Great window tint shop in Austin, TX?

[gfisher99]

Does anyone have experience with a good window tint shop in Austin? I want to get the rear window tint on my e92 removed and re-done, likely with the black vinyl strip at the top. Previous owner had rear window tinted and it looks pretty crap in the dot matrix area.

Thanks!

[Overlord73]

Sunbuster tint is pretty good, they did my F80...that top strip of dots on the E92 sucks i went with a black strip on mine after the tint shop could never make it look decent

[CMendez]

Sunbusters does great work.

[gfisher99]

Thanks guys - I will give them a shot and see what they can do.

Much appreciated!

[BrewRifle]

I used them too. Great work.

[Kong Sheng Han]

Would y'all recommend them for clear bra installation, too? Need to do full hood and fenders.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by Kong Sheng Han

Would y'all recommend them for clear bra installation, too? Need to do full hood and fenders.

Yes. Sunbusters did tint and clear bra on both the E92 I just sold and the GT4 I just got. Great work on both aspects of both cars. In fact right now their clear bra guy (Nate) was one of the people who actually developed Suntek and he's done some absolutely absurd number of cars by now, so he knows what he's doing. Highly recommended.

Don't forget mirror caps and headlamps on your clear bra, btw. And obviously front bumper.

[Kong Sheng Han]

Originally Posted by jphughan

Yes. Sunbusters did tint and clear bra on both the E92 I just sold and the GT4 I just got. Great work on both aspects of both cars. In fact right now their clear bra guy (Nate) was one of the people who actually developed Suntek and he's done some absolutely absurd number of cars by now, so he knows what he's doing. Highly recommended.

Don't forget mirror caps and headlamps on your clear bra, btw. And obviously front bumper.

Awesome. I'll get in touch with them. I'm gonna inspect both headlight lenses and mirror caps for damage and assess need for wrap on those. Bumper is all sorts of fucked up, so I'm gonna leave it exposed.

[Overlord73]

Ive got an appointment tomorrow with Nate to do my clear bra heard he was good didnt know that good!!!!

[Kong Sheng Han]

Just got a quote. $600 for full hood and fenders. Jeebus!!

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by Kong Sheng Han

Just got a quote. $600 for full hood and fenders. Jeebus!!

The hood is always expensive because it's a huge panel. I paid $540 in 2011 for my bumper, headlamps, and mirror caps -- no hood or fender coverage at all. On my GT4 I got a lot more coverage and paid something like $1500, plus I think $350 for the side and rear tint and $200 for the windshield.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by Overlord73

Ive got an appointment tomorrow with Nate to do my clear bra heard he was good didnt know that good!!!!

Yeah, when I was there he had a Carrera GT in the shop (another one had just been finished earlier) and had 2 918s and 2 991 GT3RSes coming in the following week.

[Kong Sheng Han]

Originally Posted by jphughan

The hood is always expensive because it's a huge panel. I paid $540 in 2011 for my bumper, headlamps, and mirror caps -- no hood or fender coverage at all. On my GT4 I got a lot more coverage and paid something like $1500, plus I think $350 for the side and rear tint and $200 for the windshield.

I was thinking that labor would play into the equation because it seems that something like a bumper would be more labor intensive than hood and therefore be more. I think I can trust them though.

[Overlord73]

Just dropped off my car couple of porsche 911s including a gt3 rs and a ferrari 360 feels like im in the right place!!!

[Kong Sheng Han]

Originally Posted by Overlord73

Just dropped off my car couple of porsche 911s including a gt3 rs and a ferrari 360 feels like im in the right place!!!

[Overlord73]

What i saw this morning?

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by Overlord73

What i saw this morning?

Nice! That 991 RS is a PTS color (BMW Individual equivalent), so no surprise it's getting clear bra. That looks like Voodoo Blue, maybe Mexico.

[Overlord73]

Picked my car up today from Nate phenomenal work edges folded over along the hood!!! There was black ferrari 430 i think and some black rolls royce in the shop. Seems like those who know send their cars to Nate and Sunbusters.

[whats77inaname]

Another thing about Sunbusters that they don't advertise....they'll tint the front windshield w/the ceramic tint for around $200. Great for dash protection. I've had mine for ~4 yrs now w/no problem passing inspection during that time period, knock on wood.

[BrewRifle]

Originally Posted by whats77inaname

Another thing about Sunbusters that they don't advertise....they'll tint the front windshield w/a the ceramic tint for around $200. Great for dash protection. I've had mine for ~4 yrs now w/no problem passing inspection during that time period, knock on wood.

I've been meaning to do that. How much of a difference did it make in this ridiculous Austin sunshine?

[whats77inaname]

Originally Posted by BrewRifle

I've been meaning to do that. How much of a difference did it make in this ridiculous Austin sunshine?

I did it more for the UV protection as opposed to blocking of the sunlight, as the tint blocks out 95% of the UV. Having a black interior, the investment was well worth it. During the day, I feel noticeably less heat on my arms and hands vs. when I drive my truck.

I notice the visual benefits more so @ night than in the day, w/oncoming headlights being not-so-bright. Glare is cut down, as well....both of which are plusses in my book. It's 5%, IIRC.

[jphughan]

Originally Posted by whats77inaname

Another thing about Sunbusters that they don't advertise....they'll tint the front windshield w/the ceramic tint for around $200. Great for dash protection. I've had mine for ~4 yrs now w/no problem passing inspection during that time period, knock on wood.

Originally Posted by BrewRifle

I've been meaning to do that. How much of a difference did it make in this ridiculous Austin sunshine?

There's a bit more to this story. Sunbusters USED to use Llumar Air 80 for this purpose, which had a bluish tint to it but that honestly wasn't noticeable from inside or out after it was installed. The windshield ended up looking very much like stock AMG windshields. The only way people knew I had something on my car was when they looked at the bottom corners where I'd asked Sunbusters to leave exposed areas for registration stickers and other stuff and not to cut it to the EXACT dimensions of those stickers because I didn't want to have to bullseye the registration sticker each year and have no room to scrape it off without risk of cutting the windshield film. But I never noticed those corners when I wasn't actively looking at them. People who use TxTags will want to get a cutout there too, btw.

But recently TxDPS passed some law that windshield tints with any color at all cannot be used because they're worried about drivers not being able to identify emergency vehicle lights properly. There is absolutely no way Air 80 would have done that, but whatever. So NOW they use Air 90, which is what I have on my GT4. The heat rejection isn't as good by the numbers, but it is absolutely clear, to the point that even when I'm looking right where I know the cutout lines are, I have difficulty seeing them.

In terms of heat performance, on the M3 with the 80 stuff I found that after I got it (which was after I'd already had window tint), when the car had been sitting in an open-air parking lot for the entire work day in the summer, the cabin was now just hot rather than unbearable for several minutes until the AC kicked in. Before I got it, I'd gotten into the habit of opening my windows with the fob while approaching my car, but even that didn't work so well because of the fob's comically low range. On the GT4 I got it partly for the reason I just mentioned (especially since US-spec cars can't use the fob to open the windows....) and partly because I've got a leather dashboard now. Another perk of this stuff is that it basically makes wearing sunglasses optional when driving on bright days; it's just enough protection that your eyes don't get uncomfortable driving under those conditions. The only visual quirk I noticed with the 80 was that when I was looking through my sunglasses AND through the Air 80, some OTHER cars' tints would exhibit a rainbow effect. It went away if I took my sunglasses off or looked through my side window, and it never happened with anything except tint (and not even all tint), so I'm not sure what was up with that, but it didn't bug me. Not sure if it happens with the 90 since there hasn't been much need for sunglasses since I've gotten it.

All in all I'd say it's worth it, though.