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I am considering going 35% or 50%. I am beginning to agree with my wife because the lighter tint or naked windows does look good.
On our car, (non Lexus in this case) I split the difference and have 40% on all windows except the windshield. It does a nice job with heat rejection and glare and gives the car a nice toned down look without the blacked out look
On our car, (non Lexus in this case) I split the difference and have 40% on all windows except the windshield. It does a nice job with heat rejection and glare and gives the car a nice toned down look without the blacked out look
eBay. I tinted my CT200h so I had one car experience. On that car, it took me an extra roll to learn since I made mistakes. The ES has particularly tight door panels and seals (aka door sweeps) where it sits against the glass. So instead of risking messing up the tint, I pulled the door panels off the front completely. It made laying the tint down a breeze. The rear doors I just unclipped the top portion enough to get my squeegees down low to sweep the glass. the popped back in once done. It's fun for me to learn to DIY stuff and I already had the tools from a prior car.
Also you can get laser cut kits but I ended up hand cutting all my pieces. Also an art. I respect tinters for sure!
Tint is really cheap for the materials. $30 for the low end dyed stuff, and $150 for the high end ceramic. and that's ebay retail cost. I imagine shops get it for much less. The rest of the job is labor.
Watch plenty of youtube videos.. i mean plenty. One of the channels I watch is this kid which makes it look easy. https://www.youtube.com/c/TintStuff
Speak of the devil he just did a 22 ES. 5 hour video. I wish that had been out when I did mine...
Yeah it does take a while to prep, clean, prep, clean, move in position, prep a little more, clean a little more. Probably helps to have a super big work area with tons of lights.
On my CT, I drove around for a while with a tiny spider under the tint. Even though I prepped all the channels to hell and flushed them out multiple times. Wipe then flush wipe then flush. it's amazing what hides in the little window channels.
But it's a fun skill to learn and people are amazed when you say you did it yourself.
The dealer tinted my windows prior to picking the car up and went 35% all the way around. I would’ve opted for darker around 18% but The dealer would only do legal 35 on the front and I did not want to different shades of tent front to back.
^ You made a good choice. You found a way to have tint AND have the car retain a premium look. Too dark makes the car look like a used car lot special. The kind of cars you see on the news in high speed chases with blacked out windows...
You should be able to see into the car some. I'm torn.. i like my 35.. but also want to remove it. I like it cause of the security aspect of not being so easily visible w/ 35. but clear would look best. i'm comfortable w/ my mask on and tint LOL. leave me alone world.