Professional advice for someone wanting to get their car tinted

Barneythebanker · April 14, 2016

Hey everyone I'm in need of some advice. I've had my past 5 cars tinted by a place in my city that uses Solar Guard Galaxie tint. Lifetime warranty, good work quality and they charge around $300 for a 4 door sedan. The only issue with them is every time they do my cars, they manage to scratch up the back of my car from leaning on it when doing the rear windows. The other thing that bugs me is they remove door panel and I had some rattles due to broken clips on my last car. I've had them do a e90 BMW, 3 VW Jettas and one Audi for me.

Now there is a newer place in my city that uses Suntek Carbon and they do not remove door panels unless they have to. They are the place recommended by all the dealerships and charge about $350. They are booked out until May whereas the other place I've used can get me in this coming Monday.

What do you think would be my best bet? Go to the shop that does good work but scratches my car a bit and removes the panels or to another that I have no experience with? How do the two films compare? I'll be having a 2016 Audi S3 tinted. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Ryker · April 14, 2016

I am amazed that you would have went back to a shop that scratched your car or left your door panels rattling or any way other than the way they were when brought in. There is no excuse for a scratched car. If your car is clean and waxed then the chances of it being scratched is almost 0%.

I remove a LOT of door panels and have yet to have a customer say anything is wrong when I am done. Only been accused of scratching 1 car ever and he said it had to be "my belt buckle".....

NOT removing the panel or at least the sweep may result in less ideal final product. The chance for edge debris will be greater if the 2016 S3 is as tight as I think it will be on the sweeps....

I can't really comment on the film choices but will say go with the shop you are most comfortable with.

Barneythebanker · April 14, 2016

Thanks for the response! There was a body line that stuck out a bit and I could see how they rubbed against that on both rear quarter panels, my tail lights and trunk lid. I was just sick about it but I wasn't sure if that was the norm

bman848 · April 14, 2016

Either they were really careless during the install or the clear coat on that car sucked bad to scratch both sides. It would be real hard to scratch a paint job due to tinting the windows in my opinion. Or it was not caused by the window tinter....

Barneythebanker · April 14, 2016

The last car I had them do was a 2015 VW GLI. It was maybe a week old and had just been professionally detailed so I know they did it. The guy who does the tinting is a bigger guy so I'm thinking his stomach did the scratching lol. On a back car it's so easy to see minor scratches though

bman848 · April 15, 2016

Might just be a careless fat guy?? Who knows?? If i thought he did this a couple times i would find another shop to deal with.

Barneythebanker · April 15, 2016

How is Suntek Carbon film?

jh812 · April 15, 2016

You need to search out installers not film. It wouldn't matter if Rolex made a tint if it's a crap install.

Ryker · April 15, 2016

I know at least one guy that uses the Suntek Carbon XP film and seems to do well with it. He uses it as a "better" film and has Global QDP for the "good" film.

Now the plain Carbon film I can't speak of.

If your car was just detailed and someone scratched the paint then they were just plain stupid and should be charged for it! Did it buff out or was it bad enough to matter?

bman848 · April 15, 2016

I know nothing about the carbon film. I currently use Llumar and i used Johnson films for almost 13 years before that. I tried a sample roll of solar fx one time and didnt care for it. It might be alright stuff but i wont know.