So I got my car checked out by 2 shops in town that were on the way home and they gave me some quotes. The side glass has some of those little bubbles around the edges where the factory glass has the 2 pieces laminated together and the first shop said that, and some coloring around the edges, will show up more when tinted.

The first shop uses Llumar Formula One and has been tinting for 30 years, they have a lifetime warranty on the film. He noticed the car has rear glass tint but there are some small bubbles here and there from where some dust got in there while installing it. The car had tint on the doors and rear quarter glass but one of the lots it was at had removed it (he said it's easier to sell a car that way sometimes) as there is a little bit of glue left around the very bottom and very top of the glass. He said he's booked up for about a month, and the car will take a little while because that rear piece will cost extra to remove the factory tint and re-tint it since it's a big piece of glass. He said the car is $300, $175 for the windshield, and $100-150 to remove the rear tint, so around the $575-625 range. He didn't mention anything about the windshield tint getting in the way. He can do the sides/rear in any percent I want, but will only do 50% on the windshield as he doesn't feel comfortable making it any darker.

The second shop uses Madico film and also has a lifetime warranty, usually doing 20% all around and 55% on the windshield, but I get the feeling that shop won't be around for more than a few more years as it's a small audio/tint shop and most of them just don't last around here, even though the guy that owns the shop is a god in the local car audio community. The guy that does the tint also came out to talk to me and I asked him how long he'd been doing tint and he said 3 years, so I'm not too sure about letting him do it as I'm not sure how long it takes to acquire great skill for installing film. They quoted me $685 to strip the windshield and rear glass, and remove the little bit of adhesive around the rim of the door glass and then tint the car. He almost made it sound like they were gonna charge extra to just wipe a little extra adhesive off...perhaps he was thinking "this guy has money because he has an AMG" and added a little luxury tax on there lol

I had talked to a third shop, but haven't taken the car by there. They use 3m and said the car would be about $200 to tint and the windshield an extra $100. Those were ballpark figures, so I'm sure they'd want more to strip the front and rear tint as well, but will also tint any shade I want. I could probably have the whole car done in 5%, even though that'd be a pretty reckless decision. I live in the city, so most places I go will have street lights and I usually drive with the windows down. With tint on the rear and the sunshade up, I can still see headlights at night but a super dark windshield would be silly and unneeded.

So, I guess, in order to save some money, I will re-clean the rim of the glass to get that little bit of extra adhesive off and then use my hair dryer or borrow a heat gun and remove the front and rear film myself so everything is clean, clear glass for a shop to tint.

Is there factory tint on the windshield and rear? If so, is it removable or is it tinted between the laminated glass or what? If it's possible to just spend a little time and tediously remove the factory tint that is left I can do that and save myself some money. Honestly, if the front windshield tint is quality then I may just leave it as most places probably wouldn't want to tint it much darker than it is anyways.

 

I got mine done with 20% all around and 30% on the windshield, tbh the windshield is too much for me these CL head lights are so weak I can't see anything.

I got mine done in exchange for promotion but it would have been a little cheaper then your first quote..

Oh and they will all have a bit of a struggle installing the tint on the rear window the pillar less one.