Windshield Tint

Why the windshield is the one that matters

Every other window on the car is close to vertical. The windshield is raked back toward the sky, so for most of the middle of the day it presents more of itself to the sun than any other piece of glass on the vehicle — and it sits directly in front of the two people in the car.

That shows up in three ways: heat you can feel through the dashboard, glare low in your eyes on a morning or evening commute, and ultraviolet falling on your hands and forearms every time you drive. The first is comfort. The third is the one dermatologists write about.

The strip along the top

The one windshield film California allows without an exemption: a band along the top of the glass, cut to the legal line for your car — 29 inches up from the seat, not four inches down from the roof. It takes the glare out of a low sun. Three films, priced by the film and the same on every vehicle; the prices are on the cards above.

Full windshield

• 3M Ceramic IR — the same multilayer ceramic we fit on the side glass.
• 3M Crystalline — 3M's top-line film, rejecting up to 98% of infrared while staying light enough to see through, in CR BLK 50, 60, 70 or 80. Full numbers: /services/3m-crystalline-black

Either takes about an hour and a half, on any vehicle, and either can be fitted on its own or added to a full tint on the same visit.

Windshield Skin® — protection against chips

Tint goes on the inside of the glass. Windshield Skin® goes on the outside: a clear protective film that takes the hit from rocks, gravel and road debris so the glass behind it is less likely to chip or crack. It does nothing for heat or UV — that is what the films above are for — and the two can go on the same windshield.

It is Bray Group's product, the original windshield protection film, and the 2007 SEMA Global New Product of the Year. Bray designs it to meet the US NHTSA and EU ECE R43 guidelines. We are an authorised dealer.

There are two prices because there are two sizes of windshield: standard, and oversized for the larger glass on trucks, vans and some SUVs. Tell us the car and we will tell you which yours is.

The warranty is Bray's, and it is different from our window film: one year from installation, covering defects such as yellowing, delamination or cracking of the film itself. It does not cover the windshield. We register it for you on the day it goes on, because an unregistered film has no warranty. With care the film can last well beyond that year, and when it is worn it peels off and a new one goes on.

What California allows up there

The windshield is the one window where the law is genuinely restrictive, and where nearly everything you will read online is wrong.

Section 26708 permits transparent material along the top of the windshield only, and it does not measure that strip in inches down from the roof — it measures 29 inches up from your seat. The "top four inches" figure that appears on most tint pages does not appear anywhere in the statute.

We would rather you knew that before you called than after. The full window-by-window breakdown, with links to the statute so you can check us, is here: /california-tint-law

Ask us about your car

What we would recommend depends on the vehicle and on what you are trying to fix. Tell us the car and the problem — heat, glare, or UV — and we will talk you through the options. Call (323) 542-3773, or send a booking request.