Tinting over Rear Privacy Glass

[asdaven]

Hi-

I have '17 F150 Crew Cab and I had the three rear windows tinted to 20%. So 20% over 20% privacy glass.I feel its too dark and I can't see out the back at night. I want to darken up the rears some and reduce glare but not this much. Plus I want the UV benefits of tint. Would redoing witb 45% be worth it? I'm shooting for more 10-15% final result. The current rear windows are probably less than 5% with the 20% on the rear.

Edited December 30, 2017 by asdaven

[Jake]

A close way to get to what you want is buy multiplying the glass vlt by the tint vlt. So 20%x20% would be close to 4%. Not exact but quit close.

[asdaven]

So by that logic, would 35% over 20% privacy glass not be much different than the 20% on right now? Im thinking I need to go 45% or 50% to get what I want (~10%).....tint shop that did it said 20% over 20% factory would yield 8-10% probably. I think it's more like 4-5%. 

[highplains]

From my experience 20% over factory typically does yield in the 5% range. A lot of it will depend on how dark your factory glass is on it's own. My personal vehicle has 35% over factory and meters dead on at 10% so I suspect that you're on the right track with a 35-50% in mind.

[Ryker]

50% will get you the number you want but I doubt it will be enough to "reduce glare".  I doubt believe 50%  is good for reducing glare.  Sure it does by 50% but that is just not the glare reduction that it appears to be in reality.

[asdaven]

The shop I goto has a 45%. They have a 20% and 30% below that. I dont think they have a 35% or 40%. So my choices would be replacing the 20% with 30% or 45%. I don't think 30% over 20% factory is not going be much different over 20% over 20%.

 

What I could do is just replace the rear side windows with 45% and leave the rear window 20% over 20% factory.  Would this look weird? I have 30% on the fronts and it would lighten up the backs on the side to match better. But I want some mismatch so it dosent draw attention from law enforcement. 

Edited December 31, 2017 by asdaven

[asdaven]

So ended up replacing the 20% with 35%. Or maybe 40%......My tint guy says it meters at 12%. Which I don't understand because if the back factory tint is 20%.....wouldnt a 45% or 50% get it to around that number? You would think 35% would make it lower. 20% over the back, I didint have him meter it....but eyeballing seemed around 5%. I thought 35% over factory 20% wasn't going to be a huge difference from the 20% over the factory 20% but it sorta is.  I thought I was going to need to go 45%-50% to get it lighter. 

Edited January 6, 2018 by asdaven

[highplains]

It's always a crap shoot, did you have him meter your bare privacy glass? I've seen factory privacy as dark as 12% and as light as 28% with the average being in the 20-25% range. At the same time film that's marketed as 35% isn't always exactly 35% most of them I've seen are around 37% or 38% out of the box, some are as high as 41/42% while other films marketed as 40% are really 37% or 38% out of the box. There's a lot of little nuanced things that come into play. That all said if you're currently metering at 12% the odds of you being able to visually distinguish between 10% and 12% or 12% and 15% without a meter are slim to none. 

[asdaven]

Well 35/40% over the rear got me to where I want at around 12% which is in the 10-15% range I was looking for. They call it 35% but I think its more of a 40%. Like you said factory rear privacy glass can be as low as 12%. Big difference in visability at night over the 20% over privacy glass... lost some glare reduction but oh well. Eyeballing it, the tint guy said the rears are 20%, but I suspect on the lighter end of 20% more like 25%. But my tint guy was right, 45-50% would've been too light. I probably would've been happy with 30%. 30% is a perfect happy medium between 20% and 35%. I run that on the fronts. But I'm happy with how 35-40% worked out over the factory tinted rear windows. Better matches the fronts from the inside. And a little bit more on the outside. I prefer it slightly darker in the back.

Edited January 7, 2018 by asdaven

[jh812]

Glad they got it worked out for ya