How easy is it to fit window tint film , I only want to do it to the rear side windows to keep the sun off the dog when we go to France on holiday. I was told to use soapy water if I try it, why? If the tint looks crap, how easy is it to remove?
Jim
The message from "Jim Crawford" contains these words:
Soapy water is the standard way to apply sticky films to surfaces - that's just how it's done. It makes the film slidable so that you don't have to worry about wrinkles - you can just slide it about till it's OK then squeegee the water away. After a while it sticks tight. I suspect the water diffuses out through the film.
That's right, cut it slightly oversize, apply soapy water [ lets you slide the material into place] Squeegee and let dry. trim the excess.
Now. Your vehicle will NOT pass any MOT test, because tinted windows have to be factory fitted!!
It's a b***h!!. Use a 'razor' blade type window scraper, buy plenty of blades. This will get 90% off the windows. The balance will require a xylene / nitro type solvent to remove - it comes off in gummy pieces.
The voice of bitter experience!!!!
John Hewitt Malaga Spain
MOT tests in which country? You can do what you like to the rear side windows in the UK
Not easy to put on and once you c*ck it up its a real pain to get off - lots of scraping with a razor blade required if it has dried.
I thought the regs were purely to do with light transmission through the front side windscreens (70%) and the front screen (75%).
You can have a total blackout on all the other windows.
Pete.
The message from snipped-for-privacy@arrakis.es contains these words:
Really? I thought it was only front and front-side windows. Behind the shoulder is up to the owner - after all, vans don't even have windows in the first place.
Do they f*ck.
But unfortunately no experience of MOT testing.
can't you just put some pull-down blinds on the inside or something?
Well, now thats total bollox.
Tim..
Doesn't that apply only to the windscreen? Last reference I have is:
Additional opaque films are subject to reason for rejection whether fitted on the inside or outside of fhe windscreen.
MOT only seems concerned with windscreen and mirrors as far as seeing out goes. The original posting was after tinting only the rear side windows (puppy love or something).
Easier and maybe cheaper for this case would be those shade things that stick on with little suckers. Often have a pussy cat's face on - give the dog something to bark at.
Vin
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "IanW" saying something like:
Brush and a pot of Dulux.
Not easy application or removal, try
Adam
While we're on this subject, I got a quote for tinting from a place near us recently. He says that he's been in close liaison with the police recently over 75%/70% on the windscreen/front windows, and they have advised him not to apply any tints at all to these windows, even if he thinks that they will still be legal. As a result he is only tiniting the windows behind the drivers seat on cars now (he used to put a "light" tint on the front windows - not windscreen). The police apparently said that they are advising this not because of the tinting laws, but because they want to be able to see if drivers are using mobile phones or not...
Al
I think the man you spoke to is a bit confused as to what was he was told. He can fit a tint to the front side windows if he wants as long as it does reduce it under the 70% VLT and as most windows are already on about 79% VLT it would not really be worth it ! but he could if he wanted to. Even if he did this and dropped it down to the lawful 70%, the police would be able to see in anyway. I have seen thousands of cars with lighter tints on the front than on the rear but they were still illegal. The tint companies are just money grabbing bastards out to make a fast buck at our expenses. The AS1 marked glass from the factory now is mostly pre tinted down to around 78-80% already. It doesn't take a rocket science to work out how light the tint would have to be to be fitted. The tint comes marked with its VLT and I have never seen one as light as 8-10%
You've convinced me to but some of those you put on with a rubber sucker, I don't fancy scraping etc, but thanks for all the input.
Jim
LOL :-)
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