just tinted first car window, rookie questions to follow

[Guest jongt]

I had heard the bad stories about tinting yourself and if your only doing it to your car then take it to a pro but I like to do things myself so I tried it. I got a 20" by 100' roll of Solargaurd and read this site a bunch of times. My first window came surprisingly well but I still have some questions.

My procedure was pretty basic, it was a roll down frameless window which I?m pretty thankful for. I taped off the felt at the bottom and cut out a pretty close size piece of tint with the door close and the tint on the outside. After cleaning the window spotless I soaked it with my soap solution then pulled the clear sheet off the tint and soaked the tint. I put it on, slid it best into place I could and started squeegying from the middle horizontally out. Here?s where some of my questions come.

1) Handling the tint

The piece of tint for this window wasn't too large but still pretty big, probably 30" long by 15" high. It was kind of awkward trying to pull the clear plastic off, then soaking it with my spray bottle then applying it to the window and getting the entire sheet on there. I suppose it'd be easier if I had the sheet flat on a table and then did that, but I was sitting on a chair by the window and was trying to do everything from there. Any tips to a neat and clean first application of the film?

2) Small water bubbles and curing

After squeegying out as much as I thought I could and cutting the edge, I left the window alone for a while. A couple hours later I had noticed a bunch of really small water bubbles under the film. I could move the water together and out the edge of the film, but it was time consuming. Is this something that will disappear after the window has gone through the 2-3 day curing time? Is this normal or was it caused by too much soap solution/ poor squeegying? I?ve also heard about taking a heat gun to the outside of the glass after applying the film. Is this necessary or just to speed up the curing process?

3) Back window

I only have a 20" roll and I'm pretty sure the back window is taller than that which makes using one sheet out of the question. Is it possible for the butt splice method along defrost lines to look good? Or is it worth it to get a 40" roll and learn to shrink?

4) Tools

for my tools, I had a rubber squeegy that came in a little tint tool kit I got, a credit card, and some red devil(I think there called that) plastic scraper looking things. I also have a heat gun. I found that the red devils scratched the tint in places, is that from too much pressure or just the tool?

Thanks tremendously for the help, I?m sure I?ll have more questions to follow.

[Guest darkdan]

What kind of car? F-body?

1.) just slap it on the back window, start your peel. Lift it up, don't touch it. Slap it on the window, finish the peel

2.) It will dry

3.) Seaming takes practice. Shrinking takes more practice

4.) Squeege only. Red devil plastic thing is for tucking the film behind the seal which you already taped off.

Now, my 2 cents.

5.) Once the subject matter in #2 has been solved you'll most likely notice all the contamination

6.) After #3 you'll either have a very creased up back window from heating shrinking or you'll most likely not have many defroster lines that still work from cutting through them

7.) You can certainly invest in some more tools, but by then you'll have spent enough to have had it done professionally.

8.) I wonder what kind of Solar Gard film you have. I can almost bet it's the cheap stuff. Therefore, I hope you're prepared to redo all this work again in a matter of a few years tops.

[Guest MidcoastMW]

man that SG crap or whatever they sell online as pre-cut is garbage!! The last car I did was a 350Z with a DIY install of that stuff. The back glass basically fell off when I picked the corner with my fingernail.... dindt leave a trace of glue tho, Also it had a bluish color to it much like the Gila. I saved the garbage tint to show the customer the diffrence between that, and the film I had installed. He was VERY happy(especially at the color diffrence) and vowed never to buy that crap again, and never to try tinting again.

[BIG E]

What kind of car? F-body?

1.) just slap it on the back window, start your peel. Lift it up, don't touch it. Slap it on the window, finish the peel

2.) It will dry

3.) Seaming takes practice. Shrinking takes more practice

4.) Squeege only. Red devil plastic thing is for tucking the film behind the seal which you already taped off.

Now, my 2 cents.

5.) Once the subject matter in #2 has been solved you'll most likely notice all the contamination

6.) After #3 you'll either have a very creased up back window from heating shrinking or you'll most likely not have many defroster lines that still work from cutting through them

7.) You can certainly invest in some more tools, but by then you'll have spent enough to have had it done professionally.

8.) I wonder what kind of Solar Gard film you have. I can almost bet it's the cheap stuff. Therefore, I hope you're prepared to redo all this work again in a matter of a few years tops.

HP Charcoal wont last all that long either!

[Guest jongt]

I got this off carxpressions.com

Solar Gard High Performance Film 22% 20" x 100' Charcoal

it was 130 for that roll so I hope its decent stuff. I dont have a wide enough roll to do the back window in one peice so I think im going to try my chance with the seaming . are the lines were it seems noticable tho?

thanks

[Guest Mo Evo]

You've got your work cut out, literally! Precut the film on the outside, move the film to a clean flat vertical surface, clean and dry the inside of the window using squeegees and paper towels, then start the top edge of the film and peel the liner down towards the bottom leaving leaving the liner hanging about 2 " and spray with soapy solution. Apply the film to the glass WITHOUT touching the sprayed side. Position then spray and squeegee. Lift up the bottom with the liner still attached, flush with the solution, then remove the liner. Push the top edge of the frameless glass back to open up the bottom seal and push the film below and squeegee. Use a pointed edge hardcard to get under the bottom seal and press the water out of the film. Are you sure you want to to this?? Seaming the back glass is extremely difficult without the right tools, namely an olfa knife. Why not take it to a pro and save yourself the headache and keep the hair you have!

Mo

[Guest Tintbds]

If you desire to learn faster.

It maybe best to take a car to a pro tinter or close enough to a pro tinter

And sit on the job take in as much as you can.

[Guest jongt]

I was going to go to a pro and itd be nice to watch but I decided the best car to practice on is my own and I have the tint so I really wanna try to learn. if I can do the seam well, is it noticeable over a shrunk piece?

[TINTDESIGNZ]

Its hardly visible when I do it-which is never-but then again I have 20 years practice!

[Guest MidcoastMW]

If you try to seam it...you WILL notice it from the outside. No offence, but there is no way you will pull off the "invisiseam" Its VERY tricky to master.