small white bubbles under tint, where did i go wrong?

[pbotz2000]

Newbie here, practicing and learning on my own vehicle. The victim a 2008 mini cooper 2 Dr hatchback. 20% film. The film was said to be 3m fx-hp  purchased  thru an online auction site and was cut into a 20 foot section. I do not have any way of verifying it was 3m film.

I have done some basic tint stuff before on my vehicles, including a few windshield sun strips and fixed coupe rear windows with good results and minimal bubbles or issues.

I did the 2  rear side windows first as they are fixed/non roll down. I squeegeed them down with a blue max and made several passes till it looked good. Than i did the heat shrink and same procedure on the hatch glass. I did the windshield sun strip the next day and re-checked my tint for bubbles and spots. Everything looked quite good and i was  surprised and excited. I let the car sit in the garage for 4 days than put it outside to use. now the issues start to arise

I started to see small white bubbles(view form outside) on one side window tint, about 20 or so and no larger than 1/8 being the biggest. The rear hatch glass also had a few starting to form in different places. I tired to flatten them but they do not seem to want to re stick. As of now its tolerable but if more bubbles surface it will have to be a re-start job for me. 

I am curious where i may have gone wrong. The tint looked great after i did it and a day or so later still looked good. There may have been a few small minute bubbles but not like its looking  now.

i glass cleaned the heck out of the windows and slip solution squeegeed  them before laying the tint as I have watched in videos along with super fine steel wool cleaned the rear defroster grids. 

 I used Johnson  baby shampoo as a slip solution mixed by eye. 

I Want to learn from this and want to know what is more likely the cause of this. My skills, the tint film, poor prep work, too much slip solution soap?

Feedback is greatly appreciated. 

thank you

 

Edited June 11, 2018 by pbotz2000

[Apex Tint]

Unfortunately those little white specs are dirt trapped between the glass and film.  When you first install the film all of the moisture helps hides these imperfections.  Once the film has time to cure,  debris under the film becomes much more noticeable; more so with darker films.  

 

There so many variables here.  Any tinter will tell you "there's no such thing as a perfect tint job".  Keep in mind you're working with a 10 year old car.  The older the car, the more dirt.  Cleaning/good prep methods are crucial on vehicles of this age.  It's import to wipe off all panels around the back glass in addition to cleaning the glass itself.  And don't forget the number 1 rule of tint... never touch the sticky side! 

 

What is your prep method? Step by step?  And how/where are you peeling your release liner?  You could be introducing debris to the film right from the get go if you're peeling from a dirty car.

[quality tintz]

30 minutes ago, pbotz2000 said:

Newbie here, practicing and learning on my own vehicle. The victim a 2008 mini cooper 2 Dr hatchback. 20% film. The film was said to be 3m fx-hp  purchased  thru an online auction site and was cut into a 20 foot section. I do not have any way of verifying it was 3m film.

I have done some basic tint stuff before on my vehicles, including a few windshield sun strips and fixed coupe rear windows with good results and minimal bubbles or issues.

I did the 2  rear side windows first as they are fixed/non roll down. I squeegeed them down with a blue max and made several passes till it looked good. Than i did the heat shrink and same procedure on the hatch glass. I did the windshield sun strip the next day and re-checked my tint for bubbles and spots. Everything looked quite good and i was  surprised and excited. I let the car sit in the garage for 4 days than put it outside to use. now the issues start to arise

I started to see small white bubbles(view form outside) on one side window tint, about 20 or so and no larger than 1/8 being the biggest. The rear hatch glass also had a few starting to form in different places. I tired to flatten them but they do not seem to want to re stick. As of now its tolerable but if more bubbles surface it will have to be a re-start job for me. 

I am curious where i may have gone wrong. The tint looked great after i did it and a day or so later still looked good. There may have been a few small minute bubbles but not like its looking  now.

i glass cleaned the heck out of the windows and slip solution squeegeed  them before laying the tint as I have watched in videos along with super fine steel wool cleaned the rear defroster grids. 

 I used Johnson  baby shampoo as a slip solution mixed by eye. 

I Want to learn from this and want to know what is more likely the cause of this. My skills, the tint film, poor prep work, too much slip solution soap?

Feedback is greatly appreciated. 

thank you

 

It may be in your slip solution use tint slime or joy dishsoap and be care when u spray windows trash can come from interior too...mist everything down around install first light mist ...oh and use distlled water walmart 1 dollar a gallon...

Edited June 11, 2018 by quality tintz

[pbotz2000]

I used a spray bottle(new) with tap water and baby shampoo as my slip solution.  For Prep i cleaned the glass several times with window cleaner and a micro filter towel. Than did 1 final clean with a new clean micro fiber towel. Before i tinted i sprayed the slip solution and squeegeed across and down to sweep the dirt down as i view on videos. Than i sprayed the slip solution 1 final time onto the glass and glue side of the tint before laying the film onto the glass.  I do not have long nails and find the release liner hard to separate by using teeth or fingernails. I used 2 tape pieces to separate a corner of the liner than removed it. i misted the outside of the car with slip spray and laid the interior tint side on the car so i could pull the release liner off. I  never touched the glue side with out wet soapy finger tips. I carried the film as gracefully as possible into the car and placed onto the glass and began to position and squeegee. The mini is a pretty easy test subject as the rear windows are all small. 

all this was done in my garage at home. The garage is clean but by no mean museum clean. 

 

I could accept debris in the film as my issue. I kept going over it in my head as why i have these bubbles. I assumed the film was crap or i did not squeegee out the water enough or push hard enough while doing so. Or i thought maybe too much soap in the slip solution. If its debris under the film that may be  causing this than i can work on my technique to try to prevent this.

 

[no ma'am]

A squeegee not a towel should be the last thing to touch the glass while cleaning 

[quality tintz]

Squeegee should be last thing touching glass do a test flush try a window with joy or tint slime.....and with baby shampoo use distilled water im telling u it changed my install and others on here to its only a dollar bro...learned distilled  water from here.... ask people about baby shampoo on here many don't like it in hot weather I ordered this slime came today...

Edited June 11, 2018 by quality tintz

[quality tintz]

Try joy non ultra and distilled water and squeegee last not paper towel or micro fiber....

[WearTheFoxHat]

I'm wondering if the  car has marks from ten years of seatbelt vs glass.

 

Post up pics so we can see what you see

Edited June 12, 2018 by WearTheFoxHat

[Tint Slayer]

Have any pics? @pbotz2000 

[pbotz2000]

Will try for some better pictures also. More or less you will see the small white dot to the right  of the dot matrix in the picture. This is what all my bubbles look like. They are at random places around the windows and not isolated to a certain area.

Top picture is rear hatch glass

Bottom picture is the side rear window.