i did. and no. you will NEVER be able to do the back window. and you will NEVER be able to get the really good stuff from ebay. if you live in a hot climate, pay the money and get the good stuff that actually works. HUGE difference in our black car

 

I have done the pre-cut stuff on three Millenias I owned back in VA. This was mainly due to anything on the front windows being illegal in the VA/Md/DC area. Some shops quoted me as much as $250 for a simple job.

You live in MIAMI bro!!! Cruise down ANY shop in Hialeah and you can get a full tint job for under $100. SURE it probably won't be the best tint in the world but at least you won't have to deal with the trouble of hot gunning the rear window/creases/bubbles. I know a number of places that I can recommend that do GREAT work. Don't PM me (I stopped reading them a long time ago) but I'll post back on here where to go if you can't find a place.

Some shops will only charge you $50 if you bring your own tint in too. Regardless of the install price there will always be a surcharge to remove the old tint especially on the rear defroster lines. You can't take a blade to any of it.

Miami has got to be the cheapest place in the USA to get tint done from my experience.

 

i think I paid $300 cash for all the windows in CA. Transparent ceramic in the windshield and sunroof costed almost the half but cut the most heat.

 

Okay, I think you convinced me of what I already knew. I'll remove the tint myself, that should save half the cost. I know how to remove the tint and glue without damaging the rear window defrost lines.

Now that I think of it, I have all the paperwork for my car in a file. The tint shop I used a decade ago is still in business, and the tint they installed might have lifetime warranty for fading, bubbling, or hazing. So might be worth a try to pull the paperwork and go back. Let me go pull the paperwork and see what it says. I'll also then see what I paid the last time.

 

Well, I just removed my tint from the rear window. I used a small garment steamer to steam the tint off, and was really careful removing the tint and glue without damaging the rear window defrost or the built-in antenna lines.

I was all proud of myself, and smiling ear-to-ear admiring my perfect removal job. Without damaging the defrost lines.

Then I looked at the seat back through my now very clear rear window... Oh crap! My leather on the top of the rear seat back is so dried out like cardboard, that the place I was resting my arm to do the work ripped a long 6-8 inch split in the leather across the top of the seat back.

This car is getting so old that every time I repair something, then something else either breaks, rips, or disinegrates in the process. Fix one thing, then two things break.

 

Just got the tints done. $100 cash.

Standard Sungard tint, not the expensive stuff (that was $179).

All four door windows and the back window. Computer cut. The back window is all one-piece. They must be good, I don't know how he got that one single piece of film on that back window so perfect.

I wanted it light (I'm not a teenager anymore). He told me the darkest legal was 30 on the front windows and 20 in the back windows and rear for Florida. I told him I wanted the lightest they had (which was 35). So I told him to put 35 all around. He said 35 wouldn't look good on the rear window, because it has such a slope and would let a lot of light in. So I went with 35 on the four door windows, and 20 on the rear.

 

You just can't beat that price! Considering its $50 just for precut tint on ebay AND you still have to install it hoping you don't mess up a single window.

 

Darn thats a really good price. And I am totally with you about the setup. Tint is not legal in the front doors in CA. So I went with 50% on 4 doors and 35% in the rear. There is no way anyone can tell rear is darker. 35% on the doors is the max it should be before getting into getto territory. Mine were llumar and there is no color change or whatsoever for 3 years now.

Any photos?

 

I just got the "standard" tint, not the "premium" tint. But considering my car is now 13 years old and the price difference was $100 versus $179, I just went with the standard. The guy is a real perfectionist, he spent over 2 hours on my car getting everything perfect. They do a lot of tint work for the Lexus dealer across the street, and for the Ferrari dealer in town. So they do first class work all the way. There are tint shops on every street corner in Miami. When I was shopping around you could tell everyone was hungry and fighting for my business. Definitely a buyer's market for tints down here.

 

Yeah its a good time to shop for anything. Tints come with lifetime warranty. If the guy has the shop for sometime anything bad happens he will compensate for it. Afterall I dont think they pay too much to the film.

How is the tint around defrost lines? Mine has air around the lines. They did it twice but told me there is no way to make it better because the lines are too thick (good for defrosting).

 

The trick for the defroster lines is after they put it on while the tint is still fresh, every day for a week go with a very soft cotton tshirt and run your finger along the lines, it will take out most of the air.

a little trick my tint guy told me about. thought he was just trying to BS me because he didn't want to re-do it. sure enough about 1 week later there was almost no gap around the defroster lines. good tip, but make sure the tshirt is really soft.

 

Mine has some air on the defrost lines. But not much in the main center focal area of the window. More on the bottom corners where it is really curved. The guy told me the same thing, that the lines are "thick" and will have air. He said the old school Lexus' from the 90's were like that. In a way I'm glad they are thick and meaty, that way they seem like they are less fragile and won't break as easy. Plus my year is the one with the radio antenna in the back window. So I want that one thick and meaty. I did the T-shirt trick today on the lines. It already looks much better with less air after only one day. I'm going to do that every day for a week and see if that will minimize the air on the lines.

 

He told me the same about lexus. Applying pressure didnt help. They kept the car for the whole afternoon and did that with a heat gun and defrost running the whole time. There is still air. I am used to it now though.