Tinted

[Golf Cart]

Got the back 5 windows tinted last Saturday. Mike Deugau at Shades in Port Moody did a pretty good job considering it was his first Delica.
Everything went tickety boo until he got to the slider. 2 frozen screws caused him a bit of grief. Then once that was out of the way, he found that they had siliconed the window in. Finally got it off without so much as a nick and proceeded to finish up on the job.

He's willing to charge $240 for 5 windows. I told him about the Crystal Lites and he said he would take a look and decide on a price for the uppers once he saw one,and if there was an interest in doing it.

I got 5% ( limo tint) on the sides, and 20% on the rear.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Nice job, and at a good price, Golf Cart. My only concern about the rear windscreen would be the de-icer strips bubbling the tint off. How is it for backing up when it's dark out?

Falco.

[Golf Cart]

The rear window tint isnt bad at all for seeing out at night. I noticed it did cut the glare a little bit from the "white" headlights.

As for the sides, well, its definately darker and took a bit of getting use to at night. I'm use to driving using side mirrors only so it wasnt a problem.

And the "bubbling" of the tint from the de-fogger is usually caused by not properly prepping the window prior to installation. Mike said that if it did happen to bubble, just bring it back and he'd make it right. I've used the de-fogger most every morning since getting it installed and there were a few bubbles on the first day, but cleared up once the interior temperature got at it. I put in a small blast heater in the back , and parked it in the garage on the first night, keeping the interior at a balmy 23c overnight. Bubbles were gone in the morning

[Drooper]

If the film used is of good qaulity and it is installed onto well preped glass there should be no issues at all with bubbling from the de-mister.


Your Deli looks cool with the tints

[andre66]

I've had 5% on all the windows,including the rear, and have not had any problems with visibility at night, and i drive at night quite often. No issues with the rear defrost and bubbling yet as well.
Andre

[Neal]

it's really easy to do this tint job at home. just buy the tint at canadian tire. (i paid $40) and book 4 free hours on a weekend and save yourself $200. goodluck

[ShaneA]

http://www.iwfa.com/iwfa/consumer_info/ ... elaws.html

This is not "official" but it matches any information I've ever found on window tinting in Canada.

I find it very frustrating that we are not allowed tinting on the front side windows. Despite that I had 35% on my front windows in my Mazda 3. I got several warnings and one ticket during 4 years of driving it. The difference that window tint makes to the interior temperature on a hot summer day is amazing.

Another thing that frustrates me is the 7.5cm max on the front windshield in BC. Every other province (besides NB) allows 15cm of tint. Being rather tall, the 7.5cm strip on the windshield is mostly obscured and nearly useless for me (at least on the Mazda 3).

I'll be getting new tint in my van in the spring. I would like a back up camera though as I find even the current tint (maybe 35%?) difficult to see through on a dark winter night.

[Green1]

I find it very frustrating that we are not allowed tinting on the front side windows.

<-----snip---->

I would like a back up camera though as I find even the current tint (maybe 35%?) difficult to see through on a dark winter night.

and you don't know why we wouldn't be allowed to tint the front windows? do you plan to mount side view cameras too?

Another thing that frustrates me is the 7.5cm max on the front windshield in BC. Every other province (besides NB) allows 15cm of tint. Being rather tall, the 7.5cm strip on the windshield is mostly obscured and nearly useless for me (at least on the Mazda 3).

If you are tall, you look through the top 5cm of an L300 windshield anyway, I would never want ANY tint on an L300 windshield as you'd never be looking anywhere but through it.

[FalcoColumbarius]

I would be interested in a clear "polarized" film on the windscreen to bend all those oncoming high beams that seem to be "okay" these days.

Falco.

[ShaneA]

I would like a back up camera though as I find even the current tint (maybe 35%?) difficult to see through on a dark winter night.

and you don't know why we wouldn't be allowed to tint the front windows? do you plan to mount side view cameras too?

I had no problem in my Mazda 3 with 20% rear tint when backing up even on the darkest night. The reverse lights were much brighter and I was looking directly at the bumper of the vehicle behind me. 95% of the time when I'm parallel parking my van at night there is a small car that I can barely see out the back (even if I had no tint) and the mirror on the rear hatch is nearly useless at night.

The rear view camera isn't needed, but would be a nice convenience on a rather large vehicle that is nearly exclusively parked and driven in a busy urban environment.

I had no problem whatsoever viewing out 35% tint on my front side windows in my Mazda 3. I probably wouldn't want to put it on my L400 regardless because my monsoon guards already have some tint to them. I was frustrated by the fact that several other provinces and nearly every US state allows some amount of window tint on the front side windows (this was when I owned a small car with black leather interior that got very hot, very fast in the summer before I got the windows tinted).

If you are tall, you look through the top 5cm of an L300 windshield anyway, I would never want ANY tint on an L300 windshield as you'd never be looking anywhere but through it.

I'd say I'm normally looking about a 20-30cm down from the top of the window on my L400 CLR. The tint strip on the upper part of the window is nice to have at those times when the sun is low on the horizon and you happen to be driving towards it. I found the 7.5cm almost useless on my Mazda 3 because the shape of the headliner and how the windshield was mounted I couldn't even see the top 5cm+ of the windshield from my normal driving position.

[FalcoColumbarius]

The thing about the reversing lights on a Delica (as with a lot of vehicles) is they pretty much only tell the other person that you are in reverse gear. You could get brighter bulbs; additional alternatively mounted lights; a wide angle camera; a sonar system. As far as the camera system I would recommend searching for a post by Delica304 who put quite a good system into his van ( http://www.delica.ca/forum/hard-wired-b ... tml#p17217 ). The thing with these vehicles is that they have a learning curve. One cannot just climb into a Delica and drive it as if it were a Honda Civic or Chevy truck ~ they are a different machine. L-300s (I have no experience with the L-400) are a short wheel base vehicle that weighs more than two tonnes and has to be driven accordingly.

The reversing mirror must be kept clean or it becomes harder to read and when you add tint into the equation it becomes all the more obscured ~ one must take that into account.

"Drive accordingly". A good mantra to add to your list, under the "cause & effect" heading.

Falco.

[ShaneA]

Thanks Falco, I have read that post about the camera system. As I said, it would be a nice convenience not a necessity for me. If I were to add a new head unit with video screen, I'd probably add a camera to that system.

I agree that the Delica does take a bit of time to get used too. I find the L300 similar to a VW Westfalia (two of which I have owned) and the LWB L400 is quite different. The closest thing I've driven was a 1979 Dodge Tradesman 300 van, which was my first vehicle.

Anyways... Golf Cart, your tint looks great. I may look at Shades when I redo my tint in the Spring.

[lrp374]

I had my tint done about 10 months ago including the rear. I had the guy cut out an area so I could see the mirror @ night. It works great. No problem with wires causing bubbles to date

[Green1]

I had no problem in my Mazda 3 with 20% rear tint when backing up even on the darkest night. The reverse lights were much brighter and I was looking directly at the bumper of the vehicle behind me. 95% of the time when I'm parallel parking my van at night there is a small car that I can barely see out the back (even if I had no tint) and the mirror on the rear hatch is nearly useless at night.

You don't have any lights pointing to the side of the vehicle, and neither does the kid who's about to run out in front of you.

tinting the front side windows is illegal for a reason, it is extremely dangerous.

[ShaneA]

tinting the front side windows is illegal for a reason, it is extremely dangerous.

If it is so dangerous, why is it legal in all but 4 States in the US? Some allow as low as 25% VLT on front side windows. Many European countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Rep, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK also allow window tint in front of the B pillar, although most require 70% or higher VLT. Many of those European countries even allow up to 75% VLT tint on the windshield.

Even in Canada you can have 45% in Manitoba, 70% in Quebec and Ontario's wording is vague enough that many people believe that 50-35% is "light enough" to not warrant a ticket.

From what I've been told and read a number of times, the reason it is illegal in BC is for the safety of police officers when approaching vehicles they have pulled over. I'm all for the safety of officers, but this argument never made sense to me. They are approaching a vehicle from the rear and in all provinces all windows behind the driver can be as dark as 5% VLT, which you can not see through even in daylight. So if the safety of the officers is the primary concern, why is any tint on any windows allowed?