I found a local place with a great reputation which will do all my windows (the back 3 limo black, front sides and visor medium smoke) for $225.

However, all around the edges of all of my windows, and a sizable patch on the windshield behind my rear view, has that painted "dot pattern"..... I'm assuming all new Accent's have this.... and maybe other new car models and brands as well.

So, my concern is, how well does tinting lay down over this dot pattern ? The guy at the tint place says that it can produce a border around the windows which is kind of silvery.... or in other words, a narrow strip around the window, between the dot pattern and the tint, where the tint is not sealed tight against the glass.

Anybody experience this with tinting their Accent windows ? How bad does this look ? This tinting guy said that it shouldn't look too bad, but that no matter who tinted my car, they would all run into this same issue.

Hmmmm.....

Somewhat concerned,
Fish

PS, How about tinting over the defrost lines in my rear window ? Will this raise the tint also ?

Tint sounds like a great idea! I've got 35% all around on mine. The price sounds fair enough for your area, I've heard horror stories of people being quoted $400 for a tint job out there! :wacko: It was $140 for mine, but they knocked off ten bucks as I was a repeat customer. I think I lucked out bigtime compared to what many have to pay, and the quality of work was incredible.

The dot matrix stuff does pose a problem, and everybody's using it these days, I hear it's to help with heat... I didn't get my windshield tinted, but I had it done on the last car which had a rather large area of dot matrix around the mirror (but wasn't the dot matrix turned completely solid) stuff like the Accent has. He basically wet sanded the dot matrix dots down with a very fine grit sandpaper. The tint stuck to it fine, but yes - there was a bit of a different appearance to the glass but it didn't look too bad. There's not a lot they can do around those dots. :(

I don't think my 4-door has much in the way of the dot matrix stuff aside from the windshield. I *think* there may be some there on the rear window but not much, and none on the side windows. I'll be happy to take some pics of the rear window so you can see what the tint will look like on that stuff.. I'll also have to go scope out a 3-door sometime to see what you're up against, I didn't pay much attention to that before. If it just has a thin region of dots on the side windows, you'll probably be ok. My last car was a wagon and it had a small amount of that stuff on the rear quarter windows bu the dot matrix stuff didn't have much, if any, negative impact on the appearance.

It'll be fine with the defroster grid, it will lay right over top of it, it will lay down fine and shouldn't look funny. And over time, defroster use shouldn't affect it either. Some tint places will want to do multiple pieces of tint and cut around the rear defroster lines, I'd strongly caution against multiple pieces. It looks fine for a while when they do that, but over time the tint will shrink and you'll have a gap there that looks like dump, had that happen before. Yick! The guy who tinted mine used one huge piece, turned out great! That isn't possible to do on every car, but on cars where it can be done, most places I've heard of don't want to use one piece since it requires more effort. :(

What brand of film are they going to use, by the way? The dude that tints mine uses Llumar only, and man that's some good stuff! :) Doesn't fade after a year like the junk that other tint shops have used on my previous cars.

This post has been edited by hoosieraccent: Feb 28 2007, 10:10 PM

Thank you Hoosier. I'm not sure what brand of film he uses. I will try to find out though. But I do know that my buddy had his done at least two years ago, after several of his friends had theirs done at the same place, and they are all still happy.

BTW, my buddy said his car has some of this "dot matrix" stuff too, but tinting right over didn't look too bad.

Gotta' have it tinted no matter what, so I guess I'll find out, huh ?

Peace,
Fish

Yep, it is time to find out! It will look great, trust me. :thumbsup:

Give us some pictures because I would like to see how it looks after the tinting. I am really interested in tinting my car but the closest place anyone recommends to me is in Lakeport/Clearlake area. Since you live between the Sac and Bay area I think it would be a worth wile trip to get a tint. I am iffy on who I trust with the car, it seems like no one will treat it better then I can.

Hey o0kat0o, yes, photos, I promise :-)

But try to be patient.... I should have the new wheels and tires on within the next week, as well as the glass tinted next Mon. or Tues.
Since I'm into photography, I'm going to be picky. I hope to have the Accent (for now anyway ;-)) finished, and to be able to take it to Bodega Bay for a nice photo backdrop.

Shooting to accomplish all of this in less than two weeks, and I am very anxious to post the photo results here ! :-)

Peace,
Fish

PS, If your into photography, you might want to take a glance at my photograhy site... Nothing for sale. Built this just out of passion:
http://www.trophybassonly.com/id182.htm

The overall effect should look just as subtle as on factory windows......the whole appearance being just a few shades darker.

Ensure your tinting complies with your local regulations concerning light-admission however......the police can be quite tight on this in the U.K., with a few patrol-cars carrying light meters to possibly catch you out!.

Nick.

Okay I'll be patient.. I love photography although I am new into the field. I want to get an digital SLR but for now I have my cannon power shot A560. My boyfriend has the 620 model and he gets some nice photo's out of it. We just took a trip to mount diablo and he took a stitched shot of the entire landscape on one side of the mountain. It looked nice.

BTW I love your bay bridge and San Fransisco shot.. its amazing!! Your other photos are beautiful as well, but that picture is just stunning.

Here's a couple pics I took of my tint where you can see its appearance around the dot matrix stuff...

I was at the dealer today getting an oil change, so I scoped out their one lone 3-door they had on the lot... The dot matrix on the rear side windows looks to me like it is about the same as I have on the rear window. I don't think there is enough of it to really make it look bad.

You'll see a difference for sure, but as you get further away from it, it's pretty much going to be a non-issue.

I had a car once that had about 3" of that dot matrix stuff on the top of the rear window, now the tint on that looked bad!

btw, great pics fish. :)

Thank you guys.

Hey VALKYRIE YB70, here in the US, darker is cooler. We used to have regulations here in California about side windows which were too dark, but so far as I know, that reg was dropped a few years ago. Only the windshield can't be too dark, which of course I wouldn't want it to be anyway.
I'm thinking that the back 3 will be limo black. The back window of my Toyota truck is limo black, and still pretty easy to see out of.... but not into. The front sides will be medium smoke.

I'm already thinking that since I have so much of that dot matrix in the top center of my windshield, I might have to do something else there, before I add a tinted visor.

Glad you guys enjoyed the photography :-) Now if I can just integrate my new little baby into some shots like that......

Peace,
Fish

The California Vehicle Code is available online at www.leginfo.ca.gov/.html/veh_table_of_contents.html. When you arrive at this page, scroll down to Division 12 "Equipment of Vehicles", then continue down to Chapter 4, "Windshields and Mirrors", which contains California Vehicle Code (CVC) 26700-26712. The CVC you are interested in is 26708, and its addendum's.

Now.. This is what this law states drom CA Codes....

"26708.5. (a) No person shall place, install, affix, or apply any
transparent material upon the windshield, or side or rear windows, of
any motor vehicle if the material alters the color or reduces the
light transmittance of the windshield or side or rear windows, except
as provided in subdivision ( B ), ©, or (d) of Section 26708.
( B ) Tinted safety glass may be installed in a vehicle if (1) the
glass complies with motor vehicle safety standards of the United
States Department of Transportation for safety glazing materials, and
(2) the glass is installed in a location permitted by those
standards for the particular type of glass used."

Go to this site and it lists the tint law that you are allowed to get by state..

http://www.tintdude.com/atoh.html

The thing it.. I see tint jobs all over Sacramento.. Some so dark you would question if they can see out their own windows from the inside. Most cops don't bother with pulling someone over just for a fix it ticket for a tint, although I'm sure if you were caught speeding, or any other traffic violations they wont hesitate for adding additional violations. So I am thinking of my tinting job, but then I risk that possibility of being pulled over.. it sicks..

This post has been edited by o0kat0o: Mar 3 2007, 03:52 AM

I wish I could come up with the sources, but I remember a change in the regulations, at least at the local level, in which everybody who messed with cars was saying, "Oh, did you here that side window tinting is okay now" ? .....and it wasn't just a few people aknowledging that cops ususally were not enforcing previous regs.

Around these parts, probably 50% of the cars on the road have aftermarket tinting, most on the sides as well, and maybe 10% have dark tinting all the way around.

In any case, as I said, I don't want my front sides to be very dark anyway. Not because I'm concerned about being sited, but rather, I want good vision, even at night.

Peace,
Fish

Okay, so here's the scoop......

I had my windows tinted today. So far it looks great ! .......except...... that funky dot matrix garbage around the edges that I was so concerned about :-(

The guy that did it, told me to wait a few days until the tint dries, and then he would go back over it with a heat gun and squeegi, and could orobably get rid of most of that strip of air pockets created by the dot matrix lifting the tint.

.......but none the less, I worried about this for the next few hours. Even if he could fix it now, what about 6 months from now ? 1 year ? 2 years ? I worried, that is, until I got back in front of my PC and did some research.
Turns out that this is a very common problem, and their are fixes. In fact, you can even fix a window which went on perfect, but a year, or two, or three years later, is starting to lift at the edges, whether it is from the non-adherance to the dot matrix, or not !

Here's one product I found > http://www.dotmatrixwindowtinting.com/rear_windows.html

Their was another adhesive I found, just for the purpose also (that had a more proffessional name.... like 3M R17 .... just an example, probably wasn't even 3M, but you get the point) unfortunately, now I lost that one.

Anyway, I'm confident, that one way or another, with or without an adhesive, I will get rid of all of that trapped air, and then my tinting will be bombastic.
As it is though, it's maybe like 60% worth it, 40% not.

Will post an update, when I fix this issue, and how.....

Peace,
Fish

I think I've met somebody more anal about their car than I. :grin: I didn't think that was possible! :P LOL!

How bad is it?

The stuff you linked to sounds interesting. So you'd have to get your window tint ripped off and new put on to use that, right?

Hey Hoosier, I mean, "standing litterally 50 ft from the car, from most angles, you can see jaggedy, irregular splotches of silver right in the middle of black" bad ! I promise you it looks horrible.

But no.... with the product I mentioned you simply pull back the edges which are lifting, run a small bead of this stuff, in the corner between the glass and the tint, then squeegi it back out to the edge". Bam ! Done !

Interestingly (I think I memtioned this on the other Accent forum already) the guy that sells the stuff, acts like it won't work for my purpose ??? He said something like "I wouldn't be able to get under the edge of the tint" ? Huh ? So I already looked, and it looks totally doable to me. Hmmm. I guess I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

Peace,
Fish

Ouch, that sucks! :(

Hopefully you can get that all sorted out man!

how come you guys paid all this money for tinting, i only paid $35

This post has been edited by djtouner: Aug 28 2008, 01:13 PM