The main reason I want to get tint is to cut down on solar-heating.
My car gets very hot in summer, but living in Canada, it's cold and dark for a lot of the year too.
(so I don't want to go too dark either)

I'm thinking of getting Huper Optik ceramic tint,
since ceramic film will block more heat than dyed film without (supposedly) affecting GPS, cell phone, radio etc.

I found a dealer nearby who gave me what sounds like a deal;
$500 Canadian dollars for all the doors and the rear-window.
(the tint itself is very-expensive)

Does anyone here have a tinted Civic and notice a difference before tinting in how much their car heats up in the sun?

I took a look at other cars done by this shop.
Some were done the same tint all around.
One had 35% tint on the sideand 20% on the rear window. (I thought the difference was subtle; almost unnoticeable)

I'm thinking I might want a slightly-darker tint on the rear window because it's larger, and angled in a way that it catches more light than the door's windows.

I'm thinking about getting Ceramic50 on the doors and Ceramic 40 on the rear window.

Does anyone think it will look weird going slightly darker on the rear window?

If I get this done, I will post pics.

 

The numbers you stated are good. I have 35% all around, sides and rear and I'm out in Southern California and Phoenix Arizona. I'd wager that 20% would help, but being in and out of California and its stringent tint laws, I didn't want to risk anything.

Your concern of difference between the rear and sides will be negligible, and I say don't worry about it.

Cliffs: do it. Do it now.

 

I had my old car tinted with 35%. I don't remember the brand of the tint nor the material, but i can only assume that it was the dye type that you had mentioned. When it was first applied, the windows were dark enough that it did cut down on intruding heat as well as the use of AC during the summer months, but at the same it wasn't too dark. The civic I have now was bought with tint on. It seems like limo and is too dark for my taste. Sure the amount of light it heat is blocks is fantastic, but when driving the darker tint makes me second guess myself when doing traffic checks and changing lanes. All in all, I liked the 35%, but if I could do it all over again, I would go a few notches darker.

 

I had 3m 35% of my old Civic, and it was worth the 250 bucks or so I spent on it.

 

i would never do different percentages on different windows. i have 20% on mine and i like it. it's borderline too dark at night but nice during the day.

 

i think different tints look better than one tint all around.

if you are looking to cut down on solar-heating and not so much for the look, i would suggest that you look into a place that does llumar products. they work extremely well at cutting down solar-heating inside your car and the best part about it is that they have an 80% which you can put on your front window to really cut down on solar-heating. 80% is very hard for cops to notice if it is illegal to tint your front window.

 

I live in Ontario and here nobody is hassled for 35% on the front side windows,
and you can go as dark as you want (5% a.k.a. Limo/GANGSTA?) behind the front windows.
However, I like to travel to the USA
and the states with the WORST TINT LAWS are our closest neighbours; MI, NY and PA.
I've never heard of any Canadians being hassled for tint in those states,
but I have heard plenty of Americans from "out-of-state" have been ticketed while passing through.

But I don't want to be that dark,
plus I just want to "take the edge off" the heat.
I was initially thinking of Huper60, but the tintshop guys said in their opinion
"...60 would be so light, I wouldn't be getting my money's worth, in terms of heat rejection..."

Some day I may want to sell my car,
so buying a tint % that is more popular would make sense I think.
I believe I've seen some 50%'s done around here.

Regarding 40% rear and 50% sides...
I took a long hard look at the Civic on a sunny day, at different times of day
and noticed that because the sides are beside the roof and angled mostly vertical,
there is a lot of shading from the roof near the side windows,
making it look naturally darker.
The rear window is the opposite:
so big and angled in such a way the Civic's roof almost never shades the "rear-deck"

On that same sunny day,
other cars I saw at the shop with the same VLT% all-around appeared at a glance, darker on the sides than rear.
*Which is why I think I may be able to "pull off" slightly-darker rear window than all the side windows and go unnoticed.

 

Here's a link with a BMW done with Huper Ceramic 50, "all-around."
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27503

(hey, at least it's a medium sized sedan; close-ish to Civic Sedan in shape/size)

 

Product Specifications:
http://www.huperoptikusa.com/ceramic-series.cfm

 

Why is that if you don't mind me asking?
I might want to sell my car in the future,
but the difference I thought would work well wouldn't be very noticeable.
(angles of rear vs. side, shading from roof, rear deck "always" full of natural light)

Practicality-speaking...

the rear-deck is what gets the hottest,
plus the '08 Civic's trunk is so "thick" that I don't use the rear window much for backing up.
Backing up, I rely more on side mirrors, sometimes I fold seats down and pop trunk open for a good rear-view.

Side windows I like to use them for "panoramic viewing" on road trips
and I'm frequently checking my blindspots through them...
I would hate the sides being very dark if I was driving somewhere scenic at dusk/dawn and was missing detail.
I hated missing scenery as a passenger in vehicles with factory "in-glass" 20% tint for rear side windows.

 

I find the specs confusing.

I initially thought doing 40 on the rear with 50 on the side was a good idea:

-because the 40 is rated for 80% Infrared Rejection, (IR)
-while the 50 is rated for 69% Infrared Rejection
-and the 60 was rated for 60% Infrared Rejection.

These charts are newer than the ones I saw a few months ago and now have SHGC. (Solar Heat Gain Coefficient)

While the 50 is still far better than 60 (SHGC of .50 instead of .58)
the 40 is only slightly better than the 50 (SHGC of .45 instead of .50)

So the IR ratings seem contradictory to the SHGC ratings,
unless the 2% higher reflectivity of the 50 is the reason there is less difference.

 

honestly i think you are looking into this too much. tint will reduce the "solar-heating" of your car no matter what percentage you get. unless you have a skin condition or something, just find something you like and go with it. in most cases, with any good product, the lower the percentage the lower the "solar-heating".

every brand will make claims about the IR and SHGC but you do not know how they base those numbers off of. just like any other product, such as treadwear life, each company tests and releases product details differently

 

After mulling over a lot of info, I've settled on trying 50 on the sides, 40 on the rear window and 60 on the sunroof;
the sunroof I want done mostly for UV protection and it is only a small addition to the cost.

I've looked at my car from many angles and usually the rear door's windows look darker than the rear window above the trunk; especially that little triangular window towards the rear of the rear door. So the subtle difference in tint for the rear might actually balance the interior light and be unnoticeable. If it isn't unnoticeable, again it's only a subtle difference.

 

x2

 

i like the uniform look of having all the windows the same color. i'd rather have lighter tint all around just to keep the uniformity.

there's no need to tint the sunroof; all you have to do is close the sunroof shade and you have 0% tint

 

Fair enough, and I sort of agree...
But I still think my rear window "looks" lighter than the rear door windows
because of the angle of the back window, and it not shaded at all by the roof.

True... but I like the view of having an open roof panel.
I also hate the look of it closed from the inside; even through my peripheral vision.

I only close the roof panel for these reasons:
- to cut down on noise from rain
- if it's REALLY cold outside, somewhere under 15 F (under -10 C)
- to keep the summer sun (UV) from agitating my head (Huper60 "should" fix that )

 

The windshield and all the windows on the doors say "Solargreen" from their factory window stamp.

But the rear window does not have "Solargreen" mentioned in the factory window stamp.

Maybe the rear window IS naturally higher in VLT% from Honda because of this.

 

Got my car back from tint shop.
Looks good and it's as light/dark as I thought it would be.
The back window does not look darker outside despite 10% less VLT.
and I now have a rear deck that isn't dramatically brighter than the rear seats beside the rear windows.
I can't even tell looking from in the car that there's darker tint on the rear.

Will have to wait a few days before opening windows.
I can still see some of the water/adhesive but I suppose that will dry up.
They did offer a lifetime warranty against bubbling.

It's a dark overcast day here, so I got to see how headlights looked through the rear window.
Surprisingly, they reflect extra light near the defogger grid lines.
A single headlight from a car behind me makes a 4" x 4" area of reflection at grid lines, say about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch...
Looks like having gold on the defogger grid.
Hopefully that will go away as the tint "cures."
No big deal if it doesn't though, (remembering Huper Optik film is very thick)
as it is now a nice level of dimness and should keep my rear a lot cooler.

I don't think I would enjoy a car significantly darker than this in a climate like Toronto, but I think I have a great compromise.

Took lots of pics so far inside and out
tell me what parts of the car you'd like to see and I'll see what I can do.
(busy atm, but might post in a few days)

 

I'm generally curious what the windows (rear & side) look like with the respective tints. A pic or two of the outside and inside looking out (maybe even a comparison between the front & side windows from inside) would be very nice.

My fears of my car becoming an oven in the beating sun have been confirmed over the past few weeks. Midnight Black Pearl + Black cloth interior + Maryland sun all day long at work = Instant sauna.

I'm debating about trying to do it myself, but a little unsure of how difficult it really is to do. Thoughts?

 

Post pictures of the finished product Mr. Sparrow.

 

No problem, will post soon.
Back window has a lot of little bubbles, so I will probably be taking it back soon.
All other windows look great though.

Mine is Neutron Blue with a medium grey cloth interior and it still gets very hot.
On a sunny summer's afternoon with no A/C, windows up and vents on maximum speed for fresh air,
my car is typically 30 F higher than outside... and this is around Toronto.
(measured from my cabin thermometer mentioned in previous posts )

I would have considered the same,
but I couldn't find Huper Optik ceramic film available for DIYers.

If you aren't worried about radio, GPS and cell signals look into "metallized" film.
I picked ceramic for higher heat rejection with minimal-to-no signal interference...
(but that was only guessing I might have problems with metallized film)


A little while ago I made tests of my rear deck with mesh-sunshades.
I now have scraps of window tint; both dyed and ceramic.
Before tinting my back window, I compared my sunshade to some dyed-film scraps:

Dyed 35% VLT film vs. my mesh sunshade:
Hard to tell which blocks more heat.

Dyed 20% VLT film vs. my mesh sunshade:
Dyed 20% seems noticeably better at rejecting heat than a single layer of mesh

 

Our first sunny day since tinting...

I can see that the 40% on the rear is darker compared to the 50% when I'm standing directly in front of the rear looking deep into the car, (say to the dashboard) and then after standing directly in front of the side looking inside the car's interior, but any angle that allows me to see the side windows and back window at the same time, it's hard to tell.

Unless someone stops and stares at a particular window,
I don't think anyone will notice that the rear is darker unless I tell them.

 

i have 20% all around and its kinda hard to see at night :/

 

The % of tint on high quality tint is not going to change how hot the car gets. 45% will act the same way as 10%...again on quality tint.

The first time around I used the normal dyed tint, big mistake, with my Mugen visors you could see the fade (El Paso, TX and Waco, TX) within a year. Quality tint won't fade as fast either.

FYI, my car is 25% front windows and 15% on the rear doors/back window. TX only regulates the front two windows and windshield. It's noticeable but barely.

 

Hopefully this works.

9:30 am, with sun coming from about the same direction as where I was pointing the camera.

So one of them you can see a driveway through the windows,
another I took a pick giving a better idea the colour of the driveway.

Yes, the back window looks a lot darker in the pic,
but remember the angle; almost perpendicular to the side windows,
and the backwindow is like 20 degrees off parallel to line-of-site.
(doesn't look as dark when viewed at comparable angles )