Tinting a Lancer

Next week I'll be doing my friend's tint for him. He has an 04 Lancer. He doesn't have any tints on right now (thank God). Here is how I plan to do things. He wants every window tinted except the winshield.

Im going to be using Baby Shampoo most likely, if you guys don't think it's a good choice, give me another suggestion.

Tools I'll be using:
Heat gun

Yellow turbo squeege (to get the water out when the film has been applied)

Blades (wet window and scrape it down to ensure there's nothing that will come up later on the film)

3M Gold bondo car/ sleeve(to do the windows outside of the car and to use with the heat gun to get the shape of the window)

Blue Max (get water out of the back window, once film is applied to window)



Tools I have but dont plan on using right now:
3m blue hard card

Platinum Teflon Card (should I use this to get the shape of the window instead?)

Blue turbo squeege

Red Devil (smoother)



Any suggestions?

Just take your time and try to learn from mistakes as you go...

It's not a difficult car

http://www.edmunds.com/media/2003/chicago/...art.r34.500.jpg

Good one to learn on

Yep doesn't seem too hard. Only challenge I might have might be the little windows in the 2nd row but I'll get through them.

What do you think of my tools? Should I change some thing or nah? Do you think the blue max will scratch the film? The film won't get scratched when I am getting the shape of the window as long as it has the plastic cover on it, will it?

Don't worry about scratching the clear liner when you are heatshrinking.

The blue max wont scratch the film as long as it is clean. I wipe my squeegee with a paper shop towel before each pass on the film to be safe.

You should install the film with your red devil, then make a final pass with the bluemax to get most of the water out.

I would stay away from the teflon cars, if you use them during installation, you should wrap them in a shop paper towel, and just use them to bump the edges dry.

If you plan on using the cards during heatshrinking, you may crease the film if you don't have much experience. You may want to use a gloved hand for smoothing while shrinking, or use a firm, rolled up paper shop towel.

Fortunately that back window is an easy one to shrink.

OK and to get the shape of the regular windows I use what??

Gold 3M card wrapped in a sleeve and a heat gun?

Have you ever heat shrinked before?

Honestly, no.

From what I have seen the guy at the shops do...he cleans the outside of the back window good, and lays the film with the window wet with soap/water and cuts the size of the film he wants. Then he gets the heat gun and with a card he gets the film smooth and continues doing so until the film is completely flat. He some times pushes down on the edges with his fingers. Thats all I have seen.


Then from there they hand me down the film and I apply it inside the car and normally use the squeege to get the water our and we heat the edges to make the film's edges stay on.

Seriously though thanks for all the help guys. Im just use to laying the film on the window when it's ready to be applied and squeeging it out and I cut the film also. Ive never heat shrinked or nothing before. I actually bought my heat gun last week

But im young (17) and still have a lot to learn so again thanks all the help guys.

If you can get the guy you work with to teach you, it will help alot.

Only problem though is he's using an obsolete technique (wet shrinking). Wet shrinking has it's limits and is difficult compared to dryshrinking.

I'd recommend taking a look at these pages:

http://www.tintdude.com/soapshrinkmethod.html

http://www.tintdude.com/dryer_sheets.html

I was reading that right after I made my previos post...

Seems simple...

Get some ivory soap, wet a paper towel and rub the soap onto the paper towel. Then I spread the soap all over the back window until its covered with a thin layer of soap. Then I lay the film onto the back window and using a hard car I go from the middle to the right and again from the middle to left, making my 3" horizontel line...

Only thing I don't really understand is how much does the film shrink? Im not sure how much to cut the film...I normally just cut it right where I want the film to end but I don't want to do that here if the film is going to shrink.

Before you lay the film onto the window, let the soap haze dry completely, it's there to keep the film from sticking to the glass until it's smoothed down.

Cut the film about an inch oversize, do not do your final cut until the film is all shrunk.

ahh now that I saw the second link I under stand. I leave about 2-3" of extra film but not too close to the rubber so the heat gun won't get the rubber. After the film is nice and smooth then I cut to the point where I want it, correct?

OK I get it, seems pretty simple. Thanks for the help man, really appreciate it.

Got any more tips

Don't eat yellow snow.

i would suggest finding another career mang







im kidding. your getting lots of valuable advice here.

Thanks for every thing guys...im off to bed