I had the car sitting in the sun the other day at work at just the right angle that the shadow from the sun shade made the windows look somewhat tinted....and I liked the look. Now I'm considering having the windows tinted. Minnesota is pretty nasty about window tint and 50% is the limit. One of my friends had 35% tint (legal in SD where she bought the car) that had to be removed when she got caught with it. I don't want to go real dark anyway, and I'm already (illegally) going without a front plate, so I might as well stay legal here. (Although they do require a "legal tint" sticker in the window....that I will absolutely not have) Does anyone have tint on their XK here? How much so? Is 50% worth it? Anything specific I should be aware of for these cars? How does the fact that the door glass goes down a little with the doors open affect this process, or does it?

Also, if you have tint, I'd like to see it and what % it is.

 

I tinted my windows a month or so ago and I didn't like it. It looked good, but the view out of the car with the top down sucked. In a normal, non-convertible, there is no light coming in from above. You only have the light that comes in through the tinted windows. In my car, with the light coming from above I saw lots of reflections of the inside of the car in the windows (Oh yeah... my wife likes to ride with the top down and windows up). I pulled the tint off after a few days because I couldn't stand the reflections. Of course, if you have a coupe, or if you're going to always have the windows down when the top is down, that won't be a problem.

In regards to the window rolling down slightly when you open the door, start from the inside with the window all the way up. You can place the tint on the window and then move it around after it's on as long as you haven't squeegeed all of the water out. So start on the inside, get the bottom in place, then once it is good and secure, open the door and work your way from bottom to top with the squeegee. That's what I did, and it worked pretty well. It took me one failed attempt to figure that out, though. And in the end I ripped it all off anyway.

 

You'll get mixed opinions here, I personally don't like tint on convertibles. All other cars I had tint, but they had tops.

The side glass is polarized, so it cuts down on UV and heat, and if you use a good dash visor, it stays tolerable (and I'm in down here in TX)

I have seen one convertible (not a jag) with tint...and it looked rather odd.

 

My car came from Texas and had tinted windows, I would guess around 50%, but I do not know for sure.

I like it, except I had to remove it from the back convertible window. It was severely distorting the view out the back window around the rear defroster lines...very annoyng especially with the small aperature of that window to begin with.

The other windows look good and have been no trouble. There was a sticker that said it was professionally done. They did offset the tint fron the top edge of the side windows about 1/8 inch.

 

On of the first things I did when I got the car was bought a quality, custom fitting dash visor; not so much for heat, but to make sure the dash stays in perfect shape. I'm amazed at how cool (well, I should say not burning hot) the car stays.

I'm usually very anti-tint, except on black hard tops, so I was surprised to find myself considering this. I'm still going to keep it in my mind a bit, but thanks for talking me back from the ledge guys

EDIT: WhiteXKR, have any pictures?

 

Mine's got 35% all the way around. In my opinion the car looks much better with the windows darkened. Here in VA the legal limit is also 50% for the front windows but I think it looks bad if the windows don't match. I haven't noticed any of the reflection/distortion issues mentioned above but I might just be so used to it by now it doesn't bother me.

Look at a few cars with 50% tint before you decide, 50% isn't much and you might decide that it isn't worth it. It does make a noticeable difference in how hot the car gets when its sitting in parking lots and will help with sun damage on the interior.

The door glass dropping won't hurt the tint but it does make it difficult to get the bottom edge far enough down on the window. You don't want to see the edge once the door is closed again and the window comes back up. If I was ever going to do it over I would pull the door panels before taking it to the tint shop.

Climbing in and doing the back window is a real PITA.

 

Thanks for the pics Vagearhead!! Been wanting to see it before I think about it. I will have to say though.. that I don't think I am going to do it. But I love the wheels!!!

 

Taking some picture in a nice setting is still on my todo list, but here is one from the lot when I bought the car:

 

Vagear, that is the nicest colour a Jaguar can have. If you had a crystal blue tint on the window, sort of to match the paint it would look even better. Looks almost menacing with the darkened windows.

White (nice) cars + dark windows = Cargasm.

 

I've been thinking about a tint for my coupe also. I live in rural New York State and I don't know what the law says about tinting exactly but I know they don't allow too much -- so I'm guessing 50%. I want just enough to give it a little depth, not real dark. I have basically been trying to figure if I should go all 35% or 35% front/rear and 50% sides. Any suggestions?

 

I just looked it up and the law there is 70%! [source] I had doubts that 50% would be worth doing, 70% definitely isn't. I guess it depends on the cops, but being in a rural area may help...or hurt.

Personally I prefer the tint to be all the same and I've seen many vehicles that don't where the owner says "It blends in and I can barely notice it" Well I'm a perfectionist and that doesn't cut it for me.

 

Thanks for looking that up. Who came up with that slogan "I Love New York"? I'm pretty sure nobody does these days.

Maybe I'll do 70% on front and back and 50 on sides. I have an '07 Sierra Denali that I bought used in Georgia and it has pretty dark tinted windows, but I don't know the %. If I had to guess I'd say its well more than 50% tint on the sides and the back window is as tinted as possible. So far I haven't been bothered by the police. I was even pulled over once when the trooper said I was going 80mph but I had the cruise control set at 70. Point of the story is that he didn't say anything about the tint. However, whatever percent tint the rear window of the truck is, it is way too much. I can hardly back up at night because its so dark.

 

Mine is tinted but I don't know the percentage. Its noticable. Ill see if I can figure out the percentage wnenn

 

I just picked up my 06 XKR convertible out here in Phoenix and I need to either tint the windows, get a remote start, or accept a shortened life-span from hopping into what is likely a 150 degree car every day!

Any good evidence on temp control and resitence in sun fading from tints?

Anybody install a remote start to allow the advance kick-on of A/C?