Did People Tint Windows in mid - late 70s?

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I bought a Chevy van brand new in 1974 and 2 weeks later I went to
Ft. Meyers, Florida with my girlfriend.
In Sarasota I saw a window tint shop and had my front door windows lightly tinted and had chrome tint put on my sliding door and back doors.
Cops in Ohio tried to bust me for the chrome tint, stating that they could not see into the van, so I opened the door and all they saw was black cutains in the windows.
They still tried to write me up until I asked them why bust me when there are a lot of vans runnin' around with NO windows in the doors.

As a side note, if I pulled the curtain behind the front seats, I could park it anywhere and have a 'good time' with my girlfriend and nobody was the wiser. Maybe that is why all my friends wanted to borrow it on Friday and Saturday nights. Got to drive a bunch of cool cars those nights.

70 GS 4555 Stage1 4sp convert Root Beer Met Brown
70 429 Cyclone Spoiler Grabber Green 4 sp
65 Fury 426 Street Wedge all black

Those were the days.
 
yellowdartdave said:
As a side note, if I pulled the curtain behind the front seats, I could park it anywhere and have a 'good time' with my girlfriend and nobody was the wiser. Maybe that is why all my friends wanted to borrow it on Friday and Saturday nights. Got to drive a bunch of cool cars those nights.

Those were the days.
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That's where the bumper sticker came from : If this van's a rockin, don't come knockin!
 
orangetwist said:
Just like it says. Did car guys tint their windows in the mid-late 70s? Im just curious as to when the trend started. I know we've discussed yes or no to tinting windows on here and its all personal preference. But would it be acceptable to lightly (maybe 20%) tint them on a "period build" for that era?
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20% is pretty Dark, Its the percent of light that shows through. Sow it lets 20% of the light in.
 
I like all the stories from back then lol. I had never heard of spray tint. That's kinda crazy.

I consider 20% middle of the road. Less than that seems too light to me. My patrol car is 5% and I love it, but I don't think that would look right on my car. May try a few samples, see how 30 or so looks.

I wish id have been around back then customs vans, cool cars, and cruisin the strip. We have nowhere to cruise around here.
 
My buddy had a 1968 Coronet 440, about 15 years ago and it was tinted and looked good (I thought anyway!) I think it depends on the car and the color but I am going to paint my 71 Challenger black with black R/T stripes and black shaker and tint the windows very dark,it will look pretty menacing, nothing like a blacked out Mopar shaking windows to send the chevy kids screaming to their mothers!!!!:sad2:
 
Window film tinting was available and in use in SoCal in the mid 1970s. I believe 1974 was the first year that I saw a friend's 1969 Camaro with it. It looked very nice with the blue paint. My car buddies were not unanimous on the film tinting. Some of them put it on their muscle cars and some did not.

I worked as a tire-buster/battery installer/shock absorber installer for Montgomery Ward's from 1976 to 1978. The film tint was available in the shop around 1977 as we would install it along with the do-it-yourself sun roofs. I cut a few cars to put in the sun roofs. The tinting was a faster job but not as fun as butchering someone's car with a jigsaw.
 
Really, I was not even around in the 70's but have seen pics of red, blue and even green tint windows on street machines. My Duster's got a very light polarized tint. Works great to help the A/C and its pretty see through at night. Here's a pic. I like it but it really depends on the color of the car.
 

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I don't know since I was born in 74 but tinted windows are must here in the SoCal desert. I'm tinting the windows on my Dart once I get other necessary things squared away.
 
Not just in SoCal!! I have a triple black car and anything above 90 degrees and I'm driving the turd that has AC!!!

I'm thinking of tinting my windows...
 
I had a 72 340 Duster with air and it had factory tinted windows and the white vinyl top, the windshield tint was across the top.

As for Ohio cops, I agree with yellowdartdave, they were terrible. You couldn't have a loud muffler, cherry bombs were popular then, alter your ride height, and you couldn't tint your windows. It was worse if you had a motorcycle, if you saw a cop, then you could bet you would be pulled over.

I knew a guy in high school, who used a light blue spray tint on the inside of his red pickup windows in the mid 60's and it looked pretty good.

You know, you get your ride looking good to get the girls, and he had the girls riding with him. The only thing was, they used their finger nails to scratch and peal the windshield tint when he wasn't there. Dumb high school girls, they must have been jealous.

Actually, I think it's a female problem, no matter what the age. Some show it more than others !
 
Back in 68 my brother used the spray on stuff to tint the windows on his 59 El Comino. He thought it looked so cool that he tinted the head light too, I scraped it off for him after the first cop that seen him at night pulled him over.
 
back in the '80s, I had 5% on my '66 mustang (was so dark you couldn't see anything inside the car). Finally had the cops tell me to take it off, so I cut the Mustang emblem's running horse into it (almost the entire width of the side windows) and peeled the rest off.
 
Wreckers here in Fl seem to have a 'papal dispensation' when it comes to dark tint.
I should know. My boss had limo in both our roll-backs plus a band across the windshield. Every time I met a cop, they just waved.
The downside was backing up at night as you had to run the windows down. The clearence lights on the bed looked like candles about 100 feet away. But it sure was cool in the truck when it was 100 outside.
 
I remember louvered windows being the solution back in the day. I'll tint the Duster when it's time tho. All black and no A/C...yeah, it'll get tinted.

Ken
 
I had blue tint on my 72 duster, it was a light tint that you could see thru, but it looked cool as hell, if I ever paint the scamp I'll do the windows the same way, The cops never looked twice at the tint because they could see in the car even at night but they would bust my balls on everyting else, ride height, uncaped headers, burnouts, ect.ect.
 
Hell, I had tinted window's back in 67. It wasn't the sheet tint they have now, it was a spray on made by Cal Customs.
 
orangetwist said:
Just like it says. Did car guys tint their windows in the mid-late 70s? Im just curious as to when the trend started. I know we've discussed yes or no to tinting windows on here and its all personal preference. But would it be acceptable to lightly (maybe 20%) tint them on a "period build" for that era?
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Ahh.....remember it like it was yesterday!!
In high school (class of 79) Driving an ugly 64 Dart /6 in the early 70's but was in my first van by high school. Was in deep on the custom van scene. Used to etch glass, paint, interiors, custom electronics, and yes we had just started tinting windows somewhere around 73???
Ahhh what was the question again?:happy10:
 
Purple Haze said:
Hell, I had tinted window's back in 67. It wasn't the sheet tint they have now, it was a spray on made by Cal Customs.
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HAHA!!!
My dad sprayed that on our Polara windows right before we went to Fla from Cinti when I was a kid!! LOL!! It had runs all over it and me and my sister were wearing the green flakes from it by the motel stop in the evening. It provided many fine hours of drawing (scratching it off) with our fingernails. Never seemed to notice how it tatsted with snaks but I am sure I ate my fill! LMAO!!!:happy10:
 
Purple Haze said:
Hell, I had tinted window's back in 67. It wasn't the sheet tint they have now, it was a spray on made by Cal Customs.
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Maybe ill just find me some spray on tint for that authentic look, with runs and all. LOL

Since it seems tinting started in the 70s I figure ill just go ahead and tint it. At worst ill be out the money for the tint and the time to remove it if I don't like it. Still got a while though since its at the body shop.
 
Actually, mine came out great. I used only the smoke color on both my 62 golden hawk Studebaker an 56 VW. You had to read the directions and feed the run, worked good never pealed on me.
 
If you really wanted to be cool in the 70's , you would have etched glass on your car windows.

Years back I bought a 71 Scamp that had the rear qtr windows etched with some clouds, sunbeams, and the words "White Nite-y".
Those windows were the first thing I removed and replaced on that car..
But I still have them.

I've thought about putting them in my 68 Dart, getting some side-pipes, gabriel Hi-Jackers, and really going "old School" with it. (but I probably wont).
 
orangetwist said:
Just like it says. Did car guys tint their windows in the mid-late 70s? Im just curious as to when the trend started. I know we've discussed yes or no to tinting windows on here and its all personal preference. But would it be acceptable to lightly (maybe 20%) tint them on a "period build" for that era?
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"Shack" did.............. :read2:
 
MileHighDart said:
I've thought about putting them in my 68 Dart, getting some side-pipes, gabriel Hi-Jackers, and really going "old School" with it. (but I probably wont).
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Dont forget to paint the brake drums and everything else underneath with fluorescent paint (orange, pink, yellow, blue, or green), and then put little lights under the fender wells to bring out the color at night. That's what they used to do around here before neon came out - lol.

Oh yeah, and also dont forget the fun fur in the back window.
 
MileHighDart said:
Years back I bought a 71 Scamp that had the rear qtr windows etched with some clouds, sunbeams, and the words "White Nite-y".
Those windows were the first thing I removed and replaced on that car..
But I still have them.
Click to expand...

As weird as that sounds, it sounds kinda cool at the same time. You should snap a few pics and post em up. Id love to see them and im sure others would too. Just a neat part of customizing history.
 
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