Tinting Plastic Windows

Mod Description

You can't reliably tint plastic windows with tinting film so here's an alternative idea.

Mod Details

PremiumNo Difficulty Mod ID784 Creditevilution Cost££20 For Linkhttps://www.evilution.co.uk/mod/tinting-plastic-windows.htm Copy to Clipboard

Plastic Rear Side Window Problems

The plastic windows in the rears sides of the 450 fortwo and Roadster coupe are tricky to tint. Plastic expands and contracts so the tinting film often bubbles.

Some tinting companies won’t tint them, some won’t guarantee the tint on those windows. Some will sell you expensive “special” tint film for plastic windows. These bubble too. There is nothing you can do to film tint these for any period of time.

Options

Previously, your only real options were to live with bubbled tint film or spray them with tint spray or just standard spray paint. The tint spray wouldn’t be even and the result would be translucent and not transparent so they could no longer be used for windows. Standard paint would obviously make the window opaque. However, I thought of another option.

Perforated Vinyl

This comes under a few different names, the original was “Gerbervision” but the latest is known as “Flyeyes” vinyl and you can see why when you look at it.

It is a light coloured vinyl that is printed to give the correct colour. It can be bought here.

This stuff is odd. It’s not particularly thin but can shape around objects easily, It’s sticky enough to stay in place even on the outside of the car but it can be repositioned over and over again and even if it sticks to itself it can be pulled apart with no damage to the vinyl.

Fitting

It is important that you clean all the grease, grime, dirt and dust from the window before starting. Cut a piece out slightly larger than the window aperture, peel it from the backing and lay it down.

Flatten the vinyl down with the supplied protective plastic card. Go right up to the edges.

When all the vinyl is stuck down, take the supplied scalpel and trim off the excess.

Ensure the edges are all pushed down. Applying quick heat with a hairdryer will aid sticking.

Replace the window if you removed it and repeat on the other side.

Job done and you shouldn’t have a problem with this stuff. You may need to press the edges in a few times until the vinyl settles in place. You won’t get air bubbles because of the perforations. The result is similar to a light to medium tint.