I recently purchased a silver 1998 3.2TL, and wanted to tint the windows. As you've probably noticed and maybe experienced, the 96-98 TL's have the "dots" on the back windshield that cover a good amount of space. I hated the job they did so i had them re-do it with the "dot vinyl" which is supposed to cover up the problem. It looks good from the outside now, but i can't get used to the dark strip of electrical tape that covers the top 6 inches of my rear windshield. Is there another way around this that they can put the tint over this without the "dot vinyl" and without making it look really crappy with bubbles catching in between the dots? Thanks.

 

quote: "Is there another way around this that they can put the tint over this without the "dot vinyl" and without making it look really crappy with bubbles catching in between the dots? Thanks."

--unfortunately, no. BUT the second time the tint was done, i went with 20% refective. 3M Lumar. i noticed much less of the distortion(sp?). i think the solution lies within the skill of the installer. i have also seen cars that do not tint that part of the rear glass.

--i wonder if removal of the dots is possible? maybe scraping the stuff off with a razor blade? how about some kind of thinner. the dots seem to be "painted" onto the glass......anyone?

aloha.........

 

when I did my tint job, the folks at Ziebart advised me not to put the tints over that layer.
They said that the dots would cause the tint to bubble and peel away from the window. I didn't pursue it but I was worried about how "non-seamless" it would look in comparison to my other tinted cars.

I wouldn't advise scraping anything off because the radio antenna and parts of the defroster is integrated in those dots.

I have seen some TLs with Tints over the entire window area so I guess that some folks have some
success with tinting over that band. I have seen more people with the band NOT tinted over so take that for what it's worth.

 

My car was tinted with the band not tinted. That bugged me for a little bit at first, but I'm use to that now. It doesn't look so bad.

 

i got mine tinted with 20% and the guy did a hell of a job cause there arnt any bubbles in that section it looks nice

 

like turboTL said, it lies with the skill of the installer...