Bought a new car for my kid, and I did a preliminary search of forums to find what window tint to apply. I also did a bit of looking into paint protection, because kids in CA tend to key or scratch the paint on purpose. Here is the initial information i have found. Any further input on these topics would be beneficial to me as well as future search operations on these two topics.
Window Tinting: I found an old thread here, that quotes the following films as the best: Huber Optik, Madico, Sun Guard, Sun Tek, Solar Guard, Lumar. I have used Lumar on my Civic, which stayed good for last 7 years without any problems. It costs around $250 locally. I am wanting to try a better brand this time and welcome suggestions. The primary criteria is heat rejection, not look of car. While browsing a website that was quoted on this thread, i found the following detail that seems useful. For those of you (like me), who do not want to perform a internet search, here are the definitions of terms:
VLT - Visible Light Transmission, indicates how dark or light the tint is. Notice that this does not indicate how much UV rays are rejected. UV rays are the primary cause of heat inside a car, though visible light contributes to the heat too.
TSER - Total Solar Energy Rejected, indicates how much heat energy can be rejected. So, this is more of a measure of heat inside a car, rather than VLT which can be used to get an idea of how dark the tint will look.
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Quote:
Just did my homework on this.... just some info from the manufacturer websites.
The only two that top the list on performance are 3M Crystalline and Huper. They hit 60, but the price is beyond reason.
Global QDP Ceramic 32 32% VLT 58% TSER
Formula one pinnacle 30 33%VLT 57%TSER
Suntek CXP Carbon Ceramic 35% 33% VLT 53% TSER
Suntek Carbon 35% 35% VLT 43% TSER
Llumar CTX Ceramic 30% 33% VLT 51% TSER
Flex Films Panoflex Nano Ceramic 35% 37% VLT 46% TSER
Solar Gard Ultra Perfromance 30% 34% VLT 43% TSER
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Paint protection : On the topic of exterior protection, i found that there is an expensive layer that can be applied on top of the car. This very tough plastic thin layer is called Clear Bra. There is a good description of this at http://www.lucentwraps.com/blog/what-is-clear-bra-for-cars-and-how-does-it-compare-to-car-wraps. This is an expensive film and the best price i found in bay area is around $650 for partial front and $1200 for the whole front side of a small car. This would not cover the side or back of car. I welcome suggestions from members here for an alternative to this, because i do not want to spend this much to cover the whole front side protection. Perhaps there is a spray coating or something that i can buy and apply myself to protect the paint, which can be peeled off after a few years and reapplied ?? I do not want to put any bumper covers that were popular before 2 decades.
Window Tinting: I found an old thread here, that quotes the following films as the best: Huber Optik, Madico, Sun Guard, Sun Tek, Solar Guard, Lumar. I have used Lumar on my Civic, which stayed good for last 7 years without any problems. It costs around $250 locally. I am wanting to try a better brand this time and welcome suggestions. The primary criteria is heat rejection, not look of car. While browsing a website that was quoted on this thread, i found the following detail that seems useful. For those of you (like me), who do not want to perform a internet search, here are the definitions of terms:
VLT - Visible Light Transmission, indicates how dark or light the tint is. Notice that this does not indicate how much UV rays are rejected. UV rays are the primary cause of heat inside a car, though visible light contributes to the heat too.
TSER - Total Solar Energy Rejected, indicates how much heat energy can be rejected. So, this is more of a measure of heat inside a car, rather than VLT which can be used to get an idea of how dark the tint will look.
---------------------------------------
Quote:
Just did my homework on this.... just some info from the manufacturer websites.
The only two that top the list on performance are 3M Crystalline and Huper. They hit 60, but the price is beyond reason.
Global QDP Ceramic 32 32% VLT 58% TSER
Formula one pinnacle 30 33%VLT 57%TSER
Suntek CXP Carbon Ceramic 35% 33% VLT 53% TSER
Suntek Carbon 35% 35% VLT 43% TSER
Llumar CTX Ceramic 30% 33% VLT 51% TSER
Flex Films Panoflex Nano Ceramic 35% 37% VLT 46% TSER
Solar Gard Ultra Perfromance 30% 34% VLT 43% TSER
------------------------------------------
Paint protection : On the topic of exterior protection, i found that there is an expensive layer that can be applied on top of the car. This very tough plastic thin layer is called Clear Bra. There is a good description of this at http://www.lucentwraps.com/blog/what-is-clear-bra-for-cars-and-how-does-it-compare-to-car-wraps. This is an expensive film and the best price i found in bay area is around $650 for partial front and $1200 for the whole front side of a small car. This would not cover the side or back of car. I welcome suggestions from members here for an alternative to this, because i do not want to spend this much to cover the whole front side protection. Perhaps there is a spray coating or something that i can buy and apply myself to protect the paint, which can be peeled off after a few years and reapplied ?? I do not want to put any bumper covers that were popular before 2 decades.
