How long does it take you?

[Ocala]

I remember a time when I could tint 6-7 "FULL" vehicles a day working 8-5. Did they all come out great? Hell no!! I would leave all sorts of crap in some of the jobs because I was getting paid commission and either the boss or I would tell the customers that it would go away in a couple weeks. Most of the time they would never return, either to fix it or have another car done! But at least I made my money. Back in late 2008, I had a major injury to my right hand. I had no choice but to slow down and get the job done right the first time because the redos can really hurt! On my best days I can only do 4 full "EASY" vehicles, but I know they won't be coming back for problems, but for me to do their next car!

[Devil with bad attitude]

If there's a way to do them that fast, and that perfect, I'd sure love to know about it.

Me too UT.

Devil

[baloochow82]

Me to devil there's just to many things that can go wrong and anyone who says they did a perfect tint job I'd love to see it, bet I could find something wrong with it. in vegas when you do 6-8 a day there is a standard you have to meet. used to have 1 boss that would walk the car after you were through with it and mark any mistakes in a yellow grease marker and you would have to fix them before customer got the car back.

 

Grampa I also tinted at DC west in 1989 and worked at the tint lady for a couple of years 1987 and 1990 {Steve Cutters Shop} ,a couple other places I worked at in vegas was Ambers on Nellis and Dealers Service center {bo's custom and las vegas window tint and one other company all joined together to make this business}. Like you I also worked in San Diego, North County Area for many years, most strictly Auto shops but then worked at Stop the sun which only did flat glass all over San Diego.

 

I honestly feel like if your doing more then 6 cars a day {hand cutting} your quality will fall off and working that fast just invites things to go wrong. I would much rather be the tinter who's customer says great job, best tint job I have ever got over wow that was quick.

Edited October 25, 2014 by baloochow82

[Devil with bad attitude]

I would much rather be the tinter who's customer says great job, best tint job I have ever got over wow that was quick.

Me too mate!

I've been recently interviewing some of the so called "better tinters" (they tell me) and every one has come up fail and not come back for a second appraisal.  

One guy told me he was employed to solely do the mob he worked for warranty problems all over town as he was their best.

Well if he was their best, I'd hate to see their worst and yes he claimed he could do umpteen cars a day.

 

Devil

[baloochow82]

You know I have yet to meet a tinter that doesn't have a bad tint day every once in a while, when you do 4 plus cars a day your going to run into a car every so often that you have a problem with, now if you only do 1 or 2 a day I can see going months without a problem.

 

If you tint and run the shop you can relate to this, I can't tell you how many times I'll just pull the liner and have a customer either call or walk into the shop, then you have a choice, do you finish the window 100% and risk losing the customer or do you just squeegee out the water, help your customer and then go back to your window? it's amazing how many times those windows will have a finger or a water bubble in them that you have to go finish and as we all know both of those can invite in some contamination. I'd love to be in the shop only to tint but because I work at a small shop I don't have that luxury, I even have to run dealer cars and don't even get paid for that.

[customizer1000]

I can do 4 sedans a day 9-6 all hand cut and rarely a comeback. But on average id say 2-2.5 per.

[baloochow82]

I do 100+ dealer cars  plus 25 to 30 retail cars a month, year round and at most have 1 window a month that needs redone. It's not hard to put out quality work if you have a clean work bay and do the same steps on every window. I'm training a helper right now and after a month of just prepping the way I taught him, he has only been laying film for 2 weeks and he is putting out cleaner work then a tinter that I didn't train that has been tinting for almost 2 years. IMO anyone can cut a pattern and can lay the film, the magic is all in how you prep, I learned this when I first started and was just a prepper for 6 months, I hated it but I hung in there it paid off once I started installing and I wasn't having to fight with dirt and dust.

[BM-TINT]

2-3hr on each vehicle. Sometimes + 1hr, depends on the day.. everyone has that one day

[pulsar2000]

30-45 mins 3 door hatch,

Estate or 4x4 2 hrs appx. 3 if im having a bad day, calls etc,

saloon 1.5-2 hours, all rears past B pillar hand cut in my workshop with peel boards,

when i 1st started half a day a car no matter what,

as you gain experience and prep speed comes,

often when you think your good, look back in 2 years time and realise that back then your miles better and faster,

[RecklessReflections]

I'm coming on 2 years in tinting, always hand cut and can average an hour and ten minutes on most cars like Honda, Toyota ect, BMW 3-5 series and Mercedes. As for 7 series beamers I take about 1.5 hours and certain Mercedes like E class coups with rear quarter roll downs and s class coupes as well as Audis  SUV's with a full tint Ido take 2 hours on though. I'm the only tinter at this location so I take a bit of pride in myself to be able to handle 3-4 cars in a day with speed and quality in mind as the customers here in LA/Hollywood are very picky. I'm in the stage of fine tuning my skill set in seeing how I can shave some minutes off per installation while keeping quality as a priority as well. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by RecklessReflections