to remove it. Good luck!

If you want to keep it legal I would go with 35% on the sides 5% on the little rear sides and 5% on the rear

ashah000 idea looks best

If you want to keep it legal I would go with 35% on the sides 5% on the little rear sides and 5% on the rear

That's exactly what I'm doing.

well check this out ,i went 35 on the sides and completely blacked out my two small back ones bye double layering those with 5,i did this myself and it came out real good,it takes a long time to get all the windex out with the squeegie,but it only cost me 24 bucks at autozone,and you wont get bubles if you take the time to do it right,for some reason im real good at the do it yourself tint,so thats my tint job,oh ps.if you noticed i didn't mention the rear window,ahhh there is a reason, to do this on my own was going to require me to do it in strips to avoid the rear defrost,so that one is a pain in the ass,sorry for the unusauly long post,cuz most of mine are pretty short,my 2 cents

be like me and put limo on the fronts... and limo+35% on the rear and big back glass... totally legal hehehe :)

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. So most agree that if I do 35% front and %5 rear, that would look pretty good.

So how about visibility at night with 35%, how is it?

Also, I have kept checking around and it seems as though MD tinting laws state that it's 35% all around (not windshield), but if you have a truck/minivan/SUV then, it's ok to have anything on the backs. This sucks, why doesn't this apply to cars as well! I think I might just go with the 35% front and 5% rear and take my chances. Couldn't I make up the excuse if a cop pulls me over, that the front is legal, and the only reason I have the back done dark is because sometimes I take out my rear deck thing, and don't want people peeking in, just like SUV's.

Anyways, anyone have pics of how 35% front and 5% rear looks?

Well i tint windows as a second job and just to let you know, 35% will not interfere with your driving at all. As far as the 5% issue goes, why dont you just go with 2 1/2%, there's not alot of difference between 5% and 2 1/2% but if you want it dark you might as well go all the way. And for the cops, if their anything there like they are in TX they will make you scrape it off on the spot. But where i am stationed at now, i have 2 1/2% all the way around, including the front windows and had it this way for about 6 months now and have never been pulled over. BTW, i wouldn't recommend 2 1/2% on the front, it gets really hard to see at night! LOL. But good luck on whatever you decide.

35% will not interfere with your driving at all.

That is of course if you decide to go with the "black out" look, but if you decide to go with mirror tint, it's a whole differnt story. With mirror tint at night, its the exact opposite of daytime, hard to look out of instead of hard to see in. It actually looks sort of like a mirror form the drivers perspective, but in time you will get used to this as well.

yeah i got 5% all around in my ram and it get very difficult to see at night. Althought i have been pulled over twice since i got it done and cops have never said anything about it.

oh the legal limit here in MN is 50% i think or 45 i cant remember

And for the cops, if their anything there like they are in TX they will make you scrape it off on the spot

Dont they have a little tester with them? When we tinted that POS civic down the street, we were in the driveway in town and they drove by and made us take it off before we even hit the road, now thats fucked up. He wants to fight the ticket because he doesnt know how the cops can tell if its legal just by looking. i think we tinted it 5% on the rear, we didnt even get to the rear quarter windows.

^^^ WTF they gave him a ticket for that fight it you will win. It is just like underbodies.. they can't bother you when you are parked in your driveway.

My avenger has 35% on the front and 15% in the rear. I got the pics in the link in my siginture. Depending on how the light is hitting the car and what angle your looking at it from most of the time you cant even tell that the front and rear tints are diffrent.

35% does reduse visibility a little bit, you can see the diffrence by looking out the wind shield then the side windows. But you can still see ok.

The guys who did mine diddent do it in strips they went right over the deforster and thouse little bumps around the edges (alot of companies dont do those, the paint them black. Or if they do tint over them it bubbles up and looks like crap) The guys who did mine have been tinting windows since the 70's when tint first came out.

Thanks for all the responses, they helped alot. Thanks for letting me see your car Midnight_Outlaw, that really helped me gauge how dark 35% is. What I might end up doing is like 35% on the sides (including the little quarter side windows) and maybe like 15% or 5% in the back. I think I would like it better if the sides were one uniform shade instead of having the little quarters slightly darker.

Now, what I would really like is to have it 5% all around, but do not want to risk getting pulled over, or in the unlikely event of an accident, have someone blame my tint and me being screwed since I didn't obey the law. :banghead:

i'm pretty sure it is 50% +/- 3% in mn. the cops have like a little laser that shines through the window but your window has to be able to go down to measure it.

Well, got the tint put on today. They did an excellent job, if anyone is around the MD area, I got it done at eipTuning. It looks awesome. I finally decided to go with 20% all around. I thought it would be too dark to see out of at night, but that's not true at all, visibility is fine. Looks very nice since my car is black.

got any pictures? you have to have pictures!! you didnt forget about us...right..?




*grabs the knife*

got any pictures? you have to have pictures!! you didnt forget about us...right..?




*grabs the knife*

Haha :p

Cool, i'm glad everything worked out for you.

Here ya go.
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/1170401-med.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/1170402-med.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/1170403-med.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/502/1170404-med.jpg

get you some new rims .... i think you should throw some 18s.....

i Agree with itlsa..wheel gap anyone?..maybe its me. I think you should have gone darker in the back 2 small windows cause those arent illegal no matter how dark you get them. Or is it the light?

Yeah yeah, I know I should get some bigger wheels. That is actually next on my list of upgrades, but as far as the tint in the back goes, I think it is just the way the pictures came out, cuz from most angles, the tint actually looks blacked out. I'm kinda stretching it anyways, since in MD 35% including the back, is what is legal and I got 20%.

i like those rims. what size are they 16 or 17? does anybody know if 2g wheels will fit on a 1g? if you sell them i might be interested, especially if they have good rubber

They are only 16's. I'll keep you in mind if I do decide to go with new wheels.

Technically, even 20% on the rear/side-rear windows is illegal, they just have no way to check it =)

Hope this isn't too late, but really recommend that you look up the car tint laws for your state (http://www.tintcenter.com/laws/). Some states really do allow limo tints on certain windows!

Not to drag you down, but bear in mind that tinting darker than the legal limit for a state may nullify the manufacturers warranty on the window film used. So if you do go less than legal, make sure you get a quality window film with no chance of turning purple or wrinkling, because they will try to find excuses not to redo the job if it goes bad.

You can look up popular window film brands (http://www.tintcenter.com) at this tintcenter.com site.

Best of luck,

harrison


Thanks for all the responses, they helped alot. Thanks for letting me see your car Midnight_Outlaw, that really helped me gauge how dark 35% is. What I might end up doing is like 35% on the sides (including the little quarter side windows) and maybe like 15% or 5% in the back. I think I would like it better if the sides were one uniform shade instead of having the little quarters slightly darker.

Now, what I would really like is to have it 5% all around, but do not want to risk getting pulled over, or in the unlikely event of an accident, have someone blame my tint and me being screwed since I didn't obey the law. :banghead:

Thanks for the heads up, but I had already checked out the laws and in MD (where I live) the darkest legal tint is 35% all around. I went with 20% but oh well, I think it looks great (not too dark and not too light), and the tint comes with a lifetime warranty.

20% all the way around always looks good on any car (except those sanchez rides and stuff - 87 celebrity rollin on '13's - lmao)