Hello, I want to get my windows tinted, but I cannot decide whether or not I should do it myself for $20-30, or have a store do it for $150. How hard is tinting?

 

Tinting is a royal bitch.

I almost felt bad paying the guy $125 to do my windows, as that seemed too cheap for the work involved.

 

Go with a pro, definitely.

Paging CJams...

 

if you do it yourself it's gonna look like crap, and then you'll end up taking it to a shop to have them fix it and it will end up costing you more for them to remove your crap tint job and then install a proper one...

just go get it done at a shop, it's not like it's a shit load of money or anything...

 

If you can do an entire TSX for $30 let me know which film you're using. It cost me more than that and i'm a dealer for a few different manufacturers. You're gonna need at least 4 boxes of the basic "Walmart or Autozone" film which run from $16-20ea. You're also gonna have to do the back window in 2 pieces as well because the film normally isn't wide enough. Then you need another $30-40 in tools including the heat gun.

If you can get it done for $150 then you are lucky as well. I don't touch them for less than $220 and the price is gonna go up a little bit since they take forever to do because of the damn window gaskets that scratch the tint. A TSX would take me 1.5-2hrs to tint if I didn't have to remove door panels and add felt. That adds an extra 1.5 hrs when it's all said and done. The TSX is a super easy car to tint, it just takes forever because of those damn gaskets.

Do not try to do it yourself. Maybe if you blew $900 on an old school civic and were trying to save a few bucks on it, then try it yourself. A vehicles windows make up for about 1/3 of the vehicles exterior appearance. Crappy window tint can make a car look 5 years older than it is. Just pay someone to do it right.

 

Words of wisdom. In a parking lot, you can easily tell who tinted their own windows and who had a shop do it. Don't destroy the look of your car.

 

You make a good point, I'm going pro