Is the windshield factory-tinted?

[Sheik-YurBooty]

In NYC , the law is that the tint factor cannot be below 30...Plus in order to get a ticket the cop must place a meter on the window to determine the factor

[kpaske]

I can only speak from my experience in MD, and I'm sure it works differently from state to state, but there a cop needs no "proof" whatsoever to write you what they call a "repair order", which is what you would get for improper tint on your vehicle. In fact, the cop can write you a ticket for whatever he wants, and then the burden is on you to have your vehicle reinspected to satisfy the conditions of the order. In some cases you need to go to an authorized inspection station and in others, such as with tint, you need to be inspected by the state police at the MVA headquarters. In fact, the cop can be completely ignorant of the law and write you a ticket just because he "thinks" you're wrong. In my case, I was written a ticket for improper tint on the back window of a pickup truck. The law puts no limitation on any tint behind the driver and passenger, so having limo black tint from the passenger windows back is 100% legal (or at least that's how it was 10 years ago when I got my ticket). So because one cop was mistaken , about how the law was written, it was my responsibility to prove my innocence by taking a half day off work to drive up to the MVA headquarters and get reinspected.

As far as factory tinting goes... Perhaps it was different from year to year? I know that my stock '99 windshield had some sort of tint or filtering from the day I bought it. It's not apparent when looked at with the naked eye, but whenever I wear sunglasses there is a distinct greenish-purple "checkerboard"-like pattern across the whole windshield.

[Ldub]

Kyle,
Yeahhhhhh, trippy ain't it.....AHEM, getting back to the topic,& this is just speculation on my part.
I think it's probably the polarization of your sunglasses picking up the lamination pattern within the glass. I've noticed the same thing, but only when wearing polarized lenses.
For the "good stuff", try tilting your head back & forth.
Ldub

[kpaske]

Whoa... far out man!

Not sure what you mean by lamination, but I don't see it on all windshields, only a select few.

[WyrreJ]

I see it on a lot of windshields and other windows. I've always assumed it was a side-effect of it being tempered or whatever they do to make it break into a bunch of tiny, not-sharp, pieces. Since you can't see it without polarized lenses I don't think it has anything to do with tint.