Cutting and Squeegeeing Flat Glass?

I wanted to see if someone could explain the process of cutting and squeegeeing for installation of flatglass film. So far this is how im doing it, i prep glass, reverse roll the film, position on glass, sqeegee down middle and along top, trim starting 1" from corners or in the corners, then i sqeeqee the rest and have to go back and cut the rest of the corners. thanks guys, hope your summer is going well.

after you tack the film down the middle and cut w/in an inch of the corner, go ahead and cut the corner before you do any more squeegg work. it helps to keep water and possible contamination from flowing into the uncut area.

Good idea...that will save time too. I just practiced with some scraps I had and the cuts are coming out nice. I usually trim with just my knife and no card to guide the cut like the five way, but i notice film doens't want to lay flat everywhere. So i trimmed using a bondo card as a guide and the film lays perfect. Is it preference to use a guide to trim or does it just matter what type of molding is on the glass. Also, should i even start trimming 1" from the corner? I trimmed starting IN the corner and it seemed earier and the corners came out better. Thanks alot!

lots of people use guides to trim with and there's nothing wrong with it as long as the gap isn't very wide. try a white teflon card with the rounded corners cut at acute angles so you can pin the film exactly into the corner.

Alot of people will say your better mastering the freehand technique. It will help you out alot in the long run and many times your windows will look better because of less of a visable light line. But I think you should maybe learn flatglass by using an edgeguide. I think its safer. As long as you tilt or angle your guide in to eliminate wide lightlines your fine. I use both techniques. When your film wasn't sitting flat is because you were free handing and cutting too close to the edge, making the film lift. I say learn first for a bit with an edge guide. As far as starting an inch from the corners. Start in the corners or the top left/right side , your better off.
Enjoy.... now don't go cuttin ya self now

+1

Learn both.. I mainly use a guide, but there have been times when I've been doing windows that are just out of reach and I had to use one hand w/o a guide.. It definitely takes practice, but the more you know, the easier things are.


-R

i think its easier to start cutting in the corners, but I guess it depends on the window. I'll probably still trim some windows w/o a guide, because its seems like it would be difficult triming windows up high using two hands.

and don't forget to dry the edges and frames too.

Yes for sure, make sure you papertowel n hardcard the edges. And if ya see any trash in the film, use the ole line , " oh what that,that's on the outside"

Can I barge in on this thread?
I'm fairly new in the tinting game. I've offered it as a service, and have done a few jobs over the years, but I've not done any large windows. I have a job coming up next week that has a couple large (86 X 76) pieces. I'm going to have to do a seam, so how is a good way to do this, and is it better to make a seam horizontal, or vertical? Someone mentioned overlapping the edges and then making a cut over the two pieces. Does this work?
Also, my process before was to cut the film, like PJ said, a couple inches larger than the glass. Wet the glass (pre-scraped and cleaned), apply the film with the backing still on, cut it to fit, peel off and place backing side out on a "setup" piece of glass. Peel the backing off, spray down really good, and place on re-cleaned window. Doing it this way, I am cleaning the glass 2 times. Too much? Also, with pieces this large I am going to have a hard time coming up with a "setup" glass to work off of. Any chili hot solutions to this?

use the search and you should find a few threads about seaming windows.....

all your have to do is what is call the butt splice tech. take the film over lap each other by 1/2 ich and then take a straight edge and with out messing up the film cut a straight line all the way across your over lap make sure both pieces get cut and when done life up the top piece of film slowly remove the cut film from top and bottom and then spray soap solution as you remove the cut film and then squeeqy the film make sure you only cut the film once cause it will leave gaps in your splice

if you did this in a back window in a car you would follow the defroster line