one film on top of another ?

i have 20% on my back window and i was thinking if i should make it darker. but my friend told me that my defroster will be screwed most likely if i attempt to remove the film that is already there. this is a leased car and i really don't want to damage the defroster, so my friend suggested i can have a second tint on top of the first one ?

so this got me thinking - the same types of tint that are available in light shades ( Huper Select, V-Kool etc ) are usually not available in dark shades. so if i want 50% on the front windows and 15% on the rear that sort of means i have to use different tints.

problem is if i have for example Select on the front and Formula in the back the two are probably going to have different hue and different reflectivity and its just going to look bad. worse than it would have if the only difference was their %.


so i am thinking - what if lets say put Select ( light tint ) on both front and rear and then on rear only behind it put a second layer of say Formula ( darker tint ) ?

would this make sense ?

Well first how old is the existing tint, is it purple, and does it have any bubbles? If it still looks good and new any shop can take it off without ruining the defrosters. Then u can get whatever you want. I don't recommend double layering film unless they know how to do it. Its not just putting another layer on.

i've done double layers of film over existing numerous times without any special procedures. what is so special about doing it?

I'll tint over tint with the exception of no warranty and absolutely no comebacks accepted... (this is after I show you how crappy your old tint job was)

its best to have the new layer a little smaller than the first layer. if there is a border with air trapped in between it is more likely to finger prematurely. ive had dbl limo on a couple cars and it happened 3 years later. so now i make sure and trim the 2nd layer very tight so it doesnt overlap the first layer.

VIP, are you sure it was not the film having issues sticking to the scratch coating? I know I did a light film and a colored film double layered years ago and the stereo shop I did it for were working on the car, masked off something and put tape on the tint, when they pulled the tape the second layer just came off CLEAN.....

i dont' do anything different other than leaving like 1/8" gap from the first layer if its on a rollup

i line 'em up exact. never had any issues at all.

just dont let it hang over on the bottom or sides. if you hang it over make sure there is plenty of slack.

ok for the back window my original tint still looks perfect. are you sure there there is no risk to the defroster in removing it ? is this commonly done ?

I havent had a defroster come off with the old film in many, many years. What I usually see is someone trying to do it themself and scraping all or part of the lamination off. I do alot of tint removal-so I'd say your safe.

word.

find someone who does a lot of removals. Some tinters hate it and don't do it, and some don't care and do a lot(me). If you use a steamer or bag it in the sun, theres almost 0% risk of ruining the defroster, especially if the film is still black and not bubbling.

speaking of I did a second layer on a mazda 6 today. I always drop the top line a hair lower, but for some reason whoever tinted this car before did not tuck the bottom of the tint behind the seal, so ... of course I didn't want to go above that so I left about .25 inches below it I'm not sure where I ended on the edges of the glass, the seals are to tight to poke around too much in there. The customer was happy, and surprisingly he was happy with the no warranty and no comebacks accepted rule...

... My back window needs tinted on this care I acquired, I think i'll take it to the competition, i'm too expensive.

i've had 3 layers of tint on my previous car =) first layer was vkool then two other layers were 35% and 50% haha

I had to remove the rear window tint on an Accord that I tinted 10 years ago with 20% Madico Onyx. Bagged it for about 45 minutes and it of course made my life hell cause it wanted to delaminate just at the top portion of the glass. Took me over 2 hours to remove the tiny purple stinky pieces and 10 minutes to retint it. Used a razor blade and nicked one defroster line, but otherwise it came out great.