Tint in Chase Vehicles

[Bryce Stone]

How many of you chase with tinted windows? I have been driving a Crown Vic with dark tint at work, and I noticed that at night it is near impossible to see anything outside the car. How does tint affect your chasing?

I wanted tinted windows, but after driving this car I'm fairly confident I will not be getting my new chase vehicle (if I ever get it . . . lol) tinted.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bill Hamilton]

I will always tint mine. Not only does it keep you and the car cooler on long chases but it also makes it harder for someone to see all your valuable equipment inside.
Tint also help you from wearing so much glass if you should have a core punch go wrong.
You can always go with a lighter tint instead of the real dark tint.

 

[Graham Butler]

Most places that sell tint will have panes of glass so you can compare. Take your camera up there with you along with some of your filters and try them out. I was checking the tints out one time and found that my circular polarizer, when used through this metallic tint, caused some objects to turn brilliant rainbow metallic colours. I would have been pissed had I found this out after purchasing.

As for my opinion on tint....go for it but not to dark. I have no tint on my front two windows but plan on going with at least a light tint. My chase partner had a very dark tint on his last chase vehicle; this not only caused problems shooting video/stills through it but at night, it was almost to dark to see.

hth

Graham Butler

 

[Brad Emel]

I can see the positive aspects of tinting your vehicle, but I don't think I will ever do it. For me, I want a clear unobstructed view out the driver and passenger windows. It may make it warmer during the summer, but I think even a light tint would be too much. The other reason is window tint in Illinois is illegal. Most of the police don't seem to mind, unless you live in the town that I do!

 

[Dan Cook]

window tint is illegal in Illinois? I only thought it was the driver's side window.

 

[Kyle Masters]

Tint also help you from wearing so much glass if you should have a core punch go wrong.

My thoughts exactly. The only reason I still have a light tint on all my windows is because it aids in reducing the shatter when that baseball sized ice chunk zero's in on your windshield

 

[Mike Sharp]

I don't like tint on the windows,alright the manufactures do some tinting here in Europe but that is the actual glass. If I had to protect the glass I might look at the clear stuff similar to the stuff you cover books with.

 

[David Drummond]

Graham was right, the tint I had last year on the front side windows was a bit too dark for nightime. Much less is on the current one. One thing I will say, when that window blew out (externally) in Nebraska, you can see the majority of it still stuck to a large piece of tint film go flying by the windshield, so to some degree, the tint film does retain some of the glass with it.

 

[Brad Emel]

Sorry Dan, maybe I didn't explain myself enough. I was meaning to say that tint on the driver and passenger windows is illegal in Illinois. You can paint the rest of the windows solid if you want to.

Here is a link for all the state window tint laws. http://www.tintdude.com/itom.html

 

[Dan Cook]

Originally posted by brademel
Sorry Dan, maybe I didn't explain myself enough. I was meaning to say that tint on the driver and passenger windows is illegal in Illinois. You can paint the rest of the windows solid if you want to.

Here is a link for all the state window tint laws. http://www.tintdude.com/itom.html

ah thanks.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Anyone had luck with DIY tinting kits? The few people I've known that have done it themselves vowed never to try it again (i.e. bubbles in the film that are unavoidable, etc).

Tim

 

[Mike Sharp]

Tim forget the idea of DIY tints, I had a go at doing just the rear windows and tailgate of an Estate car and gave up. If you can put sticky film on a 16x 16 map without a single wrinkle having peeled the backing off all at once go for it but remember windows in autos are never flat and then you have to trim the edges.
Totally forget the idea.

 

[Dan Cook]

Originally posted by Tim Vasquez
Anyone had luck with DIY tinting kits? The few people I've known that have done it themselves vowed never to try it again (i.e. bubbles in the film that are unavoidable, etc).

Tim

My dad did it on his van; almost wrecked the window.

 

[Brad Emel]

Originally posted by Tim Vasquez
Anyone had luck with DIY tinting kits? The few people I've known that have done it themselves vowed never to try it again (i.e. bubbles in the film that are unavoidable, etc).

Tim

Its well worth the money to have somebody else do it. I tried doing it myself once, and did a terrible job. Of course I had to take it down in a few short weeks because of the cops around here. :roll:

 

[David Drummond]

I agree with them Tim, I don't recall EVER seeing a good outcome on those over the counter tints. You can get a minivan/suv done these days for $100-$120 if you shop your prices.

Now, also, I have noticed some people selling the sheets of professional tint, and even precut pieces for certain vehicles on Ebay. One guy I knew that did our tint for us when I worked at Saturn told me the biggest key to a good tint job was making sure you get the glass ABSOLUTELY clean!