Removing tint, possibly FormulaOne Stratos

no ma'am · April 16, 2018

:thumb never guess what I tinted today and with what film :lol this guys good luck :lol IMG_4152.JPG.5733a840d10394fed27e1ff082c52011.JPG

Nezil · April 16, 2018

1 minute ago, no ma'am said:

never guess what I tinted today and with what film this guys good luck

What film did you use?

By the time I've posted my car to this thread, we'll only need a Black Sapphire Metallic M2 photo to complete the set of all M2 colours! Mine's Long Beach Blue by the way...

no ma'am · April 16, 2018

Stratos 30 front 15 back 3 :lol say Stratos again!!!! :lol I'm loving this :rollin :money

Ytram remarc · April 17, 2018

6 minutes ago, no ma'am said:

Stratos 30 front 15 back 3 say Stratos again!!!! I'm loving this

Youre selling that stuff like hotcakes :jerkit

I need to work on my sales technique..... I’m not doing much of it

Nezil · April 22, 2018

OK, so as promised, I'm writing again to report on my work with the Express Classic Black 35%...

I bought 30" x 25' because I knew I was going to be doing the back window of my car, and the front door windows of my wife's 2016 Honda Pilot, both of which are greater than 20" so I stepped up a size.

My initial thoughts, and take this with a huge grain of salt, since I'm a beginner!, are that it's slightly easier to crease during shrinking than the eBay ceramic, but not significantly so. It's actually slightly brown in shade rather than blue, which doesn't really match the factory tint on my wife's Pilot.

The eBay ceramic tint, I'm pretty sure really is ceramic, because it noticeably blocked a lot of IR from the sun; far more so than the Express Classic Black. Having said that, it also suffered really badly from what I've read is called 'Low Angle Haze', though I'd be more included to call it 'Any Angle Haze', because any time sunlight hit the window directly, at any angle, it just turned milky. This lead to it also looking like a lighter shade of tint, because the haze itself is visible light. My wife loved the heat rejection, but said there was no way she could live with the haziness, so I steamed it off her car and started replacing it with the Classic Black 35%.

Thanks the to the tips from @no ma'am, I was able to successfully tint the doors, rear sides and back window of my M2, and I'm pretty happy with the results. The defroster lines are slightly raised, which causes an annoying affect in the rear view mirror at night, but I'm told this is somewhat normal. I don't have any 'peanut' bubbles or anything horrendous like that. In fact I'm pretty happy overall with the M2, particularly now that it's been a day since I did it, and the film has started to dry out, it looks really very good.

My wife's Pilot on the other hand, has been pretty annoying. I got the driver's side done today, including the small piece just behind the door mirror that doesn't roll down, which, believe it or not, has been way easier to do than the roll down window! I took two attempts to do the driver's door yesterday, and I burned through two more 3' lengths just now trying to do the passenger door... and now I've run out of film... At least it was cheap... Thanks again to @no ma'am for suggesting that I buy a short roll of Classic Black to practice with!

The issue I'm finding is that the Pilot front door windows are obviously big, and though they don't change angle by design as they roll down, they're pretty loose in the seals, so there is quite a bit of movement side to side as they go up and down. Typically they shift toward the rear of the car as they are rolled down, and to toward the front of the car as they're rolled up. On the driver's side, although it installed well, you can see a small gap if you look for it as the window is rolled up, because of how it shifts forward. This annoyed me, so on the passenger side, I deliberately cut the film wider to try and hide the edge, and though it fitted pretty well at the top, this made it really difficult to tuck into the seals at the bottom. On my last attempt, I ended up with a couple of fingers because I couldn't push this wider film into the seals enough at the bottom.

Oh, and I should have said this before, but I've been doing filled edges on all of the door glass, and it's held up well so far, so I'm happy with that!

That's my report on what I've done so far... I'll make another post with some questions.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Nezil

Nezil · April 22, 2018

And so having now gone through ~35' of film learning to tint, I have some questions that I hope some of you will be able to help me with...

Is the Express Classic Charcoal 1.5 likely to cause a problem with the comfort entry on my BMW M2 or my wife's 2016 Honda Pilot?
Is the Express Classic Charcoal going to match the factory rear tint on my wife's 2016 Honda Pilot better than Classic Black?
Any tips for the front doors of the 2016 Honda Pilot, given the amount they shift in the seals, with respect to visible edges during rolling up?
Do the other ceramic films on the market (QDP / Express, Llumar CTX, FormulaOne Pinnacle & Stratos, Huper Optik etc.) also all suffer from the Low Angle Haze problem? Is that just a ceramic tint 'thing' that some consider worth it because of the IR blocking benefits?
I'm finding the Express Classic Black film quite 'grabby', in that it doesn't slide around on the glass much at all. I probably get about 5 seconds to move the film around when I first put it on the glass, and if I'm not in the correct position by then, it's tough to get it to move. Occasionally I've had to go so far as to peel back the film and apply more slip to get it to move, and this is even before the first light squeegee pass; the adhesive seems quite aggressive at times. If I increase the amount of baby shampoo in my slip solution, will this help at all?

Thanks in advance to anyone who's able to offer advise. It's been a fun, though honestly pretty challenging (respect to all of you pros; really) learning experience so far. I didn't expect this, but I've found tinting to be more challenging than PPF installation so far...

Tintguy1980 · April 22, 2018

On 4/22/2018 at 2:26 AM, Nezil said:

And so having now gone through ~35' of film learning to tint, I have some questions that I hope some of you will be able to help me with...

Is the Express Classic Charcoal 1.5 likely to cause a problem with the comfort entry on my BMW M2 or my wife's 2016 Honda Pilot?

Is the Express Classic Charcoal going to match the factory rear tint on my wife's 2016 Honda Pilot better than Classic Black?

Any tips for the front doors of the 2016 Honda Pilot, given the amount they shift in the seals, with respect to visible edges during rolling up?

Do the other ceramic films on the market (QDP / Express, Llumar CTX, FormulaOne Pinnacle & Stratos, Huper Optik etc.) also all suffer from the Low Angle Haze problem? Is that just a ceramic tint 'thing' that some consider worth it because of the IR blocking benefits?

I'm finding the Express Classic Black film quite 'grabby', in that it doesn't slide around on the glass much at all. I probably get about 5 seconds to move the film around when I first put it on the glass, and if I'm not in the correct position by then, it's tough to get it to move. Occasionally I've had to go so far as to peel back the film and apply more slip to get it to move, and this is even before the first light squeegee pass; the adhesive seems quite aggressive at times. If I increase the amount of baby shampoo in my slip solution, will this help at all?

Thanks in advance to anyone who's able to offer advise. It's been a fun, though honestly pretty challenging (respect to all of you pros; really) learning experience so far. I didn't expect this, but I've found tinting to be more challenging than PPF installation so far...

I cannot pass on experience with Express products however, as to ceramic films you will find that Huper Optiks is the most optically clear film of those mentioned.

IR blocking is found in ceramic film products and hybrid (dye metal) and all metal film products. IR makes up approximately half of the heat produced when this form of the sun's energy strikes and is absorbed by a surface. Visible light (approx 49%) and UV (approx 2%) make up the rest and they too produce heat once they strike and are absorbed by a surface.

So the best measure of any films' performance is to compare Tser (Total solar energy rejection). Tser accounts for all three; what might transmit through, is reflected or is absorbed and re-radiated outward/inward from the glass/film surface. :eyebrows

Edited April 12, 2019 by Tintguy1980

no ma'am · April 23, 2018

It's a crap shoot on the comfort access thing with hybrid films I'd say though I never had a complaint about it with comfort (atr) I wouldn't assume anything there. Get a 60x50 ft roll of ceramic from express. Have it cut 40/20 40x50 and 20x50. You should have enough to do both cars several times. Low angle haze may still be present however I seriously doubt it'll be as bad as brand x eBay film. I've had zero complaints. Use more slip when in doubt and pull the panel if you're struggling. I can't tell you how much bigger to cut your pattern on a pilot until Tuesday when I have to work on one. And don't get hung up on matching privacy glass looking from the inside just tint over factory crap anyway.