Pickups are the vehicle our customers tint most, and they make a good first DIY job: the glass is big but mostly gently curved, and a crew cab gives you room to work. Trucks also have a few things most cars don't: sliding rear windows, factory privacy glass and tall doors. This guide covers what's different on a truck. For the full step-by-step process, follow our DIY install guide.
Before you order: check three things
- Your cab. Regular cab, extended cab (SuperCab, Double Cab, Quad Cab) and crew cab (SuperCrew, Crew Cab) trucks use different door glass. Count your doors and make sure the kit title matches your cab.
- Your back glass. If the center pane of the rear window slides open, you have a sliding rear window, usually three panes: two fixed sides and a sliding center. If it's one solid piece, it's a fixed rear window. Where a truck kit offers both, choose the configuration that matches your truck.
- Privacy glass. Many crew cabs come with dark factory privacy glass on the rear doors and back glass. If yours does, the front doors may be the whole job. See how factory glass changes the shade.
Doors
Truck door glass goes on the same way as any roll-up window: heat-form the film on the outside, then use your tuck tool to tuck it behind the side gaskets and below the bottom gasket lip (door window steps). On a truck:
- Use a step stool. Full-size truck windows sit high. Standing level with the top of the glass makes heat forming and cleaning the top edge easier, and keeps you from leaning on the door.
- Wash the truck first, especially the door tops, mirrors and seals. Job-site dust and road grime are a common source of specks under the film.
- Extended cab rear doors: on many trucks this glass is small or doesn't roll down. Treat fixed glass like a quarter window: no two-stage roll-up step (fixed quarter and vent glass).
Fixed back glass
- Shape it from the bed. You heat-form the back glass from outside, so you'll work from the truck bed. Put down a mat or moving blanket, and keep the heat gun cord and tools where they can't scratch the paint.
- Heat-form it even if it looks flat. Many truck rear windows look flat but have a slight curve. Unless the glass is perfectly flat, heat-form it with the liner on and confirm the film's shrink direction first (heat forming).
- Protect the cab. Lay towels over the seat back and anything electronic near the glass. In a regular cab, move or tilt the seat forward if it adjusts, to give yourself room.
- Defroster lines. If the glass is heated, test the defroster before you start, wipe along the lines rather than across them, and never use a metal blade (back glass steps).
- Reach the low edge. A long-handled reach squeegee, such as a Bulldozer, gets to the parts of the back glass a normal squeegee can't reach from inside the cab.
Sliding rear window (3-piece slider)
A 3-piece slider is cut to the separate panes, so you install several smaller pieces instead of one big one. They're easier to handle than one large back glass, but there are more edges to clean and line up.
- Close and latch the slider so every pane sits in its normal position.
- Clean the frame, not just the glass. Wipe the center seals, the latch and the track with a separate trim towel before the final glass clean. Grit in the track washes onto wet film when you spray.
- Match each piece to its pane from outside, with the liner on. The two side pieces are often mirror images, so check which side and which way up.
- Start with a fixed side pane. It's the simplest piece. Do the sliding center after you've done one side.
- Work around the latch as cut. The pattern leaves room for the latch hardware. Don't force film under it or trim around it. If it doesn't clear, stop and email us a photo.
- Keep edges off the seals. Each piece should sit with the small gap the pattern was cut for. Film resting on a seal can catch and lift when the slider moves.
- Heat-form each pane on the outside unless it's perfectly flat. If the slider is heated, follow the defroster tips above.
- Don't open the slider during the cure. Treat it like a roll-up window and keep it closed for the full cure period (cure and care). On a power slider, leave the switch alone.
Shade picks for trucks
- Front doors: check your state's tint laws before you choose.
- Rear doors and back glass on clear glass: 20% or 15% for privacy and to keep tools out of sight.
- Regular cab, or you tow often: 20% to 35% on the back glass makes reversing and hitching at night easier than 5%. On a regular cab, it's your only rear window.
- Already have privacy glass? Front doors only is our most common order. Factory privacy glass often looks close to 20%, so check your state's tint laws before you match it on the front doors.
More detail in the shade guide.
Plan your time
Experienced-installer baselines are about 45 minutes per door window and about 1 hour for the back glass (all time estimates). A crew cab complete kit is four doors plus the back glass, so plan a full day for a first install, and do the back glass last.
If something goes wrong
Never trim film on the truck. If a piece doesn't seem to fit, stop and email tint@hmu4llc.com with photos before you continue. If you crease, contaminate or tear a piece, photograph it and check your free recut options.
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