Man, what a day...

esoterik_appeal · April 16, 2018

What's up tint pros? I've been lurking for years, but I had a day today that I thought I'd vent about and maybe ask a few questions.

I've been a dealership tinter for years now and it's been a pretty great job. I've always been in-house so steady work, few paycheck issues, benefits, etc. But after grinding away for a long time I thought I might try my hand at doing some side jobs for myself. Just a few cars here and there to make some extra money and see what headaches there are in the retail game. So I had my first paying clients that I didn't know personally today. An FR-S and a R/R on a 350z.

They showed up an hour early, which was an issue because I am working out of my house and my wife wasn't home to watch the kids. But they dropped both cars off so not really a big deal. Got going on the FRS, no problems, easy car. Right before I started the visor strip I plugged in my steamer for the R/R. As I am cleaning up from the first car, the power goes out and stays out. Stormy day. Whatever. I can scrub the glue. Barely even need to shrink that back glass. Keep rolling right?

So the side windows are slow going, the tint that is on there is like nothing I've seen. The top layer peels off, but the bottom layer has broken down to the point that it is like paint on the glass. I went through like 4 or 5 razors per rolldown. Might be trouble with the back glass. I finish up the sides and do a test area on the hatch. Same issue only worse. Figuring there isn't much I can do without my steamer, I call the guy and tell him I'm done with everything but the hatch and we can reschedule. He's cool, will pick up the cars in an hour. Bam, power is back on! So I plug in the steamer and get ready for war. I start steaming the top (bottom) of the hatch and get it nice and warm. Both layers start coming up in the corner and I think I'm home free. But the top layer separates quickly and the layer left behind is... indestructable. I hit it with steam, glass cleaner, grease lightning, magic eraser, steel wool, rubbing alcohol, my head, plastic brushes, chizzlers, my head again; nothing could touch it. So guy shows up and I'm out of ideas. I tell him I can just not charge him for the back window, install over the film (which is now wrecked and hazy because of my assualt), I even ponder razoring the back window but take that off the table.

He decides to go ahead and tint it and I offer him a discount and also offer to try a removal a few weeks from now to see if the old stuff comes off with my film. Get it on and it looks rough. All of the bubbles in the old film are still there under the new film. It actually looks worse now because the old film was so faded. Balls. He understands though and pays me.

So to summarize, in spite of some set backs I had an ok, if crazy first day. I just hate I came up a little short on a couple of otherwise quality installs. Just thought I'd share and I welcome any criticism or advice.

Most importantly, is there ANYTHING that can be done with a back glass that has film like that on it? Besides asking what his glass deductable is, which I did. Sorry for the novel, I have been wanting to do my own thing for years and even though today didn't go as smooth as I'd hoped, I made it through and hope to keep building some side business. Thanks for any input!

no ma'am · April 16, 2018

Try bagging it with ammonia after you try steamer next time :dunno

WearTheFoxHat · April 16, 2018

https://www.tintdude.net/remove.html

jconnors · April 16, 2018

best advice i could give-DON'T DO REMOVALS!

pbalentine · April 16, 2018

I would of razored it!! If film is over 5 years or looks bad, I usually give them a heads up that it might get razored(defrosts wont work). If its a turd then i just razor away. I would get some adhesive remover. When i razor back windows i steam small areas and follow the steam with the blade.

jh812 · April 16, 2018

Most of the time I can get that second layer to remove with steam but takes some patience. Another trick though is to tint it like you did let it sit up then bag it. You may be able to try this since you've retinted it.

GusTheTinter · April 17, 2018

That last layer can really try your patience. Like jh812 said, steamer & patience. Let the steamer do the work & a plastic razor blade to lift it.

CaliTINT · April 18, 2018

We always bag for removals and use steam to assist. The other week I left the bag on the back glass for about 2-3 hours while doing the side windows, other cars and misc. stuff. When I started to steam the film the whole piece of tint literally bubbled into one big piece because of the air pressure from the steam and pretty much fell off the glass.

I think you did mention also that it was a stormy day. So bagging will probably not help much. But when its cloudy or cold and I'm doing removals I just carefully heat up the glass with my heat gun (making sure not to over heat it) and you can start to see the film kinda react and start coming up.

smookee408@yahoo.com · April 19, 2018

Always tell them a high price and that’s only the starting point pending your inspection. Then it can go up. When doing removals ALWAYS think of a number that’ll make you smile. 😃 . For me if during inspection I find it’s delaminated then I’ll be honest it’ll be cheaper if you replace the glass then to pay me to take it off. Lol I actually had a customer that went with that advice and went to pick and pull and bought the entire rear hatch with glass for $50 . His lucky day it was even the same paint color as his car. To prevent this I’ll usually ask for the customer to text me pics.

esoterik_appeal · April 21, 2018

Thanks for the tips guys! I'm no stranger to removals, but I've never had much luck with bagging. Never tried ammonia though, do you just use the stuff from the grocery store? And if it is cloudy, would the rear defrost provide enough heat to affect the adhesive? I'm definitely done quoting removals before I see the car.