New guy here from PA

September 19, 2011

personally, I've been tinting for a while and still remove every single door panel or pull the gasket where applicable. I feel it gives a much better quality job, and i'd rather spend the 10 minutes to pull the panels and be done with it then spend 20 minutes chasing fingers that pop up. Based on your other picture thread you tend to get little fingers pop up on the bottom after the car is done. If you pull the panel and either heat the bottom a little or just wrap a scott blue towel around a hard card and knock out the water you won't have that problem. Blade another member on here also pulls all the panels from what I recall.
For the BG's, when dry shrinking i like to use a hard card and gently use it to flatten out the film while shrinking so it lays perfectly flat on the window. Some don't do this, but I never chase fingers after install doing it this way. Also make sure that the film is completely shrunk at least 1" past all the borders or else that little finger on the outside will be a big one or three on the inside. If you burn the edge of the film while shrinking(which can happen with TB when you give it a LOT of heat) trim it off and shrink out the little finger thats left. That small finger from the curled/burnt edge will be a PITA on the inside to lay down.

TB is not an easy film to get used to, and you have to know its tricks. One place to start would be to use EWF's Slip Tack mounting solutiong if you haven't already. Its free, and makes installing TB easier.

When I use a hard card while dry shrinking a BG I tend to kink it a lot easier. I use a pair of mechanics gloves and lay the tint down with my hands while heating it. Then once it's pretty well where I want it I go back through with the hard card and flatten the film down the rest of the way. Continue with heating out any small finger's that may pop up. Then I wet check it. Hit those fingers.

Oh and I always cut my tint to the out side seals of the BG, fully shrink it, then go back through with my light and Olfa and cut to size.

And when I get those pesky fingers on the door's I usually wrap my gold teflon card around a blue shop towel to soak up all the water that lays behind the gaskets while pushing the finger out. Along with heat on the out side of the glass. As well as using my Gator Blade to help where needed. But as you saw, those method's don't always work. I just have to learn to shrink the tint more before installing I believe.

The TB line is the only line of better quality tint I have ever used. And other than a few little things here and there. I think I manage to work it pretty well! Then if the day ever comes that I switch brands, I'll be screwed and won't know how to work with any other brands! haha

September 19, 2011

Hey guys. Finally joined the Tint Dude community! I've been searching around this forum for a while now. Learned a lot of things as well! Figured it was time to join and further my knowledge on this awesome awesome art form!
I'm a huge car guy (mostly SUV's). I have 3 Blazers, 06 Trailblazer SS, 94 S10 blazer, and a 93 S10 4 door blazer, that is bagged and body dropped. I attend car shows both local and out of state. I always give credit where credit is do though! Ive been doing tint jobs for around 5-8 years now. But that was using the junk tint from Walmart for the first 5 or so, and I wasn't nearly involved with it then as I am now. After searching around the forum here I found Howard at EWF. Super nice guy by the way. He got me hooked up with, and hooked on the EWF True Black line, and I use the 35/20/15/5%.

I'm down to the point where I know longer remove door panels. I can shrink most BG in one piece. I can only think of one car (Mazda 6) that I had to two piece. Though there are still a lot of tips and secrets I need to learn to further better my work. I've been doing 1-4 cars a week for the past 6 months to a year I would say. Obviously some weeks with no cars at all seeing as how this is just a side thing for me. I love the look and sleekness of a tinted car. And I keep getting phone calls on when I'm free to do a car!

I'm no professional by any means, and that's the first thing I explain to a customer when they call me. I do get dirt under the tint from time to time. There are minor imperfections from time to time. And there's always that possibility that I won't be able to complete a rear window.

But anyway. Hopefully you guys can help me along my journey if I need any help or have any question's! And maybe some day I'll be able to answer some of your question's! Thanks for reading! I'm uploaded some pictures of car's I have tinted at this time. Though I'm not sure I can post them yet. We'll see!

Hello

Keep practising and remember that every day is a school day

:lol

mikebrook_07 · September 19, 2011

Welcome aboard!

September 19, 2011

Thanks guys!

Just got done tinting a Ford Lighting, and I noticed this while trying to shrink the windows, and it reminded me that I've had this happen before in the past few weeks.

I made the fingers appear so I could shrink them, took my hard card across the top and down the side. Hit the finger with the heat, and instead of doing the sqwiggily line deal, It just acted like it was trying to kink. I don't know how to explain it. But it kind of shrank, but it was a straight line. Not the zig zaged looking deal. What could be causing this? As soon as I noticed they weren't shrinking properly I took the heat off and went down over it with my hard car. Windows came out great. Just curious to know what could be causing this.

coast2coasttinting · September 19, 2011

Thanks guys!
Just got done tinting a Ford Lighting, and I noticed this while trying to shrink the windows, and it reminded me that I've had this happen before in the past few weeks.

I made the fingers appear so I could shrink them, took my hard card across the top and down the side. Hit the finger with the heat, and instead of doing the sqwiggily line deal, It just acted like it was trying to kink. I don't know how to explain it. But it kind of shrank, but it was a straight line. Not the zig zaged looking deal. What could be causing this? As soon as I noticed they weren't shrinking properly I took the heat off and went down over it with my hard car. Windows came out great. Just curious to know what could be causing this.

film only shrinks one way. Are you rail roading the film?

It will only shrink toward the top and bottom of the factory edges. If you are turning 36 in film sideways you will have to shrink it to the sides and not to the top and bottom.

September 19, 2011

Thanks guys!
Just got done tinting a Ford Lighting, and I noticed this while trying to shrink the windows, and it reminded me that I've had this happen before in the past few weeks.

I made the fingers appear so I could shrink them, took my hard card across the top and down the side. Hit the finger with the heat, and instead of doing the sqwiggily line deal, It just acted like it was trying to kink. I don't know how to explain it. But it kind of shrank, but it was a straight line. Not the zig zaged looking deal. What could be causing this? As soon as I noticed they weren't shrinking properly I took the heat off and went down over it with my hard car. Windows came out great. Just curious to know what could be causing this.

film only shrinks one way. Are you rail roading the film?

It will only shrink toward the top and bottom of the factory edges. If you are turning 36 in film sideways you will have to shrink it to the sides and not to the top and bottom.

Yea, I know it only shrink's one way. And I use 40" rolls and usually cut that in half so I never get the tint the wrong way. But the truck window's are to big to do this, so I needed two separate pieces of tint. It is possible by some dumb chance that I did lay the film on the glass wrong though. Seeing as how I use a 40" roll, and I cut the tint at 36" Not much of a difference there. Probably just me being a dumbie lol.

coast2coasttinting · September 19, 2011

you can still use the 40 in sideway just shrink it to the side's of the glass instead of the top and bottom. :yawn

September 19, 2011

you can still use the 40 in sideway just shrink it to the side's of the glass instead of the top and bottom.

That would work awesome.... Had I known I put the tint on sideways! HAHA :lol2

September 20, 2011

September 20, 2011

Something else I was thinking about today... Learning how to make my cuts smoother across the top of the glass... I got the jist of how it's done. But the tint never stays still when I make my cut's. Usually have to run my finger along the top of the glass in front of the blade to keep it laid down. I never know if i want to have my blade laying flat on top of the glass, on the rolled lip, or try to cut with my blade at an angle so my blade is on the bottom outside part of the rolled lip on top of the glass... If that makes any sense at all lol.

Maybe I'll try to mess around in paint to give a better example of what I'm trying to say/ask.