Don’t know if this goes under detailing but.... I just put on the Walmart black magic cling tint. It actually looks pretty good IMO. Does anyone have experience with this, as in how long it holds up? I like dark windows but in VA we have a 35% back window and 50% front window rule. Well that’s what people at store told me, so I tried it on my own.

 

they look nice than the precut ones I bought from ebay, $26 a set.

 

In Florida you see plenty of DIY jobs gone bad ..... BUBBLES .....

I had mine done in a shop (second car now) .... It comes with a lifetime warranty ....

 

I have been running Gila Static Cling Tint for years! 5% on rear and 20% front, I have peeled this on and off a dozen times. Install with Gila solution and squeegee, not perfect but very nice. Have it on when I am using my “Mini Sleeping Pod” and off for the race track.

 

Hard to tell with the rain on the windows, but if it looks good to you, great!

I'm a big guy (and pushing 50 y.o.) and hate crawling around to work on the inside of my MINI. I take a front seat out when I want to change the fuel filter, just to have the room to move comfortably. I always pay for pro tint and find a place that installs good quality tint. If you enjoy doing the work and it was inexpensive, the durability isn't that important... just peel it off in a few years and put on fresh (my thoughts about belt-line trim).

I had Lumar ceramic professionally installed a few years back. I choose tint that is on the legal side of the limits, just to make sure that I'm not attracting any unwanted LEO attention and don't have to worry about not passing inspection. I also prefer to tint the sides/rear all the same as I don't care for seeing different levels of tint across the glass. I have limo tint applied to the sunroof panels to cut down on interior heat (my first summer in Texas with a sunroofed R53 nearly cooked my scalp).

 

Look good, and pretty dark in that pic. I had to look it up and it looks like Texas window tint law limits it to 25% on the front windows and no limit in the back. That's pretty dark. In Illinois, it's 35% all around for "passenger vehicles," which is fine by me.

 

You guys annoy me, in New York the limit is 70% on the front! And, you won’t pass yearly safety inspection if it isn’t legal shade.

This static cling tint intrigues me... How hard is it to install? Can it be removed and reinstalled? How does it work with rolling the windows up and down?

 

Been a while since I was back on NAM, but I'm in NC now (the red JCW post 3-4 above) and I think we are a 35% all around for normal passenger car state. I think the combined registers at 37%, tested by both the installer and every year when I go in for a safety inspection.

It DOES look super dark in this photo, but the angle of the photo is showing almost all of the glass as double-filtered (through 2 panes of glass) except for a small rectangle at the top left of the windshield where you can see through the windshield (no tint) and out the driver's side glass.

 

Move out to the Midwest or TN. Close to the Dragon and you can do this 😉

20% all around, nothing front window

 

I'm about 25-30% on the back and sides from having the car in Connecticut. The front doors were 30-35%, but had to be removed when we moved up to New York

 

Pennsylvania is pretty much the same. It is also as safety issue, so it is not simply a ticket and you drive away. The vehicle can't be driven again until the tint is removed from the front windows.

The local paper ran a picture of some unfortunate young man having to scrape the tinting off his windows, parked on the side of a road, while a policeman was standing in the background, watching.

 

There are removable shades available too, for the rear & back windows.
I couldn't find the OEM one available anymore, but I found a set from blinds4cars ($135 out the door, maybe a foreign transaction fee from my credit card on top of that).
I think they are worth the price. Would be a better deal at $100-125 though.

Negatives-
-2 of them sometimes fall out when hitting bumps or cornering hard. You could probably fix that with some adhesive or tabs. They're just press fit/friction fit, and so if the window trim panel is sloped the wrong way they can more easily fall out.
-they're large/bulky if you want to store them in the car. They came with a nice storage bag, but they do not fold up like sunshades. These are probably 3/32" steel rod rigid frames. My driver side rear window is 2 piece, the others are 1 piece, to give you an idea of bulk.
-the club door one falls out frequently (it will always fall out when you open the club door), and the glass shape is just not designed well to hold a shade in. You could probably DIY a holder
-the rear windshield ones are hard to get out. Not a negative for me since I leave them in all the time. Might be a different story for the large windowed minis, I think they may be 2 piece

The falling out thing is most annoying, but I think I could make some plastic tabs that latch into the interior panels. You could easily glue/screw something if that doesn't bother you.

I like that they're removable. I like tint, but I also like clear windows sometimes. And it's ~1/3 the cost of high quality tint.
https://www.blinds4cars.com/mini--r56-309-c.asp
I think there was another site offering similar shades but I can't find the link. I'm pretty sure that place & carshades.com are related and have some reviews on bmw forums & other car forums.