bnz616

I have two friends that want to have their windows tinted in Southern California. I did a search and Whittier Tint Shop came up twice as a recommendation. Is this a highly recommended tint shop? Is anybody familiar with this shop or have any reviews? Thanks!

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Not sure about the shop... but ask what kind of tint they use, that usually is a good measure of how good the shop is.

Good brands are:
Huper-Optik: best tint money can buy... cost lots of $$$, figure ~$500-600 to do a car. Extremely rare to find anyone using this tint..
Lumar: More common, I'd say about 20% of tint shops use this. One of the best tints, just make sure the shop uses the newer metallic type and not the old dye type (I think it's called Lumastar AT, not really sure) Costs around $200-300 for a car.
Solargard: Also good tint, lots of mid-price shops use this.

There are many more tints out there, most common now I think is Soltek... decent tint, but will fade after maybe 2-3 years. So even though it's cheap it'll have to be replaced later on.

And make sure when the shop is installing the tint they remove the door panels and rear deck. (It'll take an extra 15-20mins but you get a better quality finish on the edges.)

bnz616

My friend can only use non-metallic film in his TSX, the nav antenna is built into the rear window.

Whittier Tint Shop said they use Johnson Window Film. There's a choice of higher grade dual layer graystone? or a lower grade single layer.