john46992

Can anyone in the Va./DC area recommend someone/place for window tint? I live near Tysons Corner. What would be a good % for a Blk/Blk? Any laws on the max %? I want to customize my TL, but not a pimp ride. What do you guys have for Blk/Blk? Thanks

yosarian

If you don't mind driving a bit, there is California Tint in Sterling. The guy who runs the shop is extremely helpful and was willing to answer all my questions, even my obnoxious follow up ones. I was looking specifically HuberOptik's Ceramic tint because it is supposed to be better at keeping the interior cooler, however it is more expensive.

In Virginia, the % are 50% in the front and 35% in the rear. The percentages are for the minimum amount of light that must pass through them.

% is only one factor of what would be good for tint. There are many color and shade choices. A good shop should be able to give you samples to compare for your car as well as be willing to provide you with photos of their work. (Who wouldn't like to brag about their work?)

Becareful regarding darkness and % of tint. The police in NoVa are notorious for stopping folks looking for tint violations. Hell, even if you are legal they stop you just to bust your chops.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

john46992

Thanks for the info. I actually live in Sterling, so I'll check out Calif. Tint. What's the rule of thumb for front/back/sides? Seems like most folks get at least half of the tint % for front/back compared to the sides. How did you do yours- if you don't mind? Thanks

daf9919

California Tint in Bailey's Crossroads did my 06 TL NBP, they did a good job. 35% rear 35% side windows, but they closed. Radley Acura did my 07 TL-S NBP so far so good. Yosarian is correct about the cops in NoVa can be a pain.

Alexanda, Arlington, Prince William they just love to creep up on me and follow me
right out of the county, but none of them have pulled me over YET.

TriniBwoy

Not sure how you feel about driving out to Rockville, MD, but Winners is the place to go! They will actually tint the entire rear quarter windows and remove the third brake light before tinting the back window. I haven't had a chance to post pics of my car on this forum with the tints, but check w/ Darksom1 and Anansi for more details. You can't go wrong with them...Winners in Rockville, MD!

yosarian

NP. After I posted I realized I had neglected to mention the rear. In Va the law is 50% front / 35% sides /35% rear. If you have a spoiler or wing or something that has a third brake light other then the one in your back window, they can cover it with tint. If the one in your back window is your third, legally they can't cover it over and instead will need to cut around it.

While I understand the reasoning, I hate the fact that there is a difference between the front and the rest of the car. However, there is a legal workaround.
If you go up to the VA DMV site and do a search on "tinting" or something along those lines, you can get a medical waiver for a reduction in the tint percentages. A doctor would have to sign it and then the DMV would process it and would give you a new registration with the medical waiver info on it, before you have the tint job done. In theory, the waiver info would also be put into the police database so when they call up your plates, it would show you have a waiver. However, this wouldn't keep them from stopping you for something else and then taking their time to make sure you tint was up to snuff.

As for me, I was going to do it earlier this summer, but then suffered a cash crunch so I couldn't then, and I thought that by now, it wouldn't make a difference. Then we had 100 degree days around here.

When I do have it done (next April. Happy Birthday to me!) I will get the waiver first and then get 40% all around. I would like it to look even and not scream "pull me over please."

I am still going to go with the ceramic vs the metallic because I have read that on my 03 TL, we have the nav antenna in the rear deck underneith the third brake light, that metallic tint messes with the nav signal. (Some say it does, some says it doesn't.) Some have done metallic for the front and sides and then ceramic for the rear. That is a tricky proposition since it is tough to match blacks and with a black/black car like yours, getting tint to make your car look good will be tough, but not impossible.

I will dig up the email address for the owner and PM it you. Or if you want, drop me an email and I will fwd it along to you.

FiveLiterCheater

How much is a basic tint job there?

TriniBwoy

I can't remember exactly, but I think it was like $240.00 or something

john46992

Thanks for the inf Yosarian. I went to Calif. Tint yesterday. You're right- the guy was helpful and informative with my questions. He did the heat lamp test with 3 grades they sell and the ceramic was superior as far as heat deflection. He said 99% of customers get 30% all around. He quoted the ceramic for $520.00 and the basic metallic for $240.00. I'll go with the ceramic. I'm still not sure if I will go with 30% all around- I'm going to look and ask more questions- If I see a TL with what I am looking and have the opportunity, I'll ask the owner what he has. I'll post when I learn more.

theklassic

If you're making the trip to Rockville why not save some cash.

Check out my details and group rates:

https://acurazine.com/forums/sponsored-sales-group-buys-10/window-tinting-clearshield-group-rate-dc-md-va-driven-dynamics-372723/


And we definitely tint the quarter windows!

theklassic

John, just some friendly advice from someone who actually owns a tint shop; $520 for tints is rediculous. I hope other members can chime in here...

For comparison my shop offers both metallic and carbon based films - our most expensive tint job is never more than $350. The carbon based film is a competing product to ceramic and offers the same benifits and is considered our top of the line product. I also have pricelists for ceramic rolls as well and the difference from manufacturer to manufacturer ranges around 10 to 30 bucks.

Forget the fact that I own a shop. My basic advice here is be mindful and shop around. Check out some other shops before dropping that cash.

No film is worth 520 a car.

Good luck!

psheu

OMG.... where are you guys coming up with all these $500 tint job? that's too much of a rip off.... with that money, I can have few cars tinted over and re-tinted.... have those ppl come down to South Florida to learn how to tint without removing any panels/parts and still do a perfect job on a tint (the Hispanic ppl really knows how to modify cars and give a good tint job ). down here $80, and this is an average cost (some even go cheaper). with this price, you can select any % of tint you want with life time warrenty (any bubble, fade, crack, or anything you can find wrong. take it in and they'll do it over for free ). IMO, that's just rediculous how much they're charging to tint the car. than again, maybe I missed read the thread and they're tinting the entire bus, house, or a building.

yosarian

Everyone does what they want. Personally, I think that many of the mods that people do here are a waste of money, but it's your car and your hard earned dollars, so do what you want, I am not one to judge or ridicule.

I have found that you get what you pay for with things, be it goods or services. Will I do it at that price? Probably. Will I do that and some other mods I find distasteful or unnecessary to me? No.

The pricing of this service is simple economics. If there is a good or service is priced at X and there is low or no demand at that price, then a business (or individual) will lower the price to meet the threshold for the demand or go out of business due to a lack of sales.

This also applies to demand being greater then supply. This firm is the only in the area who sells this brand of a certain type of film, which there is a demand for in the area, ergo, he will charge what he thinks the market will bear.

It's all about what you determine is valuable for your car and how much you are willing to spend.

saturated_fat

I don't want to start a big argument on this but I don't know why you would pay $500 for a tint job. That's more than a carpayment for some folk.

There's a difference between "you get what you pay for" and "you got took". What could this $500 tint job entail? What makes you guys think its better than say a 100 dollar tint job or a 200-300 dollar job? Is the material different? Do you even know the difference between tint brands/types? What makes this install that much better than another shops method ? To you guys who think this is fine to pay, have you ever had your car tinted before?

I'm not posting this to flame anyone or to start a big debate, I'm just trying to point out some important facts here. Are you SURE you know WHY you're paying 200 dollars more than the average person for tint?

Perhaps you'll look into some of the questions I posted and save yourselves a few hundred dollars.

Here's something to think about...Is a BMW or an Infiniti better because it costs more?

jupitersolo

I have never been pulled over for tint, last two TL's have been legal, but not my last two Altima's. All have looked worst because of black interior.

yosarian

sat_fat:
Yes, $520 is more then I, or anyone, could pay for to get tinting on our cars. And yes, it is more then a car payment for some (including me.)However, I really don't have to justify why I do something with my hard earned money. But I want to address your questions and to put aside some of the assumption that I feel you and others have made that I haven't done my research and that I don't know what I want.

On the contrary, I have done my due diligence when looking into tint types, weighed the pros and cons, talked to many tint shops about what they have, how they apply it and what types of guarantees they offer. I walk into this with my eyes wide open and believe me, I passed up a much better deal for a decent tint. Why did I do it? Because what I want is most likely different then what other people may want.

But why stop at a $200, $100 or even $80 dollar tint job from some guys on the corner? Why not go down to the corner and buy a few rolls of tint from a wash & wax auto parts store and apply it yourself?

The difference between "you get want" and "you got took" is knowing what you want and doing the necessary research. Yes, I know the difference between the different brands and types. And yes, the material is different. And in my opinion, the difference is the professionalism. When I go into a shop to talk to them and see samples of their work, the professional will take the time to talk to me and will gladly show me pictures and cars they are working on in their garage. Because that is the best seller for them: Pride in there own work. I talk to quite a few tint places around me and a bunch acted like they didn't need my business. OK, thanks, and I moved on. Have I ever had my car tinted before? No, and I don't plan to do it again unless I move out of state and their tint laws are radically different. For me, the money is worth it for someone to do a careful, precise job, including taking off the panels to make sure the tint comes down far enough and doesn't become undone on the window rubber, including hand cutting the pieces so they fit around the rear brake light and that the edges of the tint goes all the way to the pillars and has no gaps.

As I have said before, I feel that spending my hard earned dollars is a worthwhile investment for my car for this application. And as I have said before, there are things that other people do to their cars that I would never do to mine, like lowering or raising or attaching wings or gluing a big, purple, inflatable dinosaur on the top of your car, however, its your car and your cash, so have at it.

I'll answer your straw man question with my own question: What makes a BMW, or an Infiniti, or even an Acura cost more, when you could save a few greenbacks and buy a Kia, or a Altima, or even a Civic. Cars are just tools to get us around. So then why do we chose a certain specifc make and model? And what brings us back to buying similar, if not the same, cars every time we buy one?

I would hope that john46992 did his own due diligence and talked to some other shops as I did. And I hope that he knows what he wants to achieve with the tinting of his car. All he did was ask if anyone knew of any shops in the area, and I told him the name of a shop that had impressed me and that I had planned on sourcing to have work done. And if their prices are more then john46992 is willing to pay for, then he can move on to another shop. But I think that john46992 is a big boy and he can make the decision for himself.

That's my opinion and I am sticking to it.

Anansi

Hey John, don't know if you've already got your tint done or not. I don't have your exact car as mine has the taupe interior, but it is NBP. If you'd like to see what it looks like before you do anything drop me an IM. I'm between Leesburg and Reston almost every day, so it wouldn't be a problem. Mine is 35% all around and I got it done at Winners. I'll have to check back on the price, but I think it was much cheaper than what you're looking at.

7K RPM

iTrader: (1)

I suppose I got suckerd and paid the $550 with mole skin and got the Huber Optik tint 30% all around on my WDP S and it was ok. Im impressed with the product after doing research on it but the install at California Tint was less to be desired. I had my car redone 3 times before it was some what right. The shop owner was very knowledgeable and helpful there install however wasn't. I have had several cars tinted before and did not want to go cheap on tint. After reading good reviews I went to California Tint in Sterling, VA. At first they did not clean my back window very well (car had 200 miles) and there were various dust and lint particles traped in the back window and rear quater window tint. So I took it back to get redone as well with a scratch in my drivers window tint. After getting the car back once again I notice the glue/ cleaning solution all over my interior panels and leather and back headrests laying on the seat. You would think for $500 for tint at least a general clean up would be good. So the second time i notice large bubbles and a hazzy ness in the tint I was told that "huber optik is thicker material and takes longer to dry" well 2 months later "my car sits in the sun" I'm back and they redo it again. This time more messy panels and more dirt and lint trapped in the tint. Not to mention my moleskin is coming up on my front windows which has put glue residue all over the windows. So im on my 4th tint from them and yes its still not perfect but the best its been from them. I am not super anal about my car but expected a lot more then this. I would not recomment California Tint nor take my car back to them ever again. I was denied compensation or any sort of apology, they did however re-tint my car over and over. The staff was unprofessional pointing fingers at one another over my issues. Hope this review helps and does't come to late.

Truebud1000

I got mine done at Underground Audio in Springfield, VA. I got 20% all around it cost me $230. They said that it costs more because tinting the TL is more difficult to do than other cars. I don't get it but I went with it any way because all the other places i talked to said they charge $250-$350.

Regarding getting stopped by the cops...I asked a whole bunch of people who had tints and the overall opinion was cops won't stop you soley on the tint. They'll stop you for speeding, or no turn signal, or some other bullshit reason and add on the tint. So far I've gotten a warning for tints because the cop stopped me for expired tags.

There a little tricks here and there you can do too to make your tints seem lighter. Wear bright clothes, have your sunroof open because that lets a whole lot of light in, and pretty much always be on the lookout for cops and when you see one roll down the window closets to the cop. It's a little bit paranoid...but if you want dark tints and not get a ticket you gotta find ways.

P.S. don't get anything less than 35% because you won't like it and your windows won't even look tinted.

jvinhj240

35% with black intieor will look 20% . if you can go up to Maryland, Beltsvilee. ONly $180.

one9one

Did they do the entire quarter panel window?

I got my last two cars done at Underground (right across the street from me) but the TL I took somewhere else that was recommended on here and they didn't get the quarter panel right. I was tired (read: DUMB) and didn't double check it before I left.

Truebud1000

yeah, they included the quarter panel and i didnt have to remind them. they have a lifetime warranty also for the tints. they're really really good.