Tinted windows

[Jim Robeson]

I was thinking about trying my hand at tinting my boat windshield and was wondering if any of you all have attempted this or is this something that a pro should do?? If you did this yourself, what product did you use and were you satisfied with the outcome??

 

[farrelltravis]

I am interested to hear replies to this also. A few places around town have quoted roughly $500 to get this done. Once place even said that they required that I take the windshield off the boat and bring it to them.

 

[PEARCE]

I'd suggest that you take it to a pro. And Travis, do NOT take your windshield off and take it to somebody. That's nuts!

 

[farrelltravis]

@PEARCE Definitely was not going to take the windshield off. I thought that place that said that was crazy.....

 

[Ronnie]

I personally tinted the windows my sx230 ho. It took me 6 to 8 hours to do so at a cost of under $60 (dark tint and tinting kit from pep boys). Never again, it may have been easier if I had an assistant but tinting the curved (front/side) windows is very hard to do correctly (without creasing the tint) and it's even harder to make and match two sides.

After selling my 230 I bought a used 242ls and had it tinted. The cost was under $400 from a guy used to doing cars not boats. He ended up removing the windows so he could tint them in the shop on a table, it looks great (the tint is under the rubber seals of each window) but he said he wouldn't do it again, too much of a pita. Also I wouldn't recommend letting anyone remove the windows to tint them. A few weeks after getting mine back I noticed that the corner of the center window was digging into the fiberglass of the boat (it must have been misaligned when it was reinstalled).

My bottom line recommendation is to pay to have this done. Get at least three quotes but don't base your decision on price alone ask to see some pics preferably of their work on boats. Farming this out is initially more expensive but a lot less stressful and less time consuming than doing it yourself, plus the work and or materials is or should be warranted, sometimes for life.

 

[Cowboy Casey]

It took me three different shops to find someone who would do it... It cost us about 500 and was well worth the cost.. he did not take the windows out... it took him about 6 hours to get it the way he wanted and look good, he must of started over 6 times, 2 seconds to much heat from the gun and bam, start over...

this is what he did.. He did not go all the way to the seals, he said they have a good chance of peeling from the boat bouncing and doing stuff that car's just don't do.. there is allot more humidity in boats also... he used a 1/2 inch tinted vinyl tape to go over the tint and next to the seals.. it looks great from the outside but you can see the vinyl on the inside.. it does not look bad, just you can see it... I have not had any issues yet..

 

[DCB-270]

Travis I own a glass and tint shop. Let me talk with my tinter and see if he can do it.

 

[Cowboy Casey]

Travis I own a glass and tint shop. Let me talk with my tinter and see if he can do it.

ohhhhh, now you tell me LOL speeking of that.. wait 1...

 

[DCB-270]

ohhhhh, now you tell me LOL speeking of that.. wait 1...

It's been a long time that I could tell you guys anything. From YJB "You are permanently banned".

 

[Jim Robeson]

@DCB-270...does your tinter make dock calls?

 

[David Analog]

Window Film on a boat.... Doesn't matter how much automotive experience they have. A boat is a different beast. Most shops/tinters lose their butt the first six times they do a boat. If they are using a premium tint (not the junk from an auto parts store) the waste can be a brutal cost not to mention the lost hours. So make the film shop prove that they have real boat experience. And if it's the lowest quote I would run. That's a sure indication that they are not being truthful about their boat experience.
In some boats, not all, the windshield has to come off in order to do a pro level job. The dash elevations can be an obstruction which inhibits the S.S. knife from getting access to the lower glass edge and doing a precise trim at a 90 degree angle. Thus, they either have to leave a visible gap, carve into the rubber gasket, use tape or a paint pen to fill the gap. None of these options look great as compared to a precsion trim.
Others like the glass off the boat so they can work in more of a controlled environment and do a cleaner job. It's no picnic releasing the film liner out in the open with so much debris circulating in air.
Replacing old boat windshields are not like replacing old car windshields. Past a point you won't find the glass sitting on a shelf in a warehouse. A forklift has to pull the sand mold boxed in a crate down and they have to make a one-off. You're talking thousand$ rather than hundred$. If it were me, I wouldn't mess with it unless I was being fairly compensated for the risk.
Film on a boat will not look like film on a car. A car has a hard top and a shaded interior. A boat is open to more light from the interior. So it will take 20% on a boat to appear as dark as 35% on a car. And that can get very dangerous at dusk and at night. You will be sitting up on the seat back more often for safe visibility. Glare and reflection off the interior side of vertical glass is brutal at night with darker tint.

 

[Ronnie]

I forgot to mention I did go with lighter tint the second time around, mainly because when the center window is folded to the open position it was almost impossible to for the person in the copilot's seat to see through it and the windshield (also tinted) under it.

David analog said a lot of the same things that my tinter said when he was quoting me a price and explaining why he proposed to remove the windows. I was able to get close to the seals without removing the windows when i did it myself the first time around but it didn't look good until about the third attempt. Even then I had to make and use "winglets" of tint to cover a small triangular area that the main tint didn't. The stuff from the auto parts store generally isn't as wide as the pro grade material so in my case it couldn't cover the entire suface of the curved windows.

Also originally I wanted a mirrored (silver/chrome) tint. At first he said he could do it with tint commonly use on buildings. He killed the idea as soon as he saw the curved windows of the boat. Mirrored tint has metal in it, metal doesn't do well on curves (when it is bent). Lastly it's a good thing my tinter felt he could use the rest of the the tint he special ordered for me, If he didn't feel that way I would have had to pay for the whole roll , well over $100, closer to $200 as I recall.

Again, unless you have a lot of time, patience and a steady hand, pay someone else to do this is my advice. That and if you don't like the finished product because it's creased, bubbling excessively, etc. have them remove and retry before paying for the job.

 

[Jim Robeson]

I understand completely David Analog...but I was just going for looks period. I realize that tinted windows won't do much good in an open top boat. Just kind of like the looks of it. I'm not about to take the windshield out just to do something like this. Just curious if anyone had tried it and how much of a PITA it was. I don't mind trying something once...well maybe Tequila more than once...just didn't want to get too much over my head. Heck, for $100 or less in materials I wouldn't mind trying.

 

[jawsf16]

20% tint. Around $300 I think. Done at an auto shop that had a book of boats they had tinted. They did an awesome job and it keeps the dash cool, gives a sense of some privacy, and looks awesome! Love it.

 

[Jim Robeson]

@Ronnie...okay, this may be a stupid question but you apply to the inside or outside? I'm guessing inside?

 

[Ronnie]

To supplement Jaws' statement, you can perv (i.e., stare) at beautiful women in bikinis without them or their boyfriends knowing it. $300 t $400 is a good deal for a good job.

This was my first attempt at posting pics. It seemed to go very smoothly, nice. I wonder what the size limit is? Don't tell me. I don't mind doing some surfing for that answer. Love the board so far.

 

[jawsf16]

Yes tint on inside.

 

[Ronnie]

Not stupid at all Jim. It normally goes on the inside. Some guys have applied it to the outside and got good results. It would be a lot easier to apply on the outside because of the way the window is tilted. This makes trimming the tint a lot easier to do as well.

Now that you put the thought in my head, if I were to do it again myself, I'd apply to the outside. It would be a two hour job (in a closed and clean garage). If it didn't work out, I could try it again easily for little or no extra cost or time. Cost wise from the local Pepboys I estimate to be no more than $40: 3 rolls of tint and the tint kit, $10 to $15 less if pass on the tint kit (I would), which is a spray bottle, disposable exacto knife, sometimes a standard razor blade, and a rubber wedge / squeegee, like the kind used for putting screen protectors on phones and tablets, only bigger.

Well this thought came hundreds of dollars and years too late. Now that seems stupid to me.

 

[jawsf16]

@Ronnie I would not think that longevity on outside tint would be very good, especially in salt or harsh sun environments... Application, much easier though.

 

[DCB-270]

@DCB-270...does your tinter make dock calls?

Funny you should ask. One summer we went to Eufaula for 5 weeks in a row tinting house boats. Worked from about 10 till 12 - 1, then went out to the lake. Good money and good fun.