I'm curious as to how many of you have done the tint job yourself. Since I'm still waiting for Alpine to release the HU I want, I'm thinking of doing the tint job in the meantime.

The one thing I'm worried about is the rear window with all of that dotted whatever the hell it is. I figure the side fronts/rears will be a piece of cake. I'm worried about the rear turning out like sh!t.

Please let me know what you've done and how it turned out. Hopefully I'll be able to get started on it this weekend. I've been quoted $250 to have it done, but I can do it for ~$50 and I get the satisfaction of knowing I've done one more thing myself.

Thanks all.

 

My tinter used black vinyl to cover the dot matrix. It looks great. Vinyl is one of the preferred methods for dealing with the dot matrix. Check out tintdude.com for tips and tinting forums.

Have you ever tinted a car before? It's well worth the money to have it done professionally. You'd don't want to be driving around a 30k car with a ghetto looking tint job

 

have you ever tinted windows before? not as easy as it looks sadly...

 

Here is So. Cal it's about $100 for 5 windows. This is the TRICK that MOST professional tinters us. They get razor blade, they start chipping away the black paint on the dot matrix, this DOES NOT damage the dot matrix, the dot matrix is still on the window, u are just removing the black paint so the tint will stick to it.

My friends owns a tint/alarm shop and this is what he did to my car...it looks like great. No problem whatsoever.

What i recommend, by the tint paper, do it urself....if it turns out good, then great; if it looks like ****, they get it done. If you think you can do it, you probably can.

 

I agree with everyone else. Have it done professionally. One of the big reasons is the quality of the film that is used. The stuff you get at the autoparts store is a cheap piece of film that is sprayed with a dye. Some of the newer stuff these days are actually some kind of weave and the chances of fading are less.

Not to mention, our rear window is at a really tough angle (most are). Also dealing with the dots (as mentioned).
If there are any bubbles, lines, whatever, you'll be upset that you did it yourself and pulling that stuff off can be really easy or can be one of the worst things in the world to deal with.

Also, we got the rear defroster and antenna in that rear window, so it's a pretty pricy window you're playing with. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to shoot down your skill or talent.

Here's a few pics of mine.
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic2/tls/index.html

 

Had it done, wanted the warranty.

He brought the tint right up to the dot matrix and cut it along the bottom. Looks great, no gaps, looks seemless, can't tell that the entire window isn't tinted.

 

Actually, I have tinted a number of cars. My technique getting better with each one. I fully agree that window tinting looks MUCH easier than it is. My main reasons for doing it myself is that I can do it at my pace and I don't have to leave my car with anyone. I'm kind of anal about people touching my stuff.

BTW, you can get the good quality tint online.

Since I'm not sure I want to deal with the whole rear window issue, I may just go ahead and get it done professionally. When I add up all the time it may take to do it properly, it will probably be cheaper to let someone else do it.

Plus, bricot hit the nail on the head.....WARRANTY!

Thanks guys!