Window Tint, HRE's, stupid or sweet????
 

Hi everybody, I am in Pawleys Island, SC, about 15 min south of Myrtle Beach. Last weekend purchased and 04 se elite package, smoke on frost. I am wondering what others recommend for window tint percentage wise.

Is 28% the way to go, is metallic tint ok, or should I get smoke colored. Any advice would be appreciated. I love this car, the seats, the way it smells, even the stock wheels. The 18's look great but I am thinking about going with a 20" HRE 547 wheel, with the centers painted factory smoke color, Anyone else had HRE's on a maxima? And is a 255/35 front and 285/30 rear too big?? Sorry for all the questions but I am really excited about this car?

Well it's all your choice... if you want to tint or get wheels, I don't think it's stupid, as it's your choice.

As far as tint goes, 27% is the legal limit in SC, but I don't know of any installers that use that... most jump from 35% straight to 20%. 35% actually looks GOOD on Smoke (I know, that's what I have :)), but with Frost it might be too light. It's entirely up to you, I suppose you could go to a tinter and check out some similar tints and see how they look.

SC is funky when it comes to the law though... so you might wanna keep an eye on The Man and see if he's gonna hassle you over 20%. If you go by the letter of the law (Section 56-5-5015), the tint must be "non reflective" and you can't use funky colors, so you might wanna do some research there. Again, chances are that the guy doing the tinting will know full well what's legal and what's not, and it's entirely up to you to make the decision of what to go with...

The only weird part of the law that I see is subsection E...

And from what (G) says, if the tinter doesn't do this whole "certificate of compliance" business, it's a misdemeanor ($1k fine, 30 days in jail). If you do the installation yourself then it's $200 fine and no more than 30 days. Not sure how well this is enforced, but you probably wanna make sure you have all the facts before you go do this... :)

FYI, here's my Smoke with 35%

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=347738

I found out after my metallic install that the radio antenea is in the rear window. Was concerned about interferance, but have not noticed a difference. I went with Johnson Films 32%. Appears lighter with the frost interior.

Hi and welcome to the club. Great choice by the way. I'm in Charleston not too far from you. I have 28% tint on mine and I have the frost interior. I went to N.C. to have mine tinted though. To be quite frank with you the tint shops around here suck. I had a local installer do mine and after two weeks I made them remove it and give me a refund. They were supposedly the best in the area and told me that if I was going to have it redone to go out of state because there are no good tinters in S.C. Huh, must have been telling the truth. I visited other tint shops around town and viewed their work. My 12 year old could do a better job. To make a long story short, I had mine done at a Formula One shop in NC with the Ultimate Series film. They did an outstanding job and I have not had any problems with it. Good luck and make sure you check out the tinters work before having it done.

Awesome and welcome. Ive got 35% smoke and thats the legal limit here in VA. I prefer something a little darker, maybe down to 20%. Id also say go with the 20" HRE's.

Metallic or Smoke tint depends on the look you are going for...some states forbid any metallic tint. I made the choice.....even though I think metallic tint would have been better looking with my Spirited Bronze....only wanted to tint once and not worry about tinting.

Now tint is a cheap drop in the bucket for what the HRE rims will cost you, if you have the bucks, get the HRE rims. HRE rims are not common on any car as they are not cheap and sweet rims.

Some 20 inch HRE rims and some smoke tint would look awsome on your car. Just my opinion, but do what makes you happy. If I had money, being in the military, I do not know what money is.....I would get HRE rims over any other rims out there.

But than again, I am riding with 20" rims and spinners....I am the plague of chrome haters. :sprint:

people please post side shots like maxzma did with your % of tint


I am actually getting mine tinted this next tuesday and wondering what % to go with. its hard to see how dark they look when you have a pic a scewed angle.

I'm thinking 15% on the back window and the rear sides and 35% on the front sides

the legal limit in iowa is anything on the back window and rear sides and 70% on the front.

35% tint law here in Mississippi, pics are on the page in the link so they will not kill the dial-up 56K folks.

http://myweb.cableone.net/carcster88/

Not to pick nits, but I'm actually from the opposite line of thinking. End to end from one window to the other, the tint will look much darker because you can't see through to the other side...

But hey, whatever floats your boat... :)

I am sending my car in either this Saturday if I don't go to the meet or next Saturday. Probably going to get 20% tint. On my black 05' that should look HOT! Pics to come when it's done.

Thanks for the responses, I feel good about going with the 28% now, Maxzma's car looks great with 28. I agree that it is hard to find a good tint shop around here, may resort to going to Raleigh or Charlotte to get it done. I am going to go ahead and order the HRE's on Friday I think. It will probably take 6-8 weeks before I have them on the car. I will post pics when I do. In the meantime I will get the tint done and post pics of that as well. Thanks for the help.

ps I decided to just go with a 245/35 pirelli nero on all 4 wheels, with the money I save by not going wider in the back, I can buy an intake, and half of my exhaust system.

Welcome to the Smokers Club...lol My Max is the same as yours. Smoke Ext and Frost int. I went for the 15% tint all the way around the car. I had them do the whole back window w/o cutting around the 3rd brake light as well. My only major gripe is that the windshiled lets in so much light that the front windows look lighter than the rear at times.....eh what can ya do. I'm happy with the 15% because even at that level, the rear view still dims. Good luck and I'll try and post pics soon of my baby so you get an idea.

Don't want to sound lame but I don't even know which tint % I have, I just said I wanted medium and here's what I got:
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../464988_32.jpg
I'm happy, I didn't want to go too dark...
As for the HRE's, if you can afford it go for it. I wanted the 540's but at $1000-$1300 per wheel, they were a bit over budget for me.

http://www.demski.org/david/NewCar/side?full=1
theres mine with 5 in the rear and 35 in the front (frost interior), ive recently redone the fronts 20% but i do not have my camera so haven't been able to get a new picture. hopefully i'll borrow a friends camera next week since my wheels should be here too =)

david002

thanks thats about exactly what I'm going for on my max. I also have a black one so its good to see exactly what it will look like

If you like HRE's check out iforged wheels. I can get you a great deal on them, about 1/2 the price of HRE's. A lot of G35 people go the iforged route instead of HRE.

I like the Seneka, that's the route I would take for sure...
Bryan let me know how much for Silver...
http://www.iforged.com/wheels/seneka.html

FYI... i got 20% all around, check my sig.

Well I have been a little gunshy on ordering the HRE's. 6k is a lot to spend on a 35k car. I am interested in the iforges I looked on their website. Let me know how cheap you can get a 20x8.5 or 9 iforged in brushed aluminum. I really like the look of the brushed wheels in iforged. Do you think they are the same quality as HRE?? Hell, I dont care if they are much cheaper then thats the route I am going. Ive got a Ford f-250 with 20" welds and 40" super swampers and the whole package only cost me 3k. I must have temporarily lost my mind thinking about the HRE's

HRE rims are in a league by themselves. They look real nice on C5 and C6 vettes though. You really have to have deep pockets to splurge for HRE rims. There are plenty of other rims out there that still look nice and do not cost and arm and a leg. Rims are a major investment though and once you drop the money on them, sometimes hard to go back when you have them mounted and later decide to change to different rims. Search around ALOT for rims and get what makes YOU happy. Believe it or not, sometimes cheaper can be better in the long run.....again, all depends on your pocket book.