Window tint, shades, blinds?

Hurrache

Hi,

Wife is picking up a replacement company car, but this one has no privacy glass in the rear.

Years ago last time I picked up an estate I used a company to add tints to rear windows but I was never really 100% happy with it. The tints themselves were perfect, no bubbles or any marks, but the door card on one side never really fit back correctly again, and one of the wires in the rear windscreen heater got damaged so was left with a line across that didn't remove the condensation when initially switched on.

I know some people say you don't need to remove the cards to tint the windows correctly, others will do it by forcing the tint into the card using a tool, but I guess that risks damage too.

Has anyone gone down the route of not having the cards and boot trim removed?

My daughter, even with the tints, often creates what's basically a tent for her in the rear on a summers day, she's not a great traveller, so we'll need something at least.

If no tint, are those full sized sun blinds any decent? I've seen decent reviews for the likes of the ones from Car Shades but I'm not convinced they won't get sucked away once the adjacent window is inevitably open on the motorway.

mikeecho

Carshades aren't cheap, but they are excellent.
Have them on two cars, would definitely get them on the next car as well.

They have a promo code going a few times a year.. definitely do a promo at Easter.

kirving

I'd be going with the tint myself. no excuse for a company to be breaking door cards. Plenty of tricks they can use like using duct tape to cover the felt window seals, and to pull back the rubber seals.

I've done it in the past, and gave got a great result on my first attempt without removing the door cards. I won't say flawless, but I've seen so called professionals do a hell of a lot worse.

Hurrache

Yeah, it was poor form alright.

I've seen a couple of brief vids on the websites for some places and they don't seem to remove the cards and trim, which is preferable to me.

Del2005

You can get socks for your windows, they are just the 1st I found you can get them for most cars. You aren't supposed to leave them on full time, but my neighbours have had them on their cars for the last few months.

Hurrache

Look good if they fit as advertised, probably not ideal to leave on a car in Ireland with all the rain we have but the issue is that they don't cover the small windows in the rear of the car or the rear windscreen.

R.O.R

Where are you based? Might get some recommendations for tinting in your area, where people know it's done correctly.

Local fella (Drogheda) has done the wife's last 2 cars, and the quality is the best I've seen. Wasn't expecting much on the first one as it was a lot cheaper than elsewhere and was blown away by how good it was.

Turns out the same fella does work for a good few main dealers in North Dublin as well - did tints on a Velar I ordered for a customer which was just as good a job as the wife's car.

Hurrache

North side of Dublin. Her fleet manager mentioned they use a regular guy too, but she didn't get the details.

R.O.R

https://www.facebook.com/SolarCareWindowTinting/

The background picture on the facebook page is the Velar he did for my customer in North Dublin.

If you don't have an FB account - http://www.solarcare.ie/index.htm

Neither of the wife's cars made any of his galleries though.

I've no affiliation with this company, except for having used his services personally and for business, and been very impressed with the quality of the work.

Hurrache

Cheers R.O.R. we'll check them out. Somewhat comforting that there's some amount of expensive cars in his gallery.

Have used SolarCare in drogheda in the past myself. Found him excellent. Also used a guy in dundalk called ProTint Windows. Found him notably cheaper than the Drogheda chap, but same job done in terms of no damage to cards or anything like that (have used him on 3 different cars, I think, and never had an issue).

Always worth shopping around though.

Stoolbend

I had car shades on the last family car. They looked just like tints from the outside but you could open the window and the shade stayed in place. Great for keeping the car cool and bugs out.