MP3Architect said:
whats a tint job like that normally cost? im about to get a speed and need to tint it as dark as legally possible. wuz the difference between the diamond stuff and the cheap s***? ive never had to tint a car before (all my cars already had tint on them) so im dumb when it come to tint info.
Normally, a Protege would be $170-190, depending on if it's a sedan or 'sport wagon'.
To everyone, keep in mind they may want some extra if they have to strip off existing tint, since it is more labor. But I'll guarantee it won't be much.
Back to the questions, as far as the differences in tint.. Mothers and places like it that offer the "$99 Tint" specials and such normally used a lesser name brand *dyed*, non-metallic film. To make it easy to understand, the dyed tint is basically one thin layer of adhesive, one larger layer of dyed polyester film, and one layer of scratch resistant coating. The dye is just that, dye. Over time, with "time" being very relative depending on how much sun your car sees and such, the tint will turn purple. During this time, the tint also changes as far as the chemical makeup of it and may start to bubble up and crack or peel.
Dyed films don't really prevent much heat from entering the car.. The glass does. Basically, dyed films just add yet another layer for the heat to go through so it slows it down a bit, but not much. That means the heat either goes in to the car or gets absorbed in to the glass. The glass then dissipates the heat thanks to wind and such.
So, basically dyed sucks.
Diamond film, which is what we carry and use, is a metallized film. Metallized film actually has several more layers; one being the adhesive, then the UV treated film, the laminating adhesive, the metallized film, and then the scratch coating. The UV along with the metallized layers both reflect the heat away from the car, as opposed to slowing absorption.
Metallized films are generally much pricer and I hear the Steve and Chad going through this speech day after day when people call, only to say "But Mothers has it for $99".
All of this can also be verified at
TintCenter's Different Types of Window Film. It'd be a good read for anyone interested.
One of you called me today to ask about the warranty... As far as that goes, it's not just with us.. You get a nationwide warranty with a card and a brochure so you can take the car to any Diamond place at all to get warranty service if it's needed. You will NOT be covered if you scratch your tint or if the window is broken, acts of god, blah, blah, blah. However, if it does peel, crack, fade, or whatever.. You can go anywhere that has Diamond.
To make a long story short, I'm not making *any* money off of this, and Cartoyz is admittedly making $5.83 over cost of film/laber. However, I've wanted tint on my MSP for a long ass time and I have heard horror stories about cheap tint (eg: Mothers). So, I'm trying to help the guys out around here if they're in the same situation.
The offer applies as long as I'm there, so while I'd like to show Chad I can push stuff and get business, there's no real timelimit or end date.
If anyone has any other questions or if I forget, or you need to get a quote, give me a call on my cell; 947.9582. Name's Clay or t3ase, whatever.
