Tips for a new tinter

im a newer tinter.im from northwest indiana.every since i went to a place called show us your tints with my gf i was hooked on the %&$# james does...guy does some simply amazing %&$#.just was always to broke to get my windows done by him.so i picked tinting up.having some problems tho...like my hard cards are scratching the tint..blue max also.and i absolutly cant get the bg shrinked.i figured best way is practice and just get some help from u guys...any videos or help would be greatly appreciated.....please guys.

I'm new myself and I think Ive learned a lot so far, but I know I have a long way to go... ( I really like the graphics portion)
Some things that may help

Rub your hard cards on your jeans often
make sure your squeeges stay very clean, debree will only scratch the tint
from what ive read not all hard cards should be used on tint ( i use black teflon mostly and it seems ok, just to heat shrink the ends)
as far as heat shrinking:
I use gloves for the majority of heat shrinking
its is very difficult and I practice a lot, and a lot, and a lot
all the methods ive tried work, they just work differently
baby powder works well for me until I get to the ends
the soap method I think is the easiest, but I have to go very slow to do it
Heavy slip solution, I just use this for small pieces
I used to get a lot of creases when I tried to heat to big of an area at once and smooth it
did I mention practice???
Even if I crease, burn, etc to a piece I keep going till im done to get all my use out of it (then chunk it)

Try shrinking on a friends car with a relative smooth bg

Try shrinking a small piece ( bg's can be done in more then one piece you know, and it makes a big difference)

Where do you get your tint??? I hope not wally worl, or any auto store
I think I'm gonna try some from buy tint.com
Im gonna start a thread about buytint.com see what people say.

Oh even if you ruin a pice of tint on your bg, like a small crease in it (nothing to major like a burn hole, haha)... still put it on and then later just practice removing it.

sorry this is a long response, but i'm s fast typer/reader so it doesnt seem like much to me.

whats the funny part ... buytint.com??? I know its not a name brand, but its cheap
like i said im still learning which means the tint $$$ mostly comes out of my pocket unless I do someone elses car
and if im not charging I dont care if I put crappy tint on someone elses car... HAHA
they can pay me to take it off later when it fades or bubbles
hopefully i'll be good enough to charge a descent price by then

thanks for ur help.i was wondering about the dry shrink.like i clean the window with soap and dry with a micro fiber then lay the tint over and just shrink?

spray, wipe, let dry, anchor the film, shrink. window tinting is very tricky even when your a seasoned vet like most of the guys here. over time you will develop you own ways to doing things. its takes alot of time and patience. dont give up because it gets easier later on, but at first it never seems worth it.

DJ...why don't you go ask James to help you learn to tint? I am sure he would just love to help you out with learning to do what he has taken years to learn to do.....

the more than 1 peice back window

we all were beginners at one time.

I can honestly say that I never two pieced a back window. not even when I was beginning. It was one piece or no piece. Granted i have never done a bug, but I have done vettes.

actually i asked james...no reply back.and my gf's fam is good friends with him too..i mean i look up to the guy and its not like im gonna take business or something.i reffer everyone to him.i wish i could get help from him.

i did the soap method and anchored but it wont stay down where its anchored.i know i need alot of practice.i really appreciate all ur guys help.i just wanna learn.

lil

thanks for all the help ...today i was practicing on the windshield of my truck.tried the soap on a micro towell and i got it pretty good.only thing is on the sides of the windshield the film would wrinkle.prolly just my mistake but just wanted to say thanks for the help..ur a good man

my thing is one piece no crease.i started wet shrinkin then i learned baby powder way and know for the last year i use car wax,but u have to let it dry befroe u put the tint on to shrink it.

do we know each other???? we are about the same age and we both tint and we are not far from each other.

i keep getting a little crease when i shrink...like i anchor.heat up on the right then go to top left and so on so forth.but i always get a little crease in the tint.like from pushing it up.when i lay the film down to be cut to the window am i supposed to pull it super tight then cut it?

and also when doing side windows i have them film layed out perfect on the ouside but when i move it inside it looks like it needs to be shrunk down a little?

and also...i know this is alot of info but im still learning guys.and thanks to all the help u guys haven been providing im picking it up....but when i cut the pattern on the ouside i roll the window down it comes out 2 inches from the side...should i roll it down then cut or leave it up and cut?

Roll the window up and down 20 times while watching the edges then cut the film accordingly. You need to learn what cars windows do what.......

If it shifts from the mirror side cut the frame side and pull the tint back overlapping the frame a bit etc etc

Just keep practicing and you will find your own techniques.......as I hardly ever use anything but my bare hands to wet shrink I like it that way because I can feel a crease starting long before it is a problem

I may be wrong but are you saying you heated the sides?? You can't heat the sides it will always wrinkle and burn.

This Maybe Later but It is clear the guy needs to get proper TINT.
Cheap tint do Not shrink!!!! It burns and that's also where the scratches are coming from the cheap tint.
Scratch resistance tint will be fine.

your a little bit late. he's had a lot more threads where we talked about film and he's in the process of getting some better quality film.

Oh well

it happens

Yeah i've never 2 pieced any vehicle other than bug, i feel i have good heat shrinking knowledge picked up on it fast and always try new things to see what works good, new corvette b/g are a pain and time consuming but def. done in one piece, but a bug i just dont see how people do it, but i cant figure the tug n pull method of heat shrinking out, hats off to who can do bugs b/g in one piece. I would pay lots of money to see that done in person

theres no law saying its wrong to do a 2 piece back window i do 2 piece and 1 piece back windows guess you people cant cut a straight line thats why you don't. i can make a 2 piece look just like a 1 piece window . guess i master the butt splice tech. tinters i have met in this crazy world just like you people here
seem to think or get there high from saying or telling some else in the tint business they do 1 piece back window and it's like we as should bow down to you .


who cares if it is one piece or two as long as it done to the point it doesn't looked spliced it's got to be better than 100% when done

guess thats the diff betweem me and the rest of you out there

I would care for a number of reasons....#1, I don't want you to cut across my antenna line which may run top to bottom, #2 I dont want you to run your olfa from the top to bottom of my defroster line therefore causing that one line not to work, ( I can 2 piece a window just as good as the rest of them, and we all know it happens), #3 I don't want to give the film an opening somewhere for a go ahead for failure ( did an r&r yeaterday on a crown vic that was cut in 4 pieces, and failed only where there were seams along the defrosters. The cuts were super clean, but where the cuts were, is where the film failed)

That's about all the insults I can tolerate from you FREDSTINTING, I'm inviting you to leave now.

the ban stick is coming out

Call johnson windo film, buy a 50 ft. roll of film from 'em, and ask them to send you the how to DVDs hey should be free they'll show you all the basics.

ive never heard of two piecing a window before except on my house cause te window was bigger than the roll i had.
and yes ive done a bug if you mean a vw beetle. i dry tintall back windows if thats what you mean by bg, what is bg?
side windows i rarely shrink and if needed i shrink inside. i wouldnt say its exactly quality film either. i dont get to choose the film at the moment (im workinging in a dealership and they say what goes, so im doing some research to tell them what goes. also hearing before in the thread about having people come back for a retint in a year is discraceful. i would never want to have a customer come back because they have a problem, let alone a genuine one. it should never ever happen with the films available today, it can only come down to bad workmanship i think that a customer would come back, unless they had another car for you to do.
pull your head in and think about it you idiot.

And yet another one......

hey, i'm pretty new at it, too. I have been using tint tek to cut most vehicles and hand cutting the older one's. I have been using solar gaurd really heavy and Endura Tint From Signwarehouse. I have only used high performance in both, but I think they are both very good tints! I have only been shrinking the back glass tint and the thing that works for me best is the fabric softener. Get it wet, rub down the window, put your tint on it and go to town.