Scratches on tint

I had my car tinted yesterday with Formula One Pinnacle tint. My rear window has tons of scratches and swirls. I took my finger to see if it was something other than a scratch and it didn't go away. I called the installer and he told me that they can be swirls, to wait a few days to see if it goes away and to call him if back if they don't. Is this normal and goes away after a few days or a week? These guys left a squeegee in my car and cut a part of my driver window seal. I'm definitely not happy with the quality of their work.

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss54/rokuss/IMG_4344.jpg

http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss54/rokuss/IMG_4345.jpg

For $350 bucks, I expect my tint to be perfect.

$350....was this a strip and retint job? what kind of car is this.? let me see the the door seal your talking about. for that price, it should be a perfect job, but it reality there will NEVER be the perfect tint job. your going to have specs of dirt here and there and i dont care where you bring it. as far as the swirls, i dont know about that. it may just be a scuff from the rubber squeegee as he was pushing the water out of the bottom of the glass.... and the seals,....well some car seals actually need to be "trimmed" just a lil bit in order for the tint to be tucked behind. as i said, i done know what kind of car it is, or what window it is...sometimes there is a good excuse.

This is on a brand new 09 infiniti g37. I barely had 355 miles on her when I brought it in. I can live with a few scratches but there are scratches from the bottom middle throught the bottom right (Inside looking out) of the BG. I really hopes it goes away b/c i don't want to get a R&R and I know the installer doesn't either.

The cut seal is on the outside of the Driver window and I can live with that also. I'm not out to screw anyone and I definitely didn't try to get any freebies or a lower price when he gave me a quote.

Thanks for your reply.

In the pics those look like scuffs in the scratch coat of the film.

The installer probably picked up a piece of grit in their squegee when installing the film.. If that is the case those will not dry out and go away..

Sometimes when the film is still wet slight scratches like that are kind of difficult to see.. so the installer may not have been aware..

Take the tip of your fingernail and drag it 90 degrees to the 'scratch' line.. if you can feel an 'indent' then that is what it is and needs to be re-done

Doubt that will go away, looks like squeegee or hard card scratches. Have you tried running your fingernail on the inside to see if you can feel it?

I took it to another installer of the same franchise. He was able to run his fingernail on one of the scratches. The installer to be came out and noticed where the original installer used the end of the roll on my BG (that is how he explained it to me). I have an appt tomorrow for a R&R that is covered by warranty. thatsnappyguy is right about nothing is perfect but I can't accept a lot of scratches. I'm glad that the shop will get paid for the R&R. They had an M3 and an M5 in their parking lot that they worked on. I'm confident that they'll do a great job.

Since it was tinted yesterday, will there be a problem removing the tint and saving the defroster lines?

I wouldn't guarantee saving them but I would be very confident they would be. Sounds like you have a good vibe with the second shop and thats a good sign.

At this point I would hope the scratches are in the tint, not in the glass as sometimes happens when using a scrunchie pad along the bottom edge. Some cars, most notably Honda's, have soft glass.

The new window film is like night and day. There are some lumps but will go away after a few days. The first install was hazy and blurry. The new film is crystal clear. My hat is off to the installer. He did a GREAT job and I will recommend him on the g37 forums to give them as much business I can. I'll test the defroster early tomorrow morning to make sure he had no problem today.

Shouldn't this post be under consumer questions?

Anything under "Horror Stories" should involve blood or vast quantities of wasted money.

Good call, I'll move the thread.

The haziness in the old film is not anything to be made an issue of. Its just water that the film absorbed during the installation process, and would dry to be perfectly clear obviously. The fact the new film doesnt have that has nothing to do with the quality of the install.

As for the end of the roll, Pinnacle film is a rather expensive film, and generally theres no issues with using down to the end. I use all my rolls right down to the end, and have yet to have a problem with it. The defroster should work just fine. The fact that the film was only on there for a day, most of it hadn't even dried out yet, so theres like .001% chance of it not working. The only thing that would cause a problem is if during the removal they used a blade on some of it and nicekd it a little, but you would be able to see that from the outside if you were to look

20 yr old scott and his

Perfect example of film scratched accidentally during install. Funny how he runs fingernail in scratch then determines end roll problem to make claim....

Those scratches were definately NOT from being at the end of the roll. They were from the installer's tools. Glad to hear that you got the job fixed and are happy.