Warning: Long Story
Ok, so I have an update. After I had my windows tinted by a guy who swore his was the very best ceramic tint money could buy. I brought the truck back to him to have him apply "paint protection." It's basically clear film over the front of the car to prevent rock chips. His paint protection sucked. I hated it and it looked like shit. You could see stretch marks all over the film where he heated it up to stretch it out. Then it stopped covering all the surfaces about an 1/8th of an inch from the edge. I bought it back to him and told him that it looked bad with all the stretch marks in it, and that the front windshield tint had a line that went across the front that was driving me nuts. It was very slight, but dead center in my field of view, and I could see it everytime I drove the truck. First he said the clear stuff on the front would even out as it dried on the truck. That never happened. Then him and another guy that worked there looked in the truck and insisted that the line was in the glass. He offered to redo it to prove it was in the glass, but warned that windshields were inherently difficult and that mine was cut and placed perfectly. So I let it go.
So After I got a rock chip on the hood in that 1/8th of an inch, I took it to a more reputable shop in town and had them redo the whole clear bra thing (at twice the price of course). But they did a killer job, and didn't use some pre-cut crap that they ordered. They actually did it like a wrap on the front of the truck. It looks infinitely better. If anyone is in the Northeast Georgia area and wants their truck protected this stuff is awesome, and these guys do an awesome job. Hydro-phobic, self-healing, and it looks awesome. Now when I told the new tinter the story about the front windshield, and I got to the part about the front windshield having a line from the factory, he looked at me like I was nuts. He jumped in the truck (along with 3 other tinters at his shop) and laughed. He said it was shit film. The line (in fact two lines) were in the film. I asked him if he was sure, and he said of course. Needless to say he replaced it with his film and the lines are gone. In the process he showed me the tint he took off and pointed out how it had already started fading at the edges, despite only being a couple months old. He said it was absolute garbage. Now maybe it's psychosomatic, but I swear the front windshield looks a lot clearer, and here's where I [finally] get to the point of this story. Since I did this, the headlights turn on during the day A LOT less (like almost never), and the automatic windshield wipers have started working better. To clarify, with the old tint, if it was raining they worked fine, but if I started the truck and there was water on the windshield, I had to move the stalk one tick to make it wipe that initial water off. Then it would work fine for the rest of the trip. Now with the new film, when I start the truck, if there is water on the windshield, it wipes it like it's supposed to.
Anyway, if anyone with the same problem is interested in seeing if you get the same results, the tint that is on my windshield now is SunTek. And if you live in the northeast Georgia area, I have a great shop recommendation.
Josh
