lenght of time your film will last?

[pierce8468]

The question I have is how long can you honestly say your film will last before it starts to change color or fade?     I honestly could care less what the manufacturer says!   I am asking for first hand you seen the film x amount of years later and it still looked as good as the day it was installed or it was already turning purple etc.  

[Jake]

Obviously it will depend on the climate and how the car is used and stored. The best I have seen is one of my best friends lives in a small town out side Vegas (so pretty harsh climate) has a couple family members that he tinted for in Charcool about ten years ago that still look new. I know the cars are garaged when home. But that's pretty impressive. Others like Devil had posted about the same longevity of this film. That being said he does not use it any longer as he thinks it has changed. But who really knows.

[pierce8468]

of course climate will make a huge difference, but I plan on taking that into account as people respond.        

 

 

Td can you pm me about the subscribers section

[EWF]

Hi Pierce8468,

 

There is no shortage of good film on the market.  There are also some "not so hot" ones as well.

Even the cheapest 1 Ply Coated Film can last a decade or more if a vehicle spends most of it's life in a garage, so it can be hard to make a decision based upon an individual account.

So how do you play it safe?  It's all about knowing the industry and knowing where the base film came from.

There are only two companies that can actually produce the base dyed polyester film.  One is Eastman/Llumar (soon to incorporate Sun-Tek) and the other one is Global/Garware.  The rest them have to purchase the material from a competitor.  It stands to reason that companies who sell the base dyed film are going to use the "best-of-the-best" materials in their own products.  They are not going to shoot themselves in the foot by selling better base film to a competitor then they use in their own film.

A private label film can be a safe way to go, but unless that private labeler has a known, direct and established connection to a major manufacturer, the risk of choosing the wrong brand will increase.  There is no way to tell where that base film came from.  Even your supplier may not know.

Again, there are plenty of good films out there but the two safest options are also the "best-of-the-best".  Llumar & Global.

 

I wish you luck in your quest to find a quality product.  It's the single most important decision you will ever make as a professional installer.  I think a lot of people on these boards would agree that it's worth the extra money to use a quality product.  You will sleep better at night knowing your reputation is safe & secure.

-Howard

[Thirtyfive]

Forever!

[rvpjr]

Howard,

I was not aware that Eastman manufactures their own polyester.

Howard,

I was not aware that Eastman manufactures their own polyester.

[EWF]

Hi Ralph,

 

Thanks for catching that.  I should have worded that differently.  To clarify:

 

Eastman/Llumar:          Able to dye polyester film (PET).

 

Global/Garware            Able to dye polyester film

                                     Also able to produce the base PET film in house from raw petrochemicals (only manufacturer with this ability).

 

Thanks,

 

Howard

 

Grammar

[pbalentine]

I tell customers generally 6 months to a few years on the cheap stuff and 7-10 with quality film.... You get what you pay for and I explain that this is the reason of the huge difference in pricing you will receive.

I installed Ewf classic black on one of my vehicles a tad over 2 years ago and it looks absolutely perfect with not one scratch. I know that isn't long, but it out lasted a film that I put on another vehicle that I will not even mention.

[Thirtyfive]

Down here is where to test it. There's a real reason we don't like cheap Korean or even some USA brands. Last a year tops. Korean stuff down here lasts a few months if your lucky. People puttin this stuff up gives custys a reason to believe its not worth spending the extra $$$.

[FilmTack]

The question I have is how long can you honestly say your film will last before it starts to change color or fade?     I honestly could care less what the manufacturer says!   I am asking for first hand you seen the film x amount of years later and it still looked as good as the day it was installed or it was already turning purple etc.  

In this aspect, my first consideration will be technological factor. Generally, we are safe to assume that color-stable or stable-dyed films will have better fading durability than mainstream dyed films from the same manufacturer. Some films have no color-added (no dyes or pigments) = lower risk of fading. The color of these films could be purely from Nichrome, Stainless Steel and ceramics.

 

 

 

 

After narrowing down to the acceptable technology, the next factor would be the selection of the supplier.

 

For example, many factories supply HP films. Personally, I noticed that SunTek's HP fades much slower than some other HP films. The factories use QUV accelerated weathering testers to compare the tints (side-by-side) and these results serve as a good indicative guide for us, to identify the best from the average.

 

 

 

Exceptions:

And on our part, we noticed that field-performance can still differs in different climates. In my high UV and humid climate, I did also come across inconsistent fading results, eg. 

Brand-A HP 5% fades faster than Brand-B HP 5%

But.....Brand-A HP 35% fades slower than Brand-B HP 35%

   We can write another short essay to explain the above phenomenon.