Tinting the factory tints

Jameze

Jameze

James
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I assume it can be done? AFAIK, the factory tints aren't a film as such but is actually coloured glass, so the film would just be applied to the tinted glass.

Also, does anyone know what the factory tint percentage is?

And where do we stand with the law on tints now? I've always understood that anything goes for the back windows, and the front driver / passenger windows must allow 70% light through? Is this still the case or has it now changed? I'm getting mixed views when reading some other topics on here!

Apologies for the bombardment of questions :wacko:
 
I've been told by my neighbour (traffic police officer) that standard tints are 30% on Audi's making tinting the front windows illegal. The rears can go completely black though if required. This was also back up this weekend by a tinting company.
 
Really?! That was unexpected, they hardly look tinted at all! I'll leave the fronts then, don't fancy being pulled by the rozzers :busted_cop: Was hoping 30% would give them a bit of a 'smokey' look.

Might still go for limo black on the back windows though. The factory rears look quite dark most of the time, but as soon as you hit a bit of sunlight they just turn transparent!
 
^ Exactly what I thought, I'm hoping he will bring his light tester home one day soon to check exact percentage, If you open your front door and look at the sky through the window then move your head side to side you'll see the difference.
 
That would be useful actually, you should follow him to work one day then pester him to test your windows :p haha.

Thanks for the heads up though, you probably just saved me from a cheeky fine! :salute:
 
Hello mate, ive got my 07 sportback front/rear and back windows tinted as well as the number plates tinted. Lookd really dark initially, but gone light and look like a bmw factory fit i.e quiet dark. If u want, message me ur email address and il send u photos of my car. Thanks

Sorry nearly forgot i had my tints 35 all the way round.
 
audi upgrades
i have what some of the guys here call 'murder' tints on mine... its lighter on the front and darker on the rears but not limo as i had that on my previous car and used to annoy me at night.

this is what she looks like:

1577d8c0.jpg

94dff17e.jpg
 
Yaseen1991 said:
Hello mate, ive got my 07 sportback front/rear and back windows tinted as well as the number plates tinted. Lookd really dark initially, but gone light and look like a bmw factory fit i.e quiet dark. If u want, message me ur email address and il send u photos of my car. Thanks

Sorry nearly forgot i had my tints 35 all the way round.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate.


itwasntme187 said:
i have what some of the guys here call 'murder' tints on mine... its lighter on the front and darker on the rears but not limo as i had that on my previous car and used to annoy me at night.
Click to expand...

Very nice! How do you get away with those front tints?! I'd constantly be getting tugged if that was me!

What percentage are the rears? 20? I was worried about not being able to see out of them at night if I went down the limo route so thank for the heads up!
 
to be honest mate London Police dont really care too much... have been pulled over once though :ninja:

i dont remember what percentage it was, all i know is that the fronts were the lightest and the rears was the next step down. its prefect as i can see out the rear but you can't really see in. The fronts are not as dark as they come out in the pics... thats just the lighting. you can actually see who is sitting in the front seats through the front window but i have been told that the A3 standard front windows are already at legal tinting limit so anything you put on it makes it illegal.
 
I bet they don't bother if they don't have a light meter or something (unless it's blatantly over the limit).

This is what mine currently looks like - it looks fairly dark at the back, but as soon as the sunlight shines through your car it's almost as if your windows aren't even tinted...

rkcghl.jpg


(I really need to get some better pics of the car :photo: not actually taken any except for this one on the day I laid down the deposit...)
 
As above I think they are 30% (Let 70% light through). Personally I quite like a very light tint all round (albeit illegal on the fronts I guess), but dislike the darker rear look. Looks like a van :)
 
^^ As I said, van ;)

Actually doesnt look as bad on a light coloured car, which is actually is looking very nice I'll say mate! Good to see someone running some different wheels.
 
audi upgrades
Bradford-20110423-00071.jpg


Bradford-20110423-00060.jpg


Bradford-20110423-00061-1.jpg


Bradford-20110423-00072-1.jpg



Factory tinted on the rear from near, 50% applied to the front windows.

:salute:
 
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I'm loving 50% on the front :wub:

Unfortunately, I don't have the cojones to do it! :busted_cop:
 
Touch wood I've never had a problem, my car is a light colour and because the rears are much darker than the front, attention is sort of drawn away as i can be seen through the front windows if that makes sense.

Don't get me wrong, you can tell they've been tinted but i didn't go over the top when getting them done, i was tempted for 30% on the front or something similar to match the rears but that's pushing it IMO.
 
AidenUK said:
Factory tinted on the rear from near, 50% applied to the front windows.

:salute:
Click to expand...

Am I right in thinking that now puts you 20% over the legal limit on the front windows? The fronts look like the level I'd want all round, nice and subtle.
 
TimG said:
Am I right in thinking that now puts you 20% over the legal limit on the front windows? The fronts look like the level I'd want all round, nice and subtle.
Click to expand...

I had 50% all around on my previous car if you want to see the darkness/lightness of that to give you an idea of how that would look on yours?
 
Good stuff. Definately prefering that 'light' tint all round.

I know it'll vary, but roughly what kinda money are we talking for an all round tint job?
 
when i had my tints done it cost me under £200 and that was for all the windows except windscreen of course... also i have a sportback and they consider it more as there are more glass panes that need to be tinted (more effort). Lifetime warranty on the tints too so if any were to bubble( hardly ever happens) or peel off they would replace it.
 
Glass 1 tints in Otley - 07958046818.

They have done my last 2 cars, the Astra was £180, tints filed into the top of the windows leaving no gaps between the end of the tint and the edge of the glass.

A3 - Front two windows £70, again with the tint filed into the tops of the glass. No rips, bubbles or peeling..

Good job he does!
 
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I've got 40% rear with just the standard 30% glass so by my calculations that brings the rear to 70%. Until last weekend I had 20% on the front along with the standard 30% bringing it to 50%. I decided I didn't like the fronts at all so I removed them. From inside the car I found the visibility especially when using wing mirrors on the motorway was quite poor, especially on dull rainy days, of which we got a lot.

From outside the car it looked a bit chavy in my opinion. This was mainly due to the fact that with black seats, dash and headlining the interior is so dark anyway that even with a 50% tint on the front the car just looked completely blacked out.

I would also add that in terms of the law I never had any trouble with the front tints. Not a single stop from the police in 6 months and the same in over a year in my last car. The guy that tinted my windows said most cars come from the factory with 30% on the front. you can tint up to 20% over this and will only receive a £30 on the spot fine and be advised to remove. If the fronts are above 50% then you will receive a fine, points and be forced to remove on the spot (usually just made to peel a little bit off). Not sure if what he said is correct or if the law is different in England.
 
So does adding a 30% tint to class thats already tinted 30% mean its tinted 60%? I would have thought two layers of the same tint would be only marginally darker, not twice as dark?

My thinking has more been 30% as standard + a 50% tint = 50% overall (darkest shade of tint rules, not the sum of the two tints)? If that makes sense :)
 
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TimG said:
So does adding a 30% tint to class thats already tinted 30% mean its tinted 60%? I would have thought two layers of the same tint would be only marginally darker, not twice as dark?

My thinking has more been 30% as standard + a 50% tint = 50% overall (darkest shade of tint rules, not the sum of the two tints)? If that makes sense :)
Click to expand...

From what I understand (think I read it somewhere) 30% + 30% doesn't = 60% (40% light let through). In actual fact, it's 30% of 30% (which is 9%) so your windows would be letting 9% light through (limo tint is 5%).

Therefore, 50% added to 30% would let 15% light through.

Too many %'s, I've gone cross-eyed! :wacko:
 
Jameze said:
From what I understand (think I read it somewhere) 30% + 30% doesn't = 60% (40% light let through). In actual fact, it's 30% of 30% (which is 9%) so your windows would be letting 9% light through (limo tint is 5%).

Therefore, 50% added to 30% would let 15% light through.

Too many %'s, I've gone cross-eyed! :wacko:
Click to expand...

now thats totally confused me!
i always get it wrong... 30% tint means its letting in 70% light right?
so then would it not be that 30% + 30% = 39% tint thus letting in 61% light??
 
itwasntme187 said:
now thats totally confused me!
i always get it wrong... 30% tint means its letting in 70% light right?
so then would it not be that 30% + 30% = 39% tint thus letting in 61% light??
Click to expand...

Haha! Sorry mate :p

30% tint means it's letting 30% light in (70% blocked). 5% is the tint usually applied to limos (AKA the 'limo' tint) which is very dark (only letting 5% of light in).

30% of 30% = 9% which would be very dark (0.30 x 0.30 = 0.09).

This image might be useful as a guide...

new chart.jpg
 
ahh ok so then everyone above talking about the front windows are saying tht 70% light is allowed through as standard on our A3's (thats then the 70% tint according to your chart), so to add another similar tint (70%) it would bring the allowed light down to 49%? is that right?
 
itwasntme187 said:
ahh ok so then everyone above talking about the front windows are saying tht 70% light is allowed through as standard on our A3's (thats then the 70% tint according to your chart), so to add another similar tint (70%) it would bring the allowed light down to 49%? is that right?
Click to expand...

Yeah that's right mate. Think of it as a scale of transparency, the higher up the scale you go, the more transparent the tint is.

Yeah exactly that, so if you added 70% to the fronts (assuming they already come with 70% as standard from factory) you'd probably end up with something similar to the 50% tint shown on that chart.

I hate maths :p
 
ok great! i was getting confused on what the 70% meant... was it 70% light allowance or 70% darkness of tine... but you have cleared that up now :)

in that case i think i have 50% up front and 30% on the rear
 
Tint percentages are confusing as hell. Some people, including the people who do it for a living class the tints by light allowed in as per the chart above and some go by the percentage of light blocked.

I'm not sure what the overall tint of my 30% standard (thats 70% light let through) plus 20% on top (so that's another 20% being blocked) would add up to in the end but all I know is it was too dark form my liking.

I would work it out this way.
if Timmy had 100 apples and the first bully took 30 off him then he would be left with 70 apples.
If Timmy then meets another bully and he takes a further 20% of Timmy's apples then how many apples does timmy have left?
Answers on a postcard.
 
1inchpunch said:
I would work it out this way.
if Timmy had 100 apples and the first bully took 30 off him then he would be left with 70 apples.
If Timmy then meets another bully and he takes a further 20% of Timmy's apples then how many apples does timmy have left?
Answers on a postcard.
Click to expand...

That was a blast from the past! I felt like I was sitting a maths exam for a second there!

Reminds me of those god awful questions about trains leaving at different times from different stations and at different speeds, and what time will they cross paths :blink:
 
it wouldnt happen to timmy again as he would hit him over the cannister with a bat after the rotten git stole his apples last time lol
 
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