Mobile Window Tinting in Encinitas

Every package above lets you pick a shade, measured as VLT, or Visible Light Transmission. That figure is the share of visible light the film lets through: 70% is very light, 5% is limousine dark. The strip above shows the five shades next to each other.

California sets the rule, not the city, so it applies in Encinitas exactly as it does in the rest of the state. Front side windows must let at least 70% of visible light through. Rear side windows and the rear windshield can be as dark as you want.

Is a 35% tint legal in California?

On the back, yes. A 35% film is legal on rear side windows and the rear windshield and is a popular choice for privacy. It is not legal on the front two side windows, which are held to 70%. If someone offers to fit 35% up front, they are quoting you a fix-it ticket.

What catches people out is the assumption that darker means cooler. It does not. A 70% Apex Ultra ceramic film rejects far more heat than a dark carbon film, because the heat rejection comes from ceramic particles in the film rather than from how dark it looks. If your problem is a hot cabin rather than privacy, spend on the film and stay light at the front.

We will talk the combination through before anything touches the glass, so the finished car is road-legal and still does the job you wanted.

We come to you: home, office, or your own garage. Film wants a clean, covered space, so a garage or carport gives the best result. Wind is the enemy rather than temperature, and an exposed driveway on the coast side of the 5 on a breezy afternoon is a harder place to lay film than a closed garage. Out in Olivenhain, where lots are bigger and there is usually a garage or a barn, conditions are generally easier.

The one exception is the C2 Carbon film, which is in-shop only, both as the Bronze full-car tier and as the front-window option. That work is done at our San Marcos shop, about twenty minutes inland, and it is the reason Bronze is priced below the ceramic tiers.

What the appointment looks like

We are out seven days a week, 7am to 7pm, and we cover all of Encinitas, from Old Encinitas and the 101 through New Encinitas along Encinitas Boulevard and out to Olivenhain. Your technician texts on the way and again when the car is finished, so you are not waiting on a window that never opens.

A full-car tint is normally a half-day job. We need the car with us for the whole appointment and enough room to open all the doors.

After we leave

Keep the windows up for three days while the film cures. Haze, small bubbles or trapped moisture in the first days is normal and clears on its own, typically in one to two weeks in summer. In a damp winter stretch when the marine layer never really burns off, three to four weeks is not unusual and is not a fault. We explain all of it before we leave.