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  • Writer's pictureMarc Pochet

Tesla Chronicles #27 - Tinted Tesla

I dropped the car off last week at Ceramic Pro Pottstown (https://totaldetailingpa.com/) to get all the windows tinted with their top of the line ceramic tint (Kavaca Ceramic IR). I wanted to give props to Gabe and his team there at Ceramic Pro Tint. They are a small but growing shop in our area, and I always love when we can support a local business. His team did the PPF on my Tesla when I got it last year as well. I was messaging with Gabe on Thursday night and he said they had finished the job and that the car looks amazing. He had his tech redo the roof tint 3 times because he just didn’t like how it turned out. That is the kind of quality you are going to get with his team.


I have never felt the need to get another car tinted, but I did this primarily for two reasons:

- There is just so much glass in the Tesla. The windshield and roof glass alone is enormous, and as a result, I noticed this summer (last summer must have been slightly cooler July-Sept? or, more likely, we have done more driving this year and I have just noticed it more) that you get a ton of heat into the car. The Kavaca Ceramic IR tint is designed to reject additional UV and about 95% of the IR from entering the car, making summer drives more comfortable and more efficient.

- Long term ownership - I am hoping to own the Tesla longer than any car I have ever owned in the past. I’ll be thrilled if I can get this to 200,000 miles, maybe longer! So, I believe the Ceramic IR tint will also help with the longevity of the interior as well by rejecting many of the damaging rays of the sun. Something I have never really thought about before.


I follow a ton of guys on YouTube, and Gjeebs is great. He is a goof, but his videos are so informative. Interesting note. He lives in AZ now, but he is from Latrobe, PA and went to high school with some of my family members. He falls into his “Pittsburgh lingo”, often which is funny (to me at least). He put this video together about window tint, and the “science” in his video starting around minute 5 of the video is what sold me. I highly recommend watching this video if you aren’t sure about regular tint vs. the more expensive tinting available and the different tint levels.


An additional benefit that I hadn’t considered was the safety of having a film on the glass as demonstrated in this video (https://youtu.be/oLm1opx42QE). If road debris would happen to impact any of the windows, the film will give the windows extra integrity that will eliminate glass from flying everywhere.


Tinting Laws

The final decision one has to make when tinting windows in a car is following your state’s laws for maximum tinting permitted on the vehicle. Frankly, many people ignore these laws and overtint their windows. That is a personal choice and a risk assessment. For the most part, I understand that most police forces won’t pull you over for the tint on your car, but if they pull you over for something else, and notice the excessive tinting (in relation to the law), they can write you a citation to force you to remove the tint and return to the station to prove it has been removed within a week or so. Since the product I am using is expensive, I am not interested in taking that risk. I have also learned that the outcome I am looking for (IR and UV rejection) is not really impacted all that much by the darkness of the tint.


I have provided some links below for tinting law resources. Here in PA, 70% is the legal limit for all windows on all vehicles, with the exception of SUVs, which have no restriction on the rear windows. I was surprised to learn that you can also tint the Windshield as well. Many customers state this reduces glare a little, which will be great.


The tint value is something that really confused me, so hopefully this helps:

- 100% = clear, no tint

- 75% = generally the first level of tint

- 50% = darker and from what I have heard, is pretty popular

- 25% - very dark - basically what you see on ”gangster” cars (IMO).


Resources:


I don’t have much more to say now. I’ll probably have more to say next summer. I won’t pick the car up until Monday, but managed to pull a few screenshots off of the video that Gabe put together. For now, here are some before and after shots:


Before - June 2021


After - September 2022

(Credit to Gabe - I took these as screenshots from the excellent video he produced)






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