Window tinting, done properly

A Sydney car parked in summer sun becomes an oven. Quality film rejects a substantial share of the infrared radiation that causes that, which means a cabin that cools faster and an air-conditioning system that isn’t fighting as hard.

• Heat rejection, the practical benefit most people notice within a week.
• UV protection. Quality films block the overwhelming majority of UV, which is what fades dashboards, cracks trim and damages leather.
• Glare reduction, noticeably easier driving into low morning and afternoon sun.
• Privacy for the cabin, and for whatever you leave on the back seat.
• Glass retention. Film helps hold shattered glass together on impact.

Protecting the interior matters more than people expect. UV damage to a dash or leather seats is expensive and effectively permanent.

Tint darkness is measured as VLT, or Visible Light Transmission. A lower number means a darker film, so a 20% film is darker than a 35% one. It is the number worth comparing when you are weighing up shades.

Most cars do not end up with one shade all round. The front and the rear are usually specified separately, partly for the look and partly because the rear often has factory privacy glass in it already.

Factory glass carries tint of its own, and film darkness combines with it. A 35% film on already-tinted rear glass finishes darker than the number alone suggests, and we account for that when recommending a combination.

Tell us the look you are after and we will talk you through the shades that get you there, with samples held against your own glass so you can see it on the car before anything is cut.

Not all tint is the same, and the gap between cheap and quality film is enormous, both in how it performs and in how it ages.

Dyed film

The entry level. Delivers privacy and glare reduction but limited heat rejection, and it’s the film that turns purple and bubbles after a few years of sun. It’s cheap for a reason.

Carbon film

Good heat rejection, a stable matte-black appearance that doesn’t fade to purple, and no interference with phone, GPS or keyless entry signals. The sensible mid-tier choice for most cars.

Ceramic film

The premium option. Ceramic particles reject a very high proportion of infrared heat without needing to be dark, so you can run a lighter tint on the front windows and still get substantial heat performance. Also completely signal-transparent.

If you park outside, sit in traffic, or carry kids or pets, ceramic is the upgrade that justifies itself fastest.

What we fit

We install Rayno Phantom — see recent cars out of the studio. Cheap dyed film gets its darkness from pigment, so the only way to reject more heat is to go darker. Phantom’s performance is not tied to how dark the glass looks, so you can pick the shade for the look you want and still get the heat rejection.

Why we fit Rayno specifically →

Rayno Phantom runs across the full range, from a light film you would struggle to notice through to limousine dark. Whatever look you are after, there is a shade that gets you there.

Two things decide where you land. The first is which windows you are treating: the front and the rear are usually specified separately, so most cars end up with a lighter front and a darker rear rather than one shade throughout.

The second is what the car already has. Many cars leave the factory with privacy glass in the rear, which is tinted in the glass itself rather than filmed. Matching a new film to it takes a slightly different shade front and rear to look deliberate instead of mismatched, and that is a judgement made against your actual glass, not from a chart.

Worth knowing: with ceramic film, darker does not mean cooler. The heat rejection comes from the ceramic layer, so a light Phantom film can outperform a much darker cheap film. You can pick the shade you want for how it looks and let the film do the heat work.

Bring the car in, or send a photo, and we will hold samples against the glass in daylight so you can see the actual shade on your actual car before anything is cut.

Most tinters will tell you they use a good film. It is worth understanding what actually distinguishes one, because the differences are real and they are not about darkness.

Nano carbon ceramic is both, not either

Almost every quality film is described as carbon or as ceramic. Rayno’s Phantom series is what they call nano carbon ceramic, meaning carbon and ceramic particles are used together so each covers the other’s weakness.

The problem with carbon film on its own is haze and glare. The problem with ceramic on its own is colour stability, and Rayno are direct about this: standard ceramic films oxidise relatively quickly. Combining the two is the point of the product.

The nano part is not marketing

The distinguishing move is shrinking the carbon particles to a nano scale. Larger carbon particles scatter light, and scattered light is what produces the haze and the halo around headlights that makes cheaper carbon film unpleasant to drive behind at night.

Smaller particles scatter less, so you get the heat rejection carbon is good at without the visual penalty it usually carries. That is the whole engineering argument, and it is why Phantom looks clean rather than milky when you look through it rather than at it.

The figures Rayno actually publish

Phantom blocks 99% of UV. That is the number that matters most for the interior, because ultraviolet is what fades a dashboard, cracks trim and dries out leather, and that damage is permanent in a way heat is not.

On infrared and total heat rejection, the honest position is that the published figures vary by tier and by shade, so we will give you the specification for the exact film going on your car rather than quote a headline number that applies to one product in the range.

Signal transparency

Older metallic and metallised films reject heat well and interfere with signals, which is why they have largely disappeared from cars full of electronics. Phantom is non-metallic, so phone reception, GPS, digital radio, tyre pressure sensors and keyless entry are unaffected.

If your car has a windscreen-mounted toll tag or a driver assistance camera behind the glass, or you are planning a hardwired dash cam, tell us when you book and we will work around it.

The Phantom range

Phantom is a series rather than a single film, with tiers that differ in performance and price. What suits your car depends on where it is parked, how much time you spend in traffic and how dark you want to go. We will talk you through the options rather than defaulting to the dearest.

The warranty

Rayno warrant Phantom against the failures that make cheap tint obvious: cracking, discolouration, delaminating, bubbling, blistering, peeling from the glass, and fading to purple. Those are exactly the things that go wrong with budget film after a few Sydney summers.

The warranty is registered after installation rather than being automatic, so it is worth making sure that actually happens. We will handle the registration and give you the paperwork.

Warranty terms are set by Rayno and administered locally by Rayno Australia. Coverage, duration and conditions can change and can differ by market, so confirm the current terms for your film at registration rather than relying on a summary.

Film is computer-cut or hand-cut to the glass, and applied to the inside of the window. Glass is deep-cleaned first, because any contamination trapped underneath shows permanently.

Most cars are done within a few hours.

The first few days

• Leave the windows up for the first few days while the adhesive cures.
• Slight haze or small water pockets are normal at first, and clear as the film dries out.
• Clean with ammonia-free products only. Ammonia degrades tint film.
• Use a soft microfibre, never anything abrasive on the inside of the glass.

Installed properly with quality film, tint lasts the life of the car without fading, bubbling or peeling.