Just had the windows tinted on my 86 N/A. The veteran window tint installer had a hell of a time with the rear hatch window. Couldn't do it in one piece and that upset him. Stating that he seldom has to do a window in more than one piece. He ended up having to do it in 2 pieces and waisting like $100 on tint on the floor. It took him 2 hours.
First my rear hatch shocks are shot and the poor guy had to use a pole to keep it up.
Second the trim / seal was so old that it had to be scaped and cleaned up.
Third the rear defrost was so crummy and nasty, so he had to scrub it and clean it.
All this wile sitting in the rear, carefully not hitting the pole holding the hatch up. Using as heat gun and huge pieces of tint. Oh in a hot -ss garage.....
He had to cancel all other cars for the afternoon. It was so frustrating to him. His last words were laughing and saying "get that f-ing thing out of my sight!"
Anyone else had such a tale....
The owner of tinting business is a relative, so I was to only pay $100 for all the tint work all the way around...But I felt so bad for the installer that I gave him another $100 on the side.

 

Im sure the extra money made it worthwhile....you realize that 100 bucks probably more than doubled his days earnings.

 

I shopped around for a tintjob, people quoted me $300 just because of that rear window. I've been told it's the hardest to do in the entire business. I found a shop that did all the windows for me, including the hatch (which they managed to do in one piece) for $150, it's held up well for the past couple months, and it comes with a lifetime warranty

 

Ken, both mine were the same, the guy who did mine had been tinting for 25 years and said he could do 4 cars in the time he does one of ours! My guy makes me leave it overnight so he can fuss around with it at his leisure.

 

I'm planning on calling around to some shops for price quotes soon for this job. First place that gives me the "sure, we can do that. . . we can do ANYTHING. . . no problem" speal gets it. I'm truly going to enjoy the show too.

Sorry, my evil side is showing again. . .

At least I'll let them remove the hatch if it's easier for 'em.

 

Pics?

 

I was under the impression that multiple pieces of tint was the best. This was due to the curves of the rear hatch causing single pieces to peel away over time. Two or three strips would be carefully placed so that the seam(s) were hidden by the rear defroster lines.

 

They tried to do mine in 1 piece...then 2... then finally ended up doing it in 3.
They trimmed the seams along the defroster grid so you really have to look to see the seams. I think multi pieces are the best way to go. Much less chance of wrinkles and lifting over time. Its been over a year and it still looks great.

 

A friend of mine owns an audio/tint shop here. He actually borrowed my car to 'interview' a potential hire. If teh guy could tint my hatch, he was hired. If not, the tint was removed until the next applicant. When they finally found someone that could do it, I got a free tint job out of it.

This is going along with the hatch glass being the most difficult fob in the industry. I think they used 2 sheets.

When you look around, try to find a shop that has done 944s before.

 

find a place that does corvettes. the curved back window is similar.

 

How much does it help with night driving?
I'm sure it depends on the %, but to aid in driving at night would be the purpose of tinting if I ever did it. That and how sharp it looks with guards red of course.

 

Umm. tint makes it hard to see out at nightt.. in my cars that i have tinted, you can only see like headlights or street lights at night. but thats like 20 percent.

 

My reason for tinting was to try to protect the carpet from fading. The pull out cargo shield doesn't cover all the carpeted area. The place I had it done did it in several pieces and it looked terrible because they didn't bother to line up the seams w/the defroster lines. Didn't matter though because I sold the car soon after.

 

I'm referring to how annoying it is at night while driving 944s in this SUV-crazed world - due to the low height of our cars it seems that any big car or truck's high beams are always boring into my eyes when driving the 944.

 

Kurt, i find if you just aim your mirrors right back at the driver of the SUV, they get the point and turn the lights off. I only do this while sitting at red lights . I have found that Suburbans and Tahoes are the absolute worse to have behind you. The Hummer H2 is actually even worse then those two...but i hardly see them on the road anymore.

Ive found that even the newer sedans with the projector lights (and old cars with misalighned headlights) have become incrasingly worse at glaring me as oncoming traffic. Probably one of the few things i dislike about this car.