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Windshield tint - what level of clarity to expect?

madtech34
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madtech34

madtech34

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Hi all, I wanted to see if I could get some people's opinion, and possibly from some actual installers who do many of these, regarding full windshield tinting since this is the first vehicle I have had done. I just don't have the knowledge/experience to tell if I am just overly sensitive/observant or if there is actually a problem with the install of the film. I have not gotten a response from the installer on my concern as of yet. He has some of the highest ratings in my area and seems like he a kind of a perfectionist (took at least 2.5 hr just to do the windshield).

 

The quick details: the film in question is a 70% nano ceramic covering the entire front windshield of a 2023 Kia Telluride (vehicle is about half a year old). I also have had the front driver and passenger side windows done with the same installer but with a different brand ceramic film to match the privacy glass on the rear windows. And just to note, I do not have any issues with the quality/clarity of the driver and passenger side films as compared to the windshield. I am about two weeks out from the windshield install and the car has been outside on some days with temps reaching close to 100 degrees (also have some altitude at my location). The curing went through the normal first few days in my opinion with the installation moisture clearing up fairly quickly. Also, I know that the issue I have with the film isn't low angle haze. I can see a slight haze at certain times during the day and don't have an issue with it.

 

The main issue I have with the film is a small but noticeable general blurriness over the entire windshield. It does not seem to be concentrated in any specific areas. The entire film seems to very cleanly installed with really no noticeable edges and quite perfect alignment with the dot matrix on the edges. This blurriness by no means prevents me from driving safely, but it is distracting since I know the clarity my eyes are accustomed to for objects at distance. This slight blurriness/distortion also causes some halos/flaring of DRLs/taillamps during the day and more discernably at night. I am doubting this issue is going to be improved upon any more considering the temperatures the film has been exposed to. I kind of suspect that the distortion may be caused somewhat by the adhesive on the windshield but I just don't know for sure. Some of these same issue are described in this other thread (https://www.tintdude.com/forums/topic/91547-creases-distortions-normal-in-windshield-tint/) and I do have a small defect, which one poster described as a zipper mark, somewhere off to left side of my vision. It isn't distracting since it is quite small (probably about 0.25") and not related to the main blurriness issue.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I do know there is a small possibility that just waiting longer will clear up the issue, but I can't imagine any more moisture is coming out through the film with the high temperatures and very little humidity in our area. I want to give the installer the benefit of the doubt that he did a good job considering his almost 100% positive reviews.

 

 

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madtech34

madtech34

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22 minutes ago, mobiledynamics said:

FWIW, I had a late august-september WS install and the haze/clarity you speak of - Mine went away I wanna say towards December....

 

I was thinking it was polarized glasses and LAH, and what not....but it turned out it simply just needed time to really dry out.

 

What was the climate/humidity at the time of the install?

 

And just to note again, the blurriness issue I am having and LAH are separate. I can tell what the LAH is on my windshield and it does not impact clarity as much as the blurriness which is from something else. Mobiledynamics, wasn't sure if you had clarity/haze separately or if you mean that the haze impacted your clarity and then went away.

 

And I also stopped wearing polarized sunglasses in this vehicle because of the windshield reflective HUD. I had to just go to a normal pair of Oakleys instead without polarized lenses.

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mobiledynamics

mobiledynamics

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It was summer so anywhere from 80-95F as a wild guess outdoors - however, it being indoors@ the shop, maybe 75-80 ?

 

I haven't observed even *LAH* after my issue of clarity went away so I can't put a specific timeline of it.

I was ready to rip off the front tint if it was going to be a persistent LAH..

 

It's the wife's car so I don't have a good baseline of when it was present (dusk, early *high*sun, etc) as I only drive it on the weekends. But it was prevalent. I recall saying, it's been like 3-4 months. Surely it must be dried by now and it had to be LAH. But magically over around Dec-January if I recall, it was gone. There's never been a time since then where even I think LAH is a issue

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madtech34

madtech34

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19 minutes ago, mobiledynamics said:

FWIW, between Sept-mid November, I have even purposely pulled it out of the garage to let things bake....and cure out.

 

It literally just needs time, based on my most recent experience

 

Yeah, that is what I am thinking. I don't expect that it would need as much time in my climate, considering we are consistently hitting 90+ degree days right now at about 5000 ft of elevation. But I am guessing 2 weeks still isn't long enough under those conditions.

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mobiledynamics

mobiledynamics

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I honestly would not have discovered this had I did not end up leaving  the film on the WS....

The clarity was like yours : driving me nutz

I even drove with the heater defroster blower on a few times if I recall

 

Too much damage : risk factor on tint removal was really high on the avoid list so I delayed having it removed.

Hence how I was able to realize it just needed time to cure out

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Chilled

Chilled

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I have Crystalline 70 on a couple of my cars, and no issues. The day/1 after there was slight watery/ripple affect,  almost like  super large orange peel in paint but see through.  Once it dried out, if it wasn't for a random dog hair on one(diy install my dog), you cant tell the windshield is tinted. 

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