Tinting the Beast

clu258 said:

Okay I finally got the beast. However, here in Saudi Arabia the Armada is not factory tinted. So, I decided I'll tint mine with V-Kool.
I went to to a V-kool tint shop and found out that they have the clear one and four different blacks. They go from light to very dark. They don't have details about how dark or how much light can go through.
The question is:
Which one I should get to have the exact same factory looks? Also, if you had a chance to change your tint would you rather go darker or lighter? How about vision at night. Is it hard to see through the rear view mirror?
Sorry for the long list of questions but I thought with this great site I won't go wrong.
Any tips to do or not to do are highly appreciated.

Click to expand...

If you don't have %, its difficult to describe. I'd go one shade lighter than the darkest. This is about what it comes with from the factory, which is about 20% or so. Limo is like 5%. No problems with night vision, etc.

I'll go to the shop and ask about the % of light I think. The strange thing is that even on V-kool site they don't show pics of the products they have only numbers. I think they assume everybody knows.
Thanks TB for the quick reply.

I like lumar (sp?) tint. Its what the infiniti guy and reputable guys in FL use. Do a search on the site to find the % used by stock armadas.

pre-cut tint

The Factory tint may be different in diferent states, I know here in California they don't tint the front windows (driver and passenger), but My friend in Arizona got his with the front tinted. I found a guy on e-bay selling pre cut tint and tools for instalation for cheap and i was planning on buying the front two windows from him. Not sure If that would work for you, but it was under an Armada search on ebay.

Front Tint?

Isn't it illegal in US for front driver/passenger tint to come from the factory. Probably added by the dealer to help sell it. Some states allow it at certain % like FL, but some don't.

I went to the shop last night and this is what I found out
1-the clear one is K-70 and I'm gonna put it on the windshield and front windows.
2-The lightest tint is k-37
3-the second is k-28
4-the darkest is k-14
Luckily when I went there they had a Nissan Patrol tinted with k-14. I liked it because I can see very clearly from the inside and it looked cool.
Armada without a tint is missing half of its beautiful appearance.
Looks and functions of the tint is a must on the beast.

When I checked with the police they said (and the ziebart guy showed me the letter) that the maximum tint is 25% light transmission (or 75% tint if you like), with no tint allowed on front screen - front passenger and drivers door windows.

I would assume that K28 is 28% light transmission which would be ok and that K14 is 14% light transmission which would not. As TB says Limo black is around 5% which is very dark.

You pays your money and takes your chance with the police (thay can be a bit hot on these things in Riyadh) as they say

In Saudi the proper tints are available from V-Cool, SuperCool, Ziebart and Lumar with V-Cool being the most expensive. Oh and Clu you will need to get an external arial for GPS (if you use one) if you tint the front screen.

I have a BT GPS that I use with my Pda. I'm surprised that I can't use it anymore. I put it in the glove compartment in my other car and I get good signal.
The plastic materials of the dashboard is exposed to the sun and will crack in a year or so and a windshield tint will protect that.