Heat reduction through windows.

[sternwake]

The dissolved aluminum window frame fought efforts to remove all old screen and compromised aluminum.

I want to paint/seal the bare aluminum, but I don't want to smell paint drying for days.
My surfboard laminating epoxy is stink free in 4 hours, and is thicker and seals better, and when i went to go mix some, I noticed the resin had clouded/crystallized up up due to cold weather storage. It needs to be heated to 120f for an hour or 3 until it goes back clear.

I need at least 60f for 7 hours for the epoxy to cure properly and the clock won, so I decided to install the tint instead.
Unrolled what i had left of the new static cling tint, laid my old tint atop it as a template, and found it 3 inches short.

That's what she said!

Went to order more from same seller, for same product, as I like it on the one window I installed it, and they were sold out. Purchased some more from a different seller. It could be the same product as the junk which faded to clear in 2 years, or it could be the same as the newer stuff I just installed, or something entirely different.

My 2 pop out side cargo door windows, have an 8 year old adhesive backed tint that is pretty well degraded, with some static cling mirror tint adhered to that, for ultra bad clarity. But nice and dark and little heat gets through.
Might be time to remove both layers and use the new on these side windows which Fiona spends a lot of time looking through.
She saw a bobcat this evening through it. Went absolutely apeshit.

I was like what the F deserves that degree of apeshit?, and looked, and was like that is the biggest freaking housecat I've ever seen, then saw the stripes and spots and short tail. Fiona tried to pretend the door was not there, and the resounding boom sent the bob cat running. The apeshit barksnarlathon did nothing, but the reverberation her head bouncing off the door did.

Saw a large Coyote last night, Bobcat today. Pretty urban area. Been a decade + since i seen a Coyote around here, and a few years since i saw an injured Bobcat, about a mile away from here.

[rvpopeye]

Critters retaking their old territory or fire motivated movement ?
Fur kid still did the trick. Owwwwwwww !
Good dog , here's yer biskit .

[sternwake]

Today, Fiona and i were harassed by aggressive honeybees. Twice, we both had to flee into the van.. i hunted those that followed us inside, then they were hovering outside exhaust fan and some songbirds started picking them off.
We both somehow avoided getting stung.

I managed to get.some.epoxy curing atop aluminum and oak, despite the angry bees.
Kinda.surprised.another attack did not begin with gloved epoxy smeared hands and application tools.

[Cammalu]

Aggressive honeybees? Could they be something else?

[sternwake]

They are definitely bees, collecting pollen on the flowers outside my window that I am working on.

In these parts, They are all the more aggressive ' africanized' versions which escaped Brazil in '56.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee

Piss off one and then 6 more get in your face. Kill one and they can smell, seemingly, for days afterwards.

Found the diluted dawn dishsoap in a spray bottle I use for adhering the staic cling tint, gets them out of ones face long enough to escape.
It Should not kill them. We need the bees alive.

[sternwake]

The other black mirror tint arrived.

While it claims the same dimensions as the other tint, which was likely well short of its 78.3 inches or whatever they claimed, it is a different product, even thinner, and it is slightly darker.

Yesterday, with sunlight on the two windows, before the new tint installation, I could easily see the silver smartshield in the untinted, but smoked glass back window, but the middle window with the black mirror tint and smartshield behind it, was just black. This inspired me to get out the tint tools and do it.

So I unrolled and weighted the new tint out on workbench, determined which side was the peel off side, laid my template on it, cut it out, carried it to van, sprayed everything down, then realized I screwed up and peel off side was facing me and not window, despite my efforts to prevent this.

Locate foot, aim, shoot, again.

The rear windows are wider at the bottom so I could not just flip it over.

I figured since the last roll of tint was too short for two windows, that This newly arrived roll would also be too short for another attempt at getting the new piece cut out correctly, but there was 10 inches to spare. silent Temper tantrum averted. Mostly.

This newest black mirror tint did not seem to static cling nearly as well, or perhaps my sprayed water was too soapy, but either way I wound up using a lot of clear scotch tape around the edges as without, it just started to unroll itself.

Once installed. looking out, comparing middle window to rear window, the rear window is slightly cloudier, and darker and not as pleasant to look out from.
From the outside, the rear window looks more mirror like when in shadow. I would prefer both windows look the same from outside but the difference is subtle, in the light I have seen it in so far.

Having just read of a full 4 hour nightmare removing regular adhesive lined tint from a sedan's back window, I feel slightly better about the temporary, easy to remove nature of this static cling window tint, and I wont know if this new tint degrades as quickly as the previous batch from 2.5 years ago.

I have extra static cling tint for my door's pop out windows. Currently, the side door windows have cheap adhesive lined tint and then a layer of mirror tint atop that. The back windows no mirror tint, just adhesive lined.
Very poor clarity, and not very mirror like, as I can still see silvery reflectix through it when my removable panels are installed.

Tinting these windows is much easier as I can remove them from doors, and the 'through glass' hardware, and do the process on a workbench instead of in place on the van. I also have a backup pop out door window from a junkyard, though the metal edges are oxidized black paint instead of polished stainless steel.

One is not supposed to use mirror tint on back windows, which might reflect headlights back at other drivers and be a glare hazard. I am pretty sure most states have laws on the books about this, and it can be used as a reason to pull a driver over, but seems they can find any reason when they feel the need anyway.

I can swap window locations and determine if this a concern, as I prefer the extra privacy and heat reflection of this black mirror tint, compared to the 8 year old tint which is already on these windows.

The older thicker cling tint, some of which I had left over and used on my passenger side rear cv window, seems to attenuate wifi signals to a much higher degree than the older degraded tint did. It really is pretty thick. The old pieces still smell, but not nearly as much as they did when first peeled off.

The old pieces I pulled off have basically turned clear, or nearly so, anywhere they were exposed to light. There is a black border around window perimeter, and in this area, the tint remained silvery showing the degradation was more due to whatever UV light got through the smoked conversion van window glass, rather than the degree of heat from being heavily insulated on the interior.

I am not sure of the newer thinner black mirror tint's wifi attenuation, I'd have to turn the vehicle around to compare as the router is on the other side, and the amount of moisture on the tree leaves between router and laptop, could have as great or greater impact on the wifi signal than one static clint tint vs another.

Wifi attenuation is certainly a consideration. Last year I had a more reliable router to access, than now. Often I have to open a door pop out window and hold laptop up to it when it just stalls. Gets annoying. I could peel off the older thicker tint and already have that mistakenly cut piece which I could install and see, but the project list is already too long, so that effort, for possibly no gain, is unlikely.

Damn laptop is already too much of a project inhibitor. Should be in workshop now, instead of in front of laptop.

[sternwake]

So I took my junkyard door Popout window and and prepped it for the second most recent batch of Black mirror tint ,which is out of stock and forced me to buy something similar.

I'll gave myself a C+ on the installation of this tint, and again the perimeter needed clear scotch tape to prevent it peeling off.

But looking in from outside, when inside is dark, and no chance of seeing inside. One's reflection is pretty undistorted. I could shave with it no worries.

Looking out from within and again I really like the color of the blue sky and everything else with this tint. The clarity is far better than both other versions of static cling tint. This still out of stock tint.

I left the junkyard window installed and peeled off two layers of older original silver cling tint from the window it replaced. These two layers of cling tint have also lost 3/4 of its mirror properties.
I then stripped the 2014 cheap adhesive lined ( now purplish) tint with a Lisle razor blade scraper tool. Then dawn dishsoap and a new razor in the Lisle removed all the old adhesive . When I peeled off the old tint, the smell was almost exactly the same and same strength as when I peeled off the cling tint. It took about 30 minutes of Lisle scraper tool before all old tint and its adhesive was removed completely.

I took the piece I cut backwards yesterday, and found it was 3/4 inch too narrow for the window. i was going to install it anyway when I creased it peeling off the backing, then a portion of it it stuck to itself, and then it creased worse, and then I growled and bunched it up into a tiny ball and tossed it in the garbage.

all my remaining tint leftovers are now pretty much too small to use without a butt-seam employing two different products.

I'd like more of the 'out of stock' tint, it is the so far subjective best of the three 'brands' I've tried.

shame that if/when the e bay seller has more, it will likely be a slightly different product, missing the desirable color and clarity but as of yet unknown durability.

Gonna table the tinting for now.
Back to getting the 200 watt potential fan intake shroud levitating my bedding until it smells like laundry detergent it has not seen in far too long.

[Cammalu]

Got pics you could post?

[sternwake]

Pics would not reveal much about the color of the tint looking from inside to out, and from outside looking at mittor tint, It just turns a clear window into a mirror, and the smoked glass conversion van windows just get darker and slightly more reflective and more private, in the daytime. At night lit from within the mirror tint adds little if any privacy.
My interior red led lighting seems to squeek through no issues whatever the tint is. I can dim the interior red leds to extremely low levels, and at night see inside with little issue. That red light wavelength just gets through with little attenuation.

I'm not really keen on posting pics of my rig's exterior.
When I do the next pop out door window I can try and get pics of 2 of them uninstalled and perhaps showing their comparative differences.

I did order enough black mirror cling tint to just barely do all 4 pop out door windows, but no idea the quality or color, and the back door windows might not get it if it seems it might cause glare to following drivers, and unwanted attention of the law.

[sternwake]

Locate foot.
Aim.
Shoot.
Repeat.

Grrrrr.

Newest black mirror static cling tint arrived.

If the 'out of stock' tint comes in at an 8 out of 10, ten being new high $$ mirrored sunglasses with top quality optics, the new tint is a dismal 0.82.
Think 99 cent store sunglasses dipped in acetone until they partially melt, then cover these solvent melted lenses with a blue sharpie and smear one's greasy fingerprints all around before it dries.

To top it off, little to no mirror effect outside looking at window in daylight.

Looking outside from within, it is worse than the 2014 adhesive tint that was ll scratched and degraded with a layer of the first mirror tint atop that, which is also scratched and degraded. Just freaking horrible, unacceptable, unusable.

This newest cling tint was getting scratched by the soapy wet squeegee, and when i noticed this occurring I was like:

Waste of time and money.

I trimmed the edges and installed the window in door, and confirmed that impression.

At least my technique for applying the tint is getting a lot better with all the practice.

I got to put the best door window in a back door and see if there is too much headlight glare reflected in the mirror for the average following vehicle, other than taller lifted bro trucks with leds in halogen housings.
F those tiny peckered bastards.

I think all these windows need a quality adhesive mirror tint, instead of this static cling crap. I should never have employed this stuff other than for Fiona's perch front door door window, incase I might need to remove it easily and quickly, with no adhesive residue, for safer nighttime driving, in order to see the rear view mirror clearly, but still be able Hide Fiona from the idiotic logic free doogooder cop calling halfwit scum who cant see nor read nor interpret a thermometer because of their prefabricated indignation.