Friday 24 January 2014

Window Tint

Hubby tinted the bus windows the other day. He had previously tinted both of our cars so he was pretty confident that the bus would be a simple job.

Once again, YouTube was a great tutor and after some research and a little trial and error, he was tinting like a pro.

If you're planning to do your own tinting, you need to make sure the tint you use is LEGAL (see previous post for the Vic Roads info). We had legal tint left over from doing the cars so the windows next to the driver's side and passenger side were done in that. All the other windows in the bus are not driving windows so they could have been blocked out if we wanted. We only wanted it to be a bit darker than the driving windows so we got the 15% tint. Not so dark that it blocks all of our natural light, but not so light that it is easy to peer in.

We got our tinting supplies from ProTinting on eBay. http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/protintingsupplies
We also got the little kit of squeegees and cutters which was a good decision! They are needed. For the cleaning of the windows and wetting agent, we opted for Johnson's Baby Shampoo. Just as the videos on the internet recommended (it does work).

We will need to get a couple of meters of frosted tint for the two windows where the bathroom will be AND it turns out that the passenger driving windows are slightly larger than all of the other windows so we need to get a little more of the 35% (legal) which is a bit wider than what we already have.

    Here you can see the 2 bathroom windows which are not tinted (will be frost white) in the middle and the slightly lighter tint on the driver's door. Not sure why the white of the bus looks splotchy in this picture. I think maybe reflections off the house windows.


The passenger side. The open window at the front is the bigger one which we will need wider tint for. We still need to put the lights back on and fix up the front paint job! Whoops, got distracted with the tinting!

DO NOT tint the front windscreen. You're not allowed to and you'll fail your RWC. Also, the tinting shop I linked to earlier in the post, has a number of  mirror and metallic tints for homes and businesses. You can't use any of these reflective tints on your vehicles... even though the colours are attractive and the idea of 1 way mirror windows is fun.



The back window did not turn out as well as the simple, square, side windows. It was a 2 person job which wasn't too difficult but the horizontal AND vertical bend in the window made it very difficult to tint. A number of 'fingers' and wrinkles appeared around the edges due to the window shape being 'bubble-like'. Oh well, you can't win them all! That back sticker also needs to come off. I'm not sure what it is glued with but it is difficult to remove cleanly and we have been chipping away at it, bit by bit.

Yesterday we drove the 3 hour round trip to get a part for the awning which the shop forgot to tell us we needed. Whoops! They DID give us a discount though.

Today we are compounding the paint and polishing it. Once again, the compressor and air tools are a godsend and are getting a work out.

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