I really want to get the windows tinted on my car. It's not so much for the look, but mainly to protect the interior and my stereo equipment. I have insurance, but I still hate the fact that I can't park at the mall or on a busy urban street, without every jackass and his brother peering into my car and seeing subs, an amp, a nice deck, cell phones, my girl's purse, gifts around the holidays, and whatever else is lying around. I work in a busy shopping center, so this is a daily problem. From what I've read, Nazichusetts allows 35% all around. I'd rather save my money. At the same time, I can't afford to get slapped with tickets all the time, especially if they're ones that go on your insurance. I don't want problems passing inspection either. Should I just not bother.....or maybe go a little darker than allowed.....or would a legal tint be better than nothing? Also, is that light-gun thing the only method of testing tints, or do the cops also have some sort of color chart for comparison? I heard somewhere that regardless of the legal limit, you can go as dark as you want on the back because they have no means to accurately test it.

I know here you can go to your eye doc and he can give up a permit for the tint as dark as you want if you can tell him you are very sensitive to the sun light.

It all varies from state to state. Here in Illinois, you are not allowed any tint on the side windows, but are allowed any tint we want on the back. I went with 5% on back and 20% on the sides. When I was leaving the tint shop, they said "You know you're gonna get stopped alot, right?"

That was in July, I have never been stopped or ticketed for tints.

I don't know how strictly they enforce it there, it may be different. But if you are allowed to tint the hatch as dark as you want, I would definately do that since you have stereo equipment back there. And I would also go with the 35% (at least) on the sides, it can't hurt.

If you do tint your windows and a cop pulls you over, you can lessen the chances of getting ticketed for them by just rolling both windows down all the way. If he stopped you for something else, he may not even notice they are down. If he stopped you for the tints, tell him that you know they are illegal and you wanted to roll them down to show you aren't doing anything illegal in the car. Tint laws are to protect cops. Imagine being a cop and approaching a car you stopped and you cannot see into the car. It would be pretty scary, not to mention dangerous. So by doing the officer a favor and rolling them down before he approaches your car, he may let you off.

Andy,
I've been pulled over 3 times in my truck.

Cops are always looking for "Something else" though. You know something to really bust your ***** for....so far nothing to bother me about so they let me go with a "Warning in their system so next time you'll get a ticket"

i tinted my hatch at 5% and it was ****ing dark as hell cuz its not up and down like most cars its horizontal so its really dark so i switched to 20% cuz i didnt want to hit somebody while backing up. if u do the rear hatch ur self it will be a bitch im still having troubles with the upper sides cuz of the big *** curve.

Has anyone ever gotten their eye doctor to do that for them? I think most would see right through it. I have heard of that before but don't know anyone who's actually tried. And I don't really know my eye doctor very well.

lmao...man, I gotta check that one out here......

As far as protecting your subs and amp and stuff, I've found that that tarp thing that goes in the back makes it impossible for ppl to see your stuff, and it doesn't look like you're trying to hide stuff back there...

yes but it farts when the subs are turned up.

I like Mettali and xpendbl live in Illinois where we have the "no tint on the sides" law. I still tinted my sides and did 5% in the back for several reasons.

1. It looks sweet as hell on a black car.

2. I need to protect my stereo and stuff. No ticket can cost as much as the lost equipment.

3. Keeps the car cooler in summer.

i have only been "asked" about the tint on 2 occasions by officers that were stopping me for other reasons so the let the tint go.

Iay tint your windows and protect your stuff. You will feel better and your car will look better.

Yes, you can do this, but the eye doctor will give you a test to see how succectible to light you really are. My roomate got a prescription for 20% all the way around and it is legal. Guess you'd just have to leave the prescription in the car in case anyone tried to bother you about it.

And as stated above it is a VERY good idea to roll the windows down if you get pulled over by a cop.

got mine done too, 5% rear, 35% sides, im not illegal so nutting to worry about

Perfect excuse...if you get pulled over when it is tinted say "I bought the car like this from out of state and i didn't know it was illegal". but only say this if they are harrassing you. If they don't say anything your fine. Also if they tell you it is illegal say you didn't know and you'll take it off when you get home .

In most areas you can paint your rear window black and they can't do a thing. It's the sides and front that they most worry about.

hahahaha!!! so true so true LOL!

My girlfriend (Redraif/Shannon) has an exemption from the GA State Patrol for window tint; it applies to all of her vehicles, and any vehicle she rides in often (I can get it too, by association, and plan to). Her tint is red mirrored, and even though she does get stopped or harassed for it occasionally, once they see the exemption they cant do a thing about it.

She got the exemption through her doctor, who wrote a letter stating the medical need for her window tint (she has migraines). The letter was written to specifically target any area of the GA law that could come up...so shes covered for tint, vinyl on the windshield, etc. Basically anything she'd ever want to do to the glass. I'm not saying this kind of thing is easy to get, but if you have any medical condition that makes you suceptible to sunlight (migraines, prescription anitbiotics taken on a regular basis, you're a vampire, etc), you can legally get the tint you want. Just make sure you do it before you get the tint, it might take a while .

I got stopped specifically for my tint about a year ago and told the trooper just that. He really didn't care and smiled as he handed me an $80 ticket. He stopped a co-worker about 5 minutes before me for the same thing, ticketed him, and really didn't seem to care when asked if the ticket was necessary. He even ripped off one side while he was waiting for the trooper to come back to his window. I didn't bother to ask. Oh yeah, my co-worker was driving a '97 Bonneville, so it wasn't just a "harrass the guy in the Camaro" thing.
So, my point is, think about whether the potential harrassment is worth it to you.

they just made those perscriptions here in il not legal. it sucks

oh well

here in colorado u can go all the way to a 5% on the back but they cant put ANY film on the sides the legal limit for sides is 30% so i had mine done 30% all the way around out here the cops have little guns they can hold to the window to find the % i got stopped once for it u should have seen the look on his face when it read it as LEGAL


heres an ok pic of it

sorry i forgot to attach it doh

and 1 more hopefully a better idea of the deepness of it i now got rid of the avalanche motorsports decal and have my teams decal


Team Sleeper Racing sweet decal ill get some pics of it that were putting on our website

I think telling a cop you just bought the car and didn't know would only apply if you actually did just buy the car... I'm pretty sure they can tell how long the car's been in your name, or on the same insurance, or something like that.. I'm not positive, but I'd be careful..

Well then say you bought the car with the tints on and you didn't know they were illegal.

In California you can legally have anything you want on the back window and side windows, but can't have anything on the driver and passenger side windows, just like Illinois I guess. I didn't know the law so when I took my car to get tinted the guy asked me what I wanted. He recommended the 5% (aka Limo) tint for the back and when it came time for the driver/passenger windows he made sure to tell me it was illegal. For the time being, I didn't think it was worth it for me to take the chance of getting hassled by cops about window tint. I drive by the police station and a bunch of cops every time I go to school, so it wasn't worth it for me, at least for now. In the future I do plan on having the sides tinted anyway, probably 35-50%, because 86NiteRider is right, it does look really sweet on a black car.

I drive by the police station twice a day if not more. I've also had cops right beside me and once I was at the gas station when the sheriffs department decided it was time to fill all the cars... It was literally 12 or so sheriffs cars and me, I wanted to take a picture. None of them said a thing about my windows.

I didn't tint my camaro, but all ya need to do is play stupid, and say I didn't know and it was like that when I bought it ,I'll get it fixed ASAP officer. Chances he'll just say ok and off ya' go. Or when you see a cop roll your windows down! After all there is alot of paper work for everything in Law enforciment so if you give them a excuse not to have to do as much work they will probably be cool with that.

yeah you can roll your windows down in the summer and be ok but if its like 10* below zero and you drive by a cop with your windows down or he sees you rolling them down as you go by he knows that sumthing is up. So be careful when it comes to that matter.

i have my back window at 5%, sides at 20%, imo 20% is not dark enough for me! i'll end up changing it to 5% later. I havent had any problems, and i drive by cops every day (the projects) who bust peoples ***** for no reasons. if you do get pulled over, and you have dark tint, roll down your windows AND turn your interior lights on, and respect the cop, and you should be fine, unless they decide to be an *******...