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Old 12-07-2011, 05:29 PM   #1
wtd
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Window tinting/painting

Just some before and after, sort of, info about my bus windows people might find useful -

I tinted some windows and painted the ones that would be covered on the inside, used good quality tint and, since I can't find my before pictures, I'll just say that the ones I painted black and the ones I tinted 5% black looked just the same when I was done. Can't remember the name of the tint and don't have a link to it since it was about 6 years or so ago I did this.

Here's how it looks after 6 years or thereabouts - the window on each end are painted and the three in the middle are tinted.

The tint's faded some and the upper right panel has a crazy pattern in it that showed up a month or so ago.


THe window on the right was spray painted with Ace flat black enamel, the one on the left was rolled with Ace flat black enamel. The one on the left looks just the same as when I painted it.

As for the paint, I didn't have any idea about painting glass, but hey, I'd been in enough city bars with storefront windows painted black not to be discouraged!
I after some research it seemed like an OK idea, so I just followed the instructions for what to do to the windows as if you were tinting them, I scraped the windows with a razor blade, washed 'em with 1/2 and 1/2 vinegar and water, then windex and started painting. Shot the right hand window above and ran out of spray paint and rather than dash to Ace for more, just switched over to regular enamel I had and rolled it on the left window.
When I fix the right window guess I'll just scrape it and roll it, since it seems to hold up OK. Just seems that there's something different in the spray that makes it not as 'stretchy' as the glass, or the other way around.

Tom

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Old 12-10-2011, 10:21 AM   #2
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Re: Window tinting/painting

looks like the paint is sticking OK to the glass. I always have sandblasted the glass before i painted it...maybe thats not necessary
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Old 12-10-2011, 10:56 AM   #3
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Re: Window tinting/painting

Did you paint the inside of the panes or the outside? All along I've been planning to paint the inside of the windows that I'll be covering and looking for the best paint to use since I wouldn't be able to re-paint after the walls were up. But in a "DUH" moment I realized that if I paint the outside of the panes I can repaint easily anytime I want.
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Old 12-10-2011, 11:13 AM   #4
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Re: Window tinting/painting

Quote:
Originally Posted by roach711
Did you paint the inside of the panes or the outside? All along I've been planning to paint the inside of the windows that I'll be covering and looking for the best paint to use since I wouldn't be able to re-paint after the walls were up. But in a "DUH" moment I realized that if I paint the outside of the panes I can repaint easily anytime I want.
I painted the inside. I wanted all the windows to look the same and painted on the inside the painted windows look just the same as the one's I tinted. If I did the outside, obviously it would look like a painted window. I just used Ace Rust-Stop enamel.

Funny, this turned out exactly backward from what I would have thought - I expected the paint to fail, but instead the tint faded, so the paint's fine, but my windows need to be retinited

Tom
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Old 12-11-2011, 09:45 AM   #5
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Re: Window tinting/painting

Do not use a cheap window tint. The dyes they use will fail in time and you will get the faded nasty looking purple stuff.

I have a hearse I had tinted over 15 years ago. It still looks very good.

I have been thinking about this... I am going to end up putting home windows in my bus and they wont have tempered windows. So one way I am going to try and make it safer is putting a window tint on there in the event it does break there will be a way of keeping the glass partially together and not fly across the interior.
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