DayTripping
Well-Known Member
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I've been on the fence about tinting my sunroof. Downside is there could be a risk of cracking the glass and then warranty not covering it. There have been instances of this on the Tesla forums.
I decided against it and went tinted PPF on my sunroof instead. It was done by a local shop who did my Tesla Plaid. They do awesome work in general and the same was true of my Rivian's roof.
If you are in the DFW metro, I can't recommend Ceramic FX enough. The owner has been into coatings (that includes paints) at the automotive manufacturing level for a long time. Which got him into how to protect the paint on cars. Here is the website.
https://ceramicfx.com/
So why did I go with PPF rather than tint? Primarily was the reduced issue of denying a warranty claim. Having the tinted PPF on the roof helps reject the heat before going through the glass. A lot less energy hits the glass in the first place.
Another huge plus is I like to use my roof rack and carry stuff on my roof. This is 8 mil ppf. So it provides a nice barrier to the glass. Very handy if I drop something on the glass while loading or in Texas, we have to deal with hail. Pretty easy to get hail damage out of dented body panels but broken glass is another issue.
So if 8 mils of protection is good, 16 mils will be even better. So they put on another clear layer for extra protection and to be like a sacrificial layer for the tinted film. That stuff is very high quality so it isn't cheap.
So how did it turn out? Awesome. OMG the difference is huge and instead of having an ugly sun screen up there, I can still use my pano roof without my head getting cooked all the time. There is definitely a lot less load on the AC. I am not getting all the radiated heat from the pano roof and the amount of energy entering the cockpit is clearly lessened. It isn't crazily dark so I still enjoy my roof at night.
Another side benefit is it made my cockpit quieter. I can hear the difference. It is even more apparent with all the wind noise mitigation. I can't see why you wouldn't want to do something like this if you live in the South or hot climate. Maybe in MN I'd skip it but I'd still do the clear for protection. The cost was very reasonable. I am going to have it done to my Teslas as well. What a massive difference for me.
I don't see why you couldn't use this stuff on the windshield to help protect the glass. Obviously you'd have to replace it if you used the wipers a lot but cheaper to do that than replace the windshield from chips.
Here are some specs.
Visible Light Transmission (VLT): 30%
For regular window tint films, this value is between %5 to 80-90%. On front side windows, they typically use 30% window tint film, as 25% is the legal limit in TX. So it has the same VLT as the most legal tinted front windows.
Total Solar Energy Rejection (TSER): 56%
This is a pretty competitive TSER value. For comparison, Llumar's ceramic window tints CTX 30 and IRX 30 have 49% and 56% TSER, respectively. 3M's Crystalline 40 has the highest TSER value on the market with 62% but it comes with a compromise of installation difficulty and brittleness, so 56% is a good balance.
Here are some links about the company, they have their own R&D. Their core business is LCD display screen films:
http://www.sangbogroup.com/?p=products|cms|paint_protection_film
If you are in the DFW reach out to them. Or if you want, I can put you in touch with them directly. I receive no compensation for anything. In full transparency I did receive a discount on the film for being a guinea pig. I normally pay the going rate on all my installs. I am just a very happy customer.
I decided against it and went tinted PPF on my sunroof instead. It was done by a local shop who did my Tesla Plaid. They do awesome work in general and the same was true of my Rivian's roof.
If you are in the DFW metro, I can't recommend Ceramic FX enough. The owner has been into coatings (that includes paints) at the automotive manufacturing level for a long time. Which got him into how to protect the paint on cars. Here is the website.
https://ceramicfx.com/
So why did I go with PPF rather than tint? Primarily was the reduced issue of denying a warranty claim. Having the tinted PPF on the roof helps reject the heat before going through the glass. A lot less energy hits the glass in the first place.
Another huge plus is I like to use my roof rack and carry stuff on my roof. This is 8 mil ppf. So it provides a nice barrier to the glass. Very handy if I drop something on the glass while loading or in Texas, we have to deal with hail. Pretty easy to get hail damage out of dented body panels but broken glass is another issue.
So if 8 mils of protection is good, 16 mils will be even better. So they put on another clear layer for extra protection and to be like a sacrificial layer for the tinted film. That stuff is very high quality so it isn't cheap.
So how did it turn out? Awesome. OMG the difference is huge and instead of having an ugly sun screen up there, I can still use my pano roof without my head getting cooked all the time. There is definitely a lot less load on the AC. I am not getting all the radiated heat from the pano roof and the amount of energy entering the cockpit is clearly lessened. It isn't crazily dark so I still enjoy my roof at night.
Another side benefit is it made my cockpit quieter. I can hear the difference. It is even more apparent with all the wind noise mitigation. I can't see why you wouldn't want to do something like this if you live in the South or hot climate. Maybe in MN I'd skip it but I'd still do the clear for protection. The cost was very reasonable. I am going to have it done to my Teslas as well. What a massive difference for me.
I don't see why you couldn't use this stuff on the windshield to help protect the glass. Obviously you'd have to replace it if you used the wipers a lot but cheaper to do that than replace the windshield from chips.
Here are some specs.
Visible Light Transmission (VLT): 30%
For regular window tint films, this value is between %5 to 80-90%. On front side windows, they typically use 30% window tint film, as 25% is the legal limit in TX. So it has the same VLT as the most legal tinted front windows.
Total Solar Energy Rejection (TSER): 56%
This is a pretty competitive TSER value. For comparison, Llumar's ceramic window tints CTX 30 and IRX 30 have 49% and 56% TSER, respectively. 3M's Crystalline 40 has the highest TSER value on the market with 62% but it comes with a compromise of installation difficulty and brittleness, so 56% is a good balance.
Here are some links about the company, they have their own R&D. Their core business is LCD display screen films:
http://www.sangbogroup.com/?p=products|cms|paint_protection_film
If you are in the DFW reach out to them. Or if you want, I can put you in touch with them directly. I receive no compensation for anything. In full transparency I did receive a discount on the film for being a guinea pig. I normally pay the going rate on all my installs. I am just a very happy customer.
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