roktoy
New member
Some Facts about the Factory Tint in my 2014 4runner.
Front Windows:
Has natural green tint called solar green. Light meter at shop measured out at 80% light transmission.
Found some documentation online that said the factory is 77%
Rear Windows:
The rear windows do not have a film on them, its privacy glass with color dyed into the glass. Light meter at shop measured at 28%.
Same doc said the rears are 27.6% from the factory.
Here is a picture of the factory greenish tint in the stock windows.
1st time tinting:
The tint shop installed Suntek Carbon 25%, combined with the 80% Solar green factory tint yields 20% light transmission rate. Since I only did the front windows, it was slight darker looking out the front windows compared to the 28% rears. This was not too bad, but the Suntek brand tints have are charcoal colored tints, which means it got a greenish tone to them. This combined with the factory green yielded a green tone to the tint. It was noticeable in color from both the inside and outside of vehicle. I tried to see if it changed or evened out, but a month later I had to get this fixed. I called the tint shop and they were awesome and said to bring it in and they would change it out for me.
Here is a picture with my 1st tint, with only Suntek 25% in the fronts. You can see the green in the front windows. This is with the factory rear windows.
2nd time Tinting:
So I went back to the tint shop and heard that Johnson Greystone was a good match along with 3M. The tint shop only had 3M CS, which is a smoke color, so it’s more of a blue grey color to it. We first tested the 35% film, which matched up perfectly in light transmission to the rears. Because 35% film with factory 80% yields 28% light transmission. With the 3M film the color match was much better. But you could still see green in the front windows and I’ve always thought the back windows at 28% was kind of light. So instead we did 3M CS 20%. Darker tint seems to hide the Green better, but you can never get rid of the green totally and match perfectly. But this film was pretty good. I also added Suntek 45% CXP to the rears. The Suntek as I have said before has a greenish color to it, I thought adding green to the rears would help it to match better.
So with the 3M CS 20 combined with the factory 80% front, yields 16% light transmission rate.
The rears with the Suntek 45, which is actually a 40% tint, combined with the factory 28% yields 11.2% light transmission in the rears.
Here is a color comparison of the 3 tints. As you can see the 3M is more bluish compared to the Suntek which has green in the film.
From the outside with new tint. 3M CS 20 front, and Suntek 45 rears.
Finally a picture from the inside looking out.
Final Thoughts:
If you want to just do the front windows a 35% tint will match up best light transmission wise with the rears. Try a 3m or Johnson film. I also heard Sungard was pretty good too. Just have them show you the samples next to each other so you can compare, you can’t tell from the displays. You have to hold them up next to each other to compare color.
So with the 3M CS front and Suntek CXP rear tint, it looks really good. The Color match is much better. I can still see green in some light conditions, but since the tint is in the glass you can never get rid of it.
The darkness from the inside looking out is great, the front is slightly lighter. At night although things are darker, it’s still fine for nighttime driving.
Front Windows:
Has natural green tint called solar green. Light meter at shop measured out at 80% light transmission.
Found some documentation online that said the factory is 77%
Rear Windows:
The rear windows do not have a film on them, its privacy glass with color dyed into the glass. Light meter at shop measured at 28%.
Same doc said the rears are 27.6% from the factory.
Here is a picture of the factory greenish tint in the stock windows.
1st time tinting:
The tint shop installed Suntek Carbon 25%, combined with the 80% Solar green factory tint yields 20% light transmission rate. Since I only did the front windows, it was slight darker looking out the front windows compared to the 28% rears. This was not too bad, but the Suntek brand tints have are charcoal colored tints, which means it got a greenish tone to them. This combined with the factory green yielded a green tone to the tint. It was noticeable in color from both the inside and outside of vehicle. I tried to see if it changed or evened out, but a month later I had to get this fixed. I called the tint shop and they were awesome and said to bring it in and they would change it out for me.
Here is a picture with my 1st tint, with only Suntek 25% in the fronts. You can see the green in the front windows. This is with the factory rear windows.
2nd time Tinting:
So I went back to the tint shop and heard that Johnson Greystone was a good match along with 3M. The tint shop only had 3M CS, which is a smoke color, so it’s more of a blue grey color to it. We first tested the 35% film, which matched up perfectly in light transmission to the rears. Because 35% film with factory 80% yields 28% light transmission. With the 3M film the color match was much better. But you could still see green in the front windows and I’ve always thought the back windows at 28% was kind of light. So instead we did 3M CS 20%. Darker tint seems to hide the Green better, but you can never get rid of the green totally and match perfectly. But this film was pretty good. I also added Suntek 45% CXP to the rears. The Suntek as I have said before has a greenish color to it, I thought adding green to the rears would help it to match better.
So with the 3M CS 20 combined with the factory 80% front, yields 16% light transmission rate.
The rears with the Suntek 45, which is actually a 40% tint, combined with the factory 28% yields 11.2% light transmission in the rears.
Here is a color comparison of the 3 tints. As you can see the 3M is more bluish compared to the Suntek which has green in the film.
From the outside with new tint. 3M CS 20 front, and Suntek 45 rears.
Finally a picture from the inside looking out.
Final Thoughts:
If you want to just do the front windows a 35% tint will match up best light transmission wise with the rears. Try a 3m or Johnson film. I also heard Sungard was pretty good too. Just have them show you the samples next to each other so you can compare, you can’t tell from the displays. You have to hold them up next to each other to compare color.
So with the 3M CS front and Suntek CXP rear tint, it looks really good. The Color match is much better. I can still see green in some light conditions, but since the tint is in the glass you can never get rid of it.
The darkness from the inside looking out is great, the front is slightly lighter. At night although things are darker, it’s still fine for nighttime driving.
Last edited:
