How to lay out film

Ok start laughing it up. LOL I'm trying to tint some fleet trucks at work they are 97 chevy reg cab. The q's is when I try to shrink the film at the bottom it won't wrinkle up to were it would look like a bunch of SSSS in a line. Instead they split and go from vertical to horizontal wrinkles. what am I doing wrong? Ok the 1st is I should go to a pro but the trucks have gps on them. Dose it matter how you layout the film? Iv been putting the factory cut to the sides and my cuts at top and bottom. I bought 36"x100' film and Iv wasted 20' of it. Plz help. Iv read all the text I can find on How to and thats the 1 thing I can't find. Are there any good videos on-line I can watch? Iv seen the 1s on how to shrink but it says nothing about how to lay the film. Just what it should look like when it starts to shrink. Also Iv tryed like hell to not get crinkles in the tint. But it seam that just carrying it and if it folds over its done in 4 or when u peel the liner off. Is that just a side effect of cheep film? Any help would be great. I thank you in advance.

when you shrink you have to shrink to the factory edges put them top and bottom, and shrink top to bottom. Sound like your shrinking against the grain of the film

I didn't know that. I will try it to day and see how it works.

Those trucks don't need any shrinking that I'm aware of. I've never had to do any on them? It does sound like your shrinking in the wrong direction. When you pull the film off the roll put it left to right and not top to bottom.

shrink the factory edge.....if you need to lay the film sideways and have the factory edge on the side you can still pull the tension over to the side and shrink it there instead....

On that year I do find some need just a bit of a finger shrank out. You could likely lay it down without it, but I just do it...

you can ONLY shrink film on the factory edges.

I have never shrank those. never ever ever.

Thx for all the info. I'm impressed with the reply's I got. I asked a couple of shops and they just laughed me out the door. I didn't have the time to day at work to try it the other way. Some of yall said you don't srink it. Hows that? I tried that the 1st time and could not get the fingers out? Do you just have to wait a bit and let it dry and then push them out? Well thanks a mill for all the help.

Just wanted to say thx for all the info. I got 4 of them done in no time over the wkend. It helps when u have the right info.

BE VERY VERY careful when you do this. But I've found that if you get fingers at the bottom of the seal, you can shrink the film from the inside. Make sure it's wet when you do this or you'll get scratches, and I try to keep the gun pointed away from the car...or burn baby burn. Plus when you do this, it speeds up dry time down there, because those seals hold water like a sponge.

Why not just shrink the film before applying it? One of these days Your gonna fry a doorpanel trying to take a shortcut.

....steer clear of tryin that on a 350 or G35

Exactly the car I was thinking of!

I do shrink before I install...maybe I'm not shrinking it right, because I always wind up with a finger or two. I doubt I'll burn anything...I'm pretty careful. HA HA....it's like me saying "One of these days you're going to amputate a finger". Leave it be.

I shrink some cars from the inside also, never burnt a door panel, not even close. Also done many 350's and G35's never had a problem.

most side glass ive shrunk was from the inside never had problems. as for drying if i had small bubbles caused from small bits of grit i gradually heat from the outide and work the bubble out. (looking at less than a 1mm bubble i mean) too much heat can cause a bubble to grow then turn into a crease. i found if the glass is too hot to touch you have too much heat. where i work in the outback grit is a regular occurance

ditto....if you do have to put a little heat on it you can hit it from the inside. Thats what I usually do when I have the occasional finger that springs up.

Cool didn't know u could srink from the inside. Be my luck ill burn right throught it. Ill try that on the vans. thx to all 4 the info.

craziness i see so many different techniques just from shrinking..me personaly rather keep tint off a dirty car any day...on that note i dont shrink on a car but a glass wall... i look at the glass and can tell how much curve it has and then memic that curve on a glass wall...this is my technique and works great when a plotter is used to cut the film...im using computercut....

i cant believe how many people on here think that its cool to heat on the glass...i could understand like blade said if the pannels/trim pieces are off the car...but wow...lets take apart a brand new car to tint the windows...lets remove to pannels and the integraty of those plastic clips that hold a pannel on....of couse some cars they switch to a slide mothion upward to lock a pannel on...not using the cheap clips

that's the coolest thing about tinting a brand new car....pulling it in and tearing it apart.