Shrinking - stiff wrinkles

March 27, 2004

Hey guys, been pretty busy with school lately so I've been out of the tinting scene for a while. Today I did the back glass of a 96 Maxima, and all went well except for the lower right corner which I thought was odd.

I heated the corner and the film reacted and that is usually when you would press it down. Well I did this a couple times and after a while the film was wrinkled like it reacted but would not lay down, it was just ...wrinkly. I stopped then because I was afraid of burning it. It layed down when I applied it but that corner needed a good 20 min of pressing and heating to make it stay down so I am assuming it was not 100% properly shrunk.

What did I do wrong? Was it over heated?

skittles15 · March 27, 2004

probably undershrunk. what method do you use (powder or dryer sheet) that also makes a big difference.

March 27, 2004

Dryer sheet. What I undershrink, it will usually lay down but crappily, but at least the film is flexible. In this case it was really stiff and crinkly so I backed off.

March 27, 2004

bit too much heat? heat gun set a bit high maybe? :thumb

March 27, 2004

Too much heat on one spot. Keep the gun moving grasshoppa.

Even TT coulda told you that.

:thumb

March 28, 2004

hard to say on that one sometimes film will stop shrinking after a while and then its up to you to figure out how to apply it so that it stays down.

you got to stay so be happy. maybe next time try a wet check and see if that helps. :evileye

March 29, 2004

yeah, you used too much heat......... is it a "zipper" looking crease?

March 29, 2004

Tight squiggles in the film during dry shrink can be indicative of under shrink like TG was saying earlier. Trick to shrinking is to let the heat gun do the molding, not your hand or hard card...

Not shrinking enough followed by a quick swipe of the hand is counter productive, if the film has not shrunk enough to take the shape of the area you are working.

Biggest mistake I have seen in a switch from wet shrink to dry shrink is the installer trying to mold or shape the film with their hands rather than the heat gun. :hide

March 29, 2004

metint- so what you're trying to say is that when you are dry shrinking let the heat gun do the moulding?? I'm a wet shrinker but everynow and then when I have time I give dry shrinking a go! when I wet shrink,I heat the 'finger' up and when I see it shrinking I wipe over it with my hard card and smooth it out! so,if I dry shrink I shouldn't use my hard card or hand just let the heat gun smooth it out for me? as you can see I'm a bit hazy on this dry business! I've seen it done but it was a while ago! :thumb

March 29, 2004

metint is right. I only use my hand to force the fingers where I want them to go, or to split a big one up. the heat gun does all the work.heat shrinking