The one finger salute

Advice please.
I've had an interesting situation occur today where I did a car install (a current VW Golf 5 dr) and left the door trim in and made the film level with the top of the door trim horizontal.
All is OK and window with film installed can even be moved down even though wet on all 4 doors. But, and this is the big but. I noticed that when I went to do a final external inspection, I had a finger grow up from the bottom on 2 doors about an inch long. This is despite hard carding and no sign of water or puckered edge. The situation may have been made worse by the application of heat with both hair dryer and heat gun but at no stage during heating were there any signs of the one finger salute. Up your's Devil it was saying!
The film was metal and slow to dry being not of a NR variety.

How do you guys get on when you do a car in an hour and off it goes? Surely fingers must pop up after you have said goodbye to the car especially if you tuck the film under a tight very wet rubber. Mine did this and it wasn't anywhere near the wet rubber staying shy off it by about 1/4".

Any feedback or tips appreciated?
Devil

I never give a customer a return time, I tell them I will call when it's ready....the application normally takes 3 hours, but we keep the car all day in case any problems occur when the drying process starts.
Also tell them I will not release a car unless it's up to my exacting standards. They love that bit...means you really do care about the quality, which is what they are after.

I find that after you hard card and are done the window, any finger that will pop up will do so in under 15 min. If that happens, heat it from the outside , inside briefly if you have to and that should do it..if it hasn't come back in 15 min, probably won't + if it kps coming back, it should mean that there is enough "juice " left in the film to work the finger over towards the corner using pressure from hand.

I tell my customers to call me in an hour..they call if its ready they come if not i tell them to call back in 30 min.

Try tinting when it's below zero. Hour installs?

devil you did'nt say if you pre shrunk the film on the sides or not, I allways do just in case that flat window is'nt so flat after all plus it only takes a few minutes to check em all. on the bottom edge I will run a towel around a white teflon card cut diaginal and swipe it along the bottom edge to help dry out any moister,
after all is installed come back and heat out bottoms, I know what you mean about sometimes fighting a finger to go down, and I wonder if the heat is drying the film out to quick so it wants to peel off the glass, thus the finger. if everything is fine and looks great you pause and wonder if you should heat out the bottoms or not I think that the moister keeps the film on the glass and as it dries slowly it keeps it stuck and no fingers comes up.

i've had the same problem devil. i choose to pull panels for that reason. no more problems with the last minute finger.

:ot That heater I've been going on about in the "20second back window post works great for "baking tint " B4 rolling out on cold Canadian climate days..it only takes 5 min. to go along all the windows you just tinted, been doing that in the winter for the last 5-6 yrs, never had a redo + gave my more confidence sending it out in the cold

no one hour completes here! we tell everyone 3-5 hours then when its done in 2 they are happy

I'm a 2.5 -3hr tinter myself..for most 4drs

That is a problem. The fingers can pop up after one or two days when it's that cold. I really can't keep the car for that long, so I just put it on my instruction sheet: "If a finger pops up from an edge, DON'T TRY TO FIX IT YOURSELF, bring it back ASAP and I will fix it" This normally works, and I have about four customers/year with a stubborn finger that returns after they take the car. By the time they bring it back, it's dry enough to take out for good.

YEPP..that is why we pull panels too..and take out the front doors....easy...just two 10 mm bolts.......get a cleaner job that way to..

I don't pull panels or tuck rubbers, and rarely ever have fingers come up, AS LONG AS I use ultrabond (by sungard) as my solution, the stuff makes it stick FAST. Without it, it happens more often than not.

i have had it happen and don't pull panels i just have a infared heat lamp thats 3 ft wide and place it at the bottom of the door dry and goes down in a few minutes

I juss stares at um till dey go way.

panel pullers debate!

Thanks for all those tips and you have me nodding yes with each post.

Sprinter was right with one observation and that was that I didn't feel it necessary to heat shrink the film on the outside windups. It didn't appear to be under any stress at all when I installed it and no signs of behaving badly with a bad attitude.

I have a theory though and it might help others. I reckon that with a cold rainy day out there, moisture within the door trim rubbers creates a micro climate of coldness and effects the surface tension where the film edge sits. If the film is under any slight pressure to finger possibly due to glass shape, then up can come the one finger salute.
This might be made worse by the application of any heat because then you have a far wider variation in cold to hot. You only have to see a rear screen like a current Subaru Impreza sedan that fits tight at the bottom with a hairy parcel shelf. One minute there is no condensation, the next, the entire bloody bottom edge has more mist moisture on it than a London fog!

I'm nearly always a door puller, 95% of the time and a 3-4 hour merchant but this one was wanted a little earlier.

Can't imagine fitting in snow winter conditions.
Devil

Huh?