Topic: Aftermarket Shade Band for Windshield

[X-Traction]

Our latest car is the only one I've ever owned that lacks a shade band across the top of the windshield.  I find this quite annoying when the sun blasts in through where I'm used to having a shade band.

I don't want to use a strip of standard window tint because it would look tacky and I don't like the abrupt transition.  You'd think someone would make an aftermarket window tint film that has a graduated fill from dark to transparent.  There are loads of cars that lack shade bands, and there should be a large market for such a product. 

However, after extensive searching, I can find no such product.  Perhaps this is technically difficult to make, I don't know.

Does anyone know where such a thing can be obtained?  Maybe a business opportunity for someone?

[rrocket]

You need to look into 3M Crystalline.  So clear you can put it on the whole windshield.  Amazing stuff.  Uses nano-technology.  This film rejects 99.9 percent of UV rays (with a total SPF rating that exceeds 1,700), 97 percent of infrared radiation, blocks heat, and is nearly completely invisible to the naked eye.

Will that work?? 

[airbalancer]

 it does not appear to  have a tint in it

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_WW/ScotchgardAutoProtection/Home/CarBuyers/Home/Products/WindowFilm/CrystallineWindowFilm/

[tpl]

I think it might be illegal in Ontario to put it on the whole windshield, even the 70% transmitting version.

And of course you would lose 30% of the available light all the time including at night.

[rrocket]

It has tint in it.  Of course it's illegal to do the whole windshield.  But for what he wants (top sunshade) it's perfect.  FWIW, I saw a whole windshield with it and couldn't really tell it was tinted from the outside..

[airbalancer]

Too bad their site does not of pictures of the tint

[X-Traction]

You need to look into 3M Crystalline.  So clear you can put it on the whole windshield.  Amazing stuff.  Uses nano-technology.  This film rejects 99.9 percent of UV rays (with a total SPF rating that exceeds 1,700), 97 percent of infrared radiation, blocks heat, and is nearly completely invisible to the naked eye.

Will that work?? 

No, I just want a strip, perhaps 4" wide, that goes across the top of the windshield.  The top edge of it would be about a 60% tint, fading out to 0% tint at the bottom edge.

Come to think of it, is the tinting of the shade band in a standard windshield, in one of the two layers of glass?  Or is it in the plastic sheet between them?  Because if it's in the plastic sheet, maybe I could get my hands on one of them and cut off the top part for a shade band.

Ah, here's the answer:
http://mainland.cctt.org/istf2007/manufacturing.asp

So even if I could get a layer of this PVB stuff, it would not be shaped for my windshield.  So much for that idea.  Maybe that's why nobody sells them., with the correct shape to fit the windshield?

Using the word "eyebrow" in an Internet search works better than "sunshade band".  I found someone did this with a band that has a gradient of solid black with "holes" transitioning into dots.  Accomplishes the same thing.  Done by Ziebart, apparently.

Then there's digital vinyl printing, better known for "wrapping" vehicles in advertising.  One would think they'd have the technolgy to do a gradient eyebrow.