Llumar Window Tint

biffandsully said:

I know many Tesla owners favor the premium tints (Photosync, 3M crystalline, etc) but this is where I draw the line. Don't need the best of the best, never had a car tinted before. Sadly, I'm going for the "cool looking, keep people from staring into the car" effect, don't really care about the heat blocking effect.

The guy who is doing my Xpel quoted $275 for Llumar AT (not sure if he meant the dyed or metallic line). Anyone with experience on this tint on their MS or other vehicles? Is it decent? I would get 35% all around, legal limit in IL. Will this make the car seem dark inside? I don't want that.

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I had 5% and 15% Llumar on a `97 camaro and had no issues with it. it was really dark

Last monday my MS was tinted using Llumar products.
Front doors: Bright Neutral (70%)
Rear doors: Titanium (38%)
Trunk: Alu Light Plus (20%)

Notes:
- Not dark inside at all. I have tan interieur.
- There is a slight polarising/rainbow effect in the front door windows, when wearing polarising sunglasses.
- Front door tinting is limited by Dutch regulations; transparency needs to be 55% at least. Otherwise the 38% would have been my pick for those windows as well.
- 20% on the trunk lid matches the tint of the panoramic roof quite well.

I have Llumar CTX (their premium line) 35% on all windows except windshield. I like it. It has a nice color to it, it's smoke grey with no brown or purple shade like some others. I doesn't make the inside look dark, just cuts down the glare of the sun.

I just had Llumar 20% installed all around. Pics at the end of this thread: Newbie here - Page 4

It looks good.

biffandsully said:

Thanks. I think he wanted almost $200 more to do the CTX (ceramic) line. I'd rather not spend the extra.

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So $475 for CTX? Sounds a little high. I paid $375 incl tax.

zwede said:

So $475 for CTX? Sounds a little high. I paid $375 incl tax.

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Yeah, $375 is what I paid as well.

I've used the Llumar tint on several cars over the years and have been satisfied with it's performance. On previous vehicles I used 30 on the front side and 15 on the rear side and back glass (maximum Florida tint). On the Model S I went with 30 on all side windows and nothing on the back glass preferring the factory sun shade instead. I have always used the CTX film to prevent any additional loss of signal from cell phones, I-pads, etc. inside the vehicle vs. a metallic film. I was more concerned on the S as it also has a metallic coating in the windshield glass.

biffandsully said:

I know many Tesla owners favor the premium tints (Photosync, 3M crystalline, etc) but this is where I draw the line. Don't need the best of the best, never had a car tinted before. Sadly, I'm going for the "cool looking, keep people from staring into the car" effect, don't really care about the heat blocking effect.

The guy who is doing my Xpel quoted $275 for Llumar AT (not sure if he meant the dyed or metallic line). Anyone with experience on this tint on their MS or other vehicles? Is it decent? I would get 35% all around, legal limit in IL. Will this make the car seem dark inside? I don't want that.

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I have installed many cars with this film as well as many other brands including the mentioned 3M. ATC is the dyed film and 35% will not make it too dark, it will give it a nice elegant look and does not have that blue hue to it like 3M. ATR is the metalized film and CTX is the ceramic line for LLumar. ATR blocks a bit more heat than the CTX but not being signal friendly I would not bother with it with CTX being so close in heat reduction. I have seen the ATC on vehicles over 10 years later and no issues with it so if you go with it you will have no issues. CTX does block a substantial more amount of heat over the ATC line but since heat is of no concern the ATC should be fine for you. As far as it not being premium to the other mentioned films you would have to compare LLumar CTX to them not ATC as its not ceramic. CTX is definitely a premium film with a proven history. LLumar is owned by Eastman and they also own the Formula One line (also excellent film), Huper, and recently bought Suntek. They are considered some of the best in the industry in fact. Just make sure you found a good installer as that is of more importance than the film IMO.

I have the (Formula One) Llumar CTX as well 35% (legal limit in GA) on all windows and the back hatch. It darkens the car a bit, but it is still easy to see outside the car at night. I was hoping for a little darker personally but I really like my tint.

ElSupreme said:

I have the (Formula One) Llumar CTX as well 35% (legal limit in GA) on all windows and the back hatch. It darkens the car a bit, but it is still easy to see outside the car at night. I was hoping for a little darker personally but I really like my tint.

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CTX is the LLumar brand. If you have Formula One and the ceramic then its the Pinnacle line. Its a great film as well. Just had a car with Formula One in here that had it on the rear window after 17 years! No bubbling or peeling but it was starting to distort a bit. I would expect after 17 years to lose a bit of its original appearance so expected, specially int he cali sun for 17 years. We had to replace the door film as it was a cheaper dyed film of some sort that was completely purple/bubbling. It had been replaced after an accident apparently and owner was told it was same film, obviously that was not the case!

@biffandsully, I have mine tinted for over a year now, Llumar all around within the legal limit of my state. I am very happy with the Llumar tint.

http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/auto-image-window-tinting-belmont?start=100#qx2116Laq_gYsJHhLsBVQg

Llumar on a TMS.

Dyed films are made with ink. Red green and yellow ink. Though the ATC line is advanced in the sense that the red green and yellow ink are stabilized to fade at the same speed preventing the loss of the yellow (red and green make purple windows), and are thus called color stable, the ink has a 0 to 1% Infra red absorbing value, and is not as useful for light energy control as is the CTX line, which having a metallic density in the mineral form as a ceramic can absorb 40ish percent of the IR, which is about half the heat you deal with inside a car.

I have had most of the high end tints over the years (Huper Optik, 3M, CTX, yada, yada, yada) and I honestly have to say the while I prefer them for clarity I've never kept a car long enough to see how well they hold up. Of all that I've had I have seen little difference. Perhaps if I kept my cars longer than a couple of years I would see. My MS100D has CTX, my Escalade just got CTX installed yesterday and my Jeep has CTX but not for any other reason than I just like doing business with them. Huper Optik is very hard to find here in Florida and is the primary reason that I ended up with 3M and CTX. Also earlier in the thread someone said that they paid $475 for CTX (not sure where they are) but here in Florida it's $299.

Llumar CTX is a great value.

We have it on our Volt

As for our X I did Formula One “Stratos” on the two front windows (it’s basically Llumar’s premier film)

Happy with both. Had 3M Crystalline on our last S and it’s definitely a good film, but I feel the cost is simply too much.