What is the best school for tinting?

We have a Car Audio shop in Montrose, Colorado. We are interested in expanding into automotive window tinting. We have seen a few demonstrations by llumar and solar gard at the SEMA show. Has anyone attended a tinting school you were very impressed with?

I've looked into a few week long training programs:
www.autowindowtinting.com
and
one offered by llumar (CPFilms) which is 5 days long

These seem kind of short. Does it give you enough training to get started? Are there other schools anyone would recommend.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Nothing wrong with taking a course as long as you don't buy into the fact that you are a fully qualified tinter that can produce top quality work to charge top quality jobs for.

The second school will be the school of hard knox ...that's when you'll get better ...over time with experience...will help greatly to open your wallet and pay a good wage for a good tinter so you can pick up some tricks of the tradeyou won't learn in any course.

This would be my best advice

hehe, I graduated from the school of hard knox and expensive trash bags. Good Luck

Tint School? We dont need no stinking tint school.

Run on down to Staples, and buy one of these easy buttons. Just press it before tinting any car

on your two choises I would go with the 1st one.

Well... since I am one of the trainers for LLu's classes, I can say this:

Classes are short for a reason or two or three or four; 1) You are not learning on a paying customer's car, 2) The focus is on you and what needs be delivered to you, not the counter, phone or cash register, 3) It is a frustrating trade to learn and we don't need you pulling hair out or going postal on us 10 days into what can be taught in 5, 4) 2 or 3 days is too short to get all the info across and still leave time for you to put into practice, 5) after 5 days you'll be tired of my mug and I'll be tired of yours, 6) homesickness sets in at different rates and has an effect of attention span the further out the class goes.

LLu's class gives you the basics... they're all the same from one class to another (cleaning, cutting, installing, heat forming, troubleshooting) whether our class or theirs. No one, absolutely no one can teach or train experience, this must come from the school of hard knocks. Therefore, the claim, you can be tinting in 1, 2, 3 or whatever weeks cannot be made with any degree of certainty. They're blowing smoke up yours... as they're saying it.

I'll just tell you 4-5 days a tinter does not make...

Come... we'll teach you the basics, give you some practice on the basics and you can come away with enough knowledge to be dangerous, begin YOUR school of hard knocks or simply pass on the whole 'I wnna be a tinter' idea because you found out it wasn't your cup of tea.

If you want to learn to tint, your supplier should have a course available. I know that LLu, Solar Gard, and SunGard have training available. That is only the basics tho. From there you will need hands on experience. It gets costly.
I highly reccomend you think long and hard before you send someone to school though. I have trained alot of tinters, only to have trained my competition (albeit shortlived) If you are going to tint, I suggest that YOU at least be able to tint.

no matter what school you go to you will not be ready to get into the business yet. It will take you a good year or 2 of practice before you are ready if this is just an add on for your business just hire a tinter

yea what most hacks do, is becoming a hack, charge cheap that way you learn, close the business down and later on the road theyopen up a legit business

I attended the CPFilms class, earlier this year and was tought enough to know ... this shyte ain't easy. It is frustrating at best, like an art form. Metint is a nice guy and has been in the field for a long time and really knows his stuff. He tought us the basics, enough to get started. The rest is up to you, like most of the guys here on TD say, the school of hard knox is next. Although I believe the class was worth it, if for nothing else but the amount of their film I wasted to learn what I did. I also already have a good client base that trusts me to experiment on thier vehicles.
But, it will be a good long year or so before I am at the level of expertice most of the folks here are.

ONE year? Not a chance.

Don't worry OT..thiers an "EDIT" button he can use to retract that after that frustrating yr is over

One year is not enough? I would say if you get a good training like metint described, invest in 2 rolls of film and practice on friends and families cars, you have a chance to be good enough working on customer's cars taking the time you need. I believe whether or not that is true depends on one individual's ability or talent more than on another 10 months of experience. Of course the best way of learning it is if after a training you start working for a company that has one or more experienced tinters to help you through the first year or so. You can perfect this trade to an art and 10 years of experience is better than 10 months but let's be honest, it is no rocket science.
???

let's be honest, it is no rocket science

CUT it, FLIP it, RUB it DOWN... OH NOOOO!, I CREASED IT!!!!
S.O.B.!!!! RRRRIIIPPPP!! "CUT me another G%#**%DAM piece,
THIS SHYTE SUCKS!" (I yell as I cut another section.)
Who knows how long it will take, but if I use the force;... think like the film, be the glass. I WILL get better.
And if that don't work, I'll order one of those EASY BUTTONS on Ebay.

An email sent by a good example of a tint school participant with an open mind:






A post by a good example of a closed minded participant:

I didn't learn anything at tint school.

Good point

Become the tint!!

2 rolls. I must of been a slow learner cause I burned 2 rolls up before noon my first day doing this.

I bet I wasted 15-20 rolls of film drying to learn how to shrink....and still sucked when they were gone.

Best thing is learn how to wet shrink first, so you are able to seam most any back glass regardless how many pieces you have to do it in, and then slowly develope your dry shrink as you go. Anyone can knock down a few fingers on a 2 pieced back glass, so learn that first and go from there.

I'm just right past my 4th year doing this, and I'm still learning....but I bet in 20 years I will also still be learning.

Get that first year under your belt, and the up hill climb will get easier as you go.

Hard knocks for sure! Been tintin for 13 yrs now,still learning...new models very year..
new films...at th e end of the day I think it´s years in the trade that matters.

That is true for the most part since I too encourage experience to my students is the key to continual learning here at www.windowtinting.com, but like most are saying...proper training is where it starts!

Tint-on everyone

I think we can all agree experience is the key here. If your truly interested in getting into window tinting then your going to have to learn the basics and practice. I've been to the CPfilms class about 5yrs ago in CA. and enjoyed it. It was just a refresher for me though. If I were to recommend one though I would have to go with AutoWindowTinting.com because they are local for me (45min away). Good Luck and BE PATIENT!

Dude good to see you! Talk about a bump on a thread............ this one is from 05!
Instructor........ stay out of trouble............. hard for me but easy to tell people.
Stan