For those who are looking into tinting their car windows, there will be a few major aesthetic decisions to think about moving forward. Two of the most important, which are related but not the same – though often confused – are window tint color and window tint shade.
At Laketown Speed and Sound, we’re happy to offer high-quality window tinting services in addition to our car sound and other performance solutions. We offer a variety of window tint colors and shade percentage options to meet your every need, plus staff who will break down these basics for you and help you understand how they work. In this two-part blog series, we’ll go over everything you need to know about tint shade and color, plus how to make the optimal selection for each based on your needs.
Tint Basics
Firstly, it’s important to understand what tint really is to grasp the choices you’ll be making on color and shade. It’s vital to realize, for instance, that you aren’t actually changing the color of the glass or the window – rather, you’re placing a film on the window that will impact aesthetics.
Why is this important? For starters, anyone leasing a car or worried about a warranty concern will not have to stress, as tint is not actually altering the vehicle’s stock makeup. For another, if there’s any chance you might be changing your tint at some point in the future, this can be easily done without impacting the window itself – you can even remove tint at any time, and the window will go back to looking good as new.
Tint Percentage Vs. Tint Color
So what is being referred to when you hear about tint shade (also called tint percentage) compared to tint color? The former refers to how light or dark the film is – the “percentage” tag speaks to the percent of UV rays that are blocked by the tint in question. The lower the percentage, the darker the tint will be, meaning a 35% tint allows just 35% of the available UV rays in.
Tint color, on the other hand, is the actual color hue itself. A given window tint color selected may look very different with a 5% tint compared to a 50% tint, for instance.
Colors Available
Now that you have a basic understanding of how these two aesthetic areas work, we generally recommend selecting color first and then deciding on shade second. Some of the colors typically available for vehicle window tint shade include black, grey, bronze, gold and charcoal, though other specialty colors may be available.
For more on vehicle tint color and shade considerations, or to learn about any of our window tint, car audio or other automotive performance accessories, speak to the staff at Laketown Speed and Sound today.
