[tampajoey]

pros and cons of each?

got my windows tinted today-
guy that owns the shop did the tinting-
i ran a few of the "decoration" ideas i was tossing around and he liked them
till- i got to the point about the light lenses.....
yes he will more than gladly do the vynyle overlaps (damn spelling)
to the head/tail/fog lights...........
but - he said- that in his experience- that the vinyle (damn spelling again)
will ...i think he used the phrase "burn thru" or something like that-
asked him to clarify- he said that the area that gets the brightest light from the bulbs will start to turn clear......

so - how many of you have had vynle (damn spelling again) overlays on lights and what have been the long term experience?
(and on same token- painted lenses- feel free to speak up on your long term experiences)

joey

ps- yes- i gotta get a digital camera- or get that girl at work w/the big fancy digital to start taking pictures for me......

 

[fas93]

vinyl... and I've done tail light tint.

It stood to the elements... not too sure what that guy is talking about, but nothing has changed to my tail lights.

 

[tampajoey]

no- he wasnt saying anything about the lights- he was saying that the vinyl (gotta remember that) - would get more see thru and lose its color directly over the areas where the bulbs were at......so you would end up over time w/smoked lenses- except where the bulbs were.
now- never having gone the smoked route (tint or paint) i am curious-
after all- it can't be that hard to slap on vinyl on the lenses if you have been putting tint on all sorts of windows for years........so he cant be just saying all of that to avoid a 'difficult' job....
so does anyone here have experience of having vinyl on their lenses over a long (years - lets say 3 years)
does the color of the vinyl look the same from one end to the other? or have you notice a lightening of the color over the direct light source?

joey

 

[buffalofloyd]

I would have to say that it sounds very reasonable that the light and heat from the headlight or tail light might start to make the tint look more clear over time. I think this would be more of an issue with the headlights though. I would never paint my lenses because that seems like a irreversible process and if you ever want to sell the car that could hurt the sale. The only thing I can think of to maybe prolong the tinting of lenses would be using LED bulbs. I know this won't work for headlights but for the rest it could help. I really like that darker look though, I might have to see about doing that.

 

[lleader]

A possible suggestion here - there are different kinds of tint. Some are dye based, some are metalic based, and some are ceramic based. The original dye types were prone to fading (and the cheaper ones still do), so the better brands of tint went to metalic formulations. Then came in-car electronics (cell phones, GPS) and the metalic films interfered with them to a greater or lesser extent, so the latest kid on the block is ceramic tints. The best tint, in my opinion, is Formula One Pinnacle Series - a ceramic tint.

More to the point, I think one of the non-dye based tints would be not likely to be affected by the light/heat of the bulb. I'd ask around and see if anyone would offer a guarantee that it wouldn't fade on the lights.

 

[Titanium10]

i had tint on my old cars headlights it never wore through...the stuff i had was very thick though! definately alot thicker than the stuff used for window tinting!