purplish in hue brown streaks in new tint w/ photos

sacrileger · June 12, 2019

DIY newbie here. I am nearly certain this topic is covered some place on here; however, i lack the proper terminology to know what to search for... my apologies.

Here's my problem. I purchased a roll of 5%VLT tint, cut it to size and applied to the passenger side window. I did this outside with sun shining on it. It turned out pretty good.. no complaints.

Then i proceeded to the driver side. I cut the next piece from the same roll and did exactly the same what i did on the passenger side except this time it was cloudy. When i looked at the tint the next day, i noticed all these purplish in hue sorta brown streaks in the new tint... the streaks appear to be where i pressed the squeegee harder to get rid of all the bubbles.

I tried to take a picture of the streaks; however, the camera is not able to pick up what naked eye can see under the reflection in glass. The camera picks up the reflection in the glass rather than the streaks which has to be viewed from a certain angle. I may need to experiment with different lighting to capture the streaks.

Also, I cannot comment what kind of tint it is... i purchased it on ebay from china (yes... i know, i know... quality... let's not get into that please...). I got 6 meters for $7.

Has anybody come across this problem? Is there something i can do to avoid these streaks when i do the back window?

your help will be much appreciated

edit: i am providing two photos. since i have not received any feedback here, i proceeded to the back quarter window and the streaks appeared again. the streak spear as smudges on the quarter window. the passenger window shows a solid streak right above the handle going all the way up along the right hand side door frame to the top corner where i have used a squeegee to force bubbles from the top to the bottom of the film. I hope this help to clarify the issue i described above.

Edited June 12, 2019 by sacrileger
added two photos with further description

Tint Slayer · June 13, 2019

How did you clean the window before install?

jh812 · June 13, 2019

Never seen that one before, I'm gonna go with you got what you paid for.

sacrileger · June 13, 2019

2 hours ago, Tint Slayer said:

How did you clean the window before install?

1/ i used razor and removed all caked on dirt first.

2/ after that i used multi-surface highly concentrated detergent to remove grease.

3/ then i used windex and newspaper to clean the window

4/ spray with water to wash off windex (ammonia) and wiped off with squeegee

5/ soapy water (dish washing liquid soap) to wash off windex (ammonia) and wipe off with squeegee

6/ spray with water again... (see #4 above)

7/ mild soapy water... (see #5 above) taking special care all ammonia in corners and edges is wiped off

8/ spray w/ water again ... squeegee to wipe off water

9/ prepare for tint by spraying window with mild soapy water.. not wiped off

10/ apply tint and keep spraying mild soapy water as needed to make tint glide on the window as well as spraying on the outside surface of the tint to make the squeegee run easier when removing bubbles

11/ push all bubbles and soapy water from underneath the tint with squeegee

note: i am aware of the effect ammonia has on tint and for that reason i went to town making sure no ammonia was left on the glass. the above routine was used on the passenger side where these streaks dont appear.

is there a chance some ammonia was left on the window? possibly.. but not likely in such amount as to create such large areas with solid streaks... methinks. however, i have no idea how persistent ammonia is on the glass once it goes on...

the streaks appear in place where i worked the same area repeatedly.

sacrileger · June 13, 2019

2 hours ago, jh812 said:

Never seen that one before, I'm gonna go with you got what you paid for.

possibly... however, that theory falls apart considering these streaks do not appear on the passenger side given both sides were tinted from the same roll of tint

jh812 · June 13, 2019

7 minutes ago, sacrileger said:

possibly... however, that theory falls apart considering these streaks do not appear on the passenger side given both sides were tinted from the same roll of tint

Possibly, if you have any of the film leftover you can look to see if it is on the film. Also film can change throughout the roll ie darkness, color, and imperfections.

Now these are less likely through big name manufactures because it's checked and to the best of my knowledge graded. The film that isn't up to par likely gets sold off as b grade and could possibly wind up in the hands of someone that sells it like you purchased. Just theory though.

Edited June 13, 2019 by jh812

sacrileger · June 13, 2019

4 minutes ago, jh812 said:

Possibly, if you have any of the film leftover you can look to see if it is on the film. Also film can change throughout the roll ie darkness, color, and imperfections.

in other words, you are inclined to suggest the film itself was contaminated and i smeared it all over... amirite? i do have lots of the film left and was thinking i could experiment by applying it to other glass.

i also wonder if this has anything to do with my shrinking the tint and how i applied the heat to it. the streaks appear in places which i was not shrinking

Edited June 13, 2019 by sacrileger
clarification

jh812 · June 13, 2019

4 minutes ago, sacrileger said:

in other words, you are inclined to suggest the film itself was contaminated and i smeared it all over... amirite? i do have lots of the film left and was thinking i could experiment by applying it to other glass.

Looking at the pics it almost looks like you're pushing the color out which would be manufacture defect and not noticable until installation. Still odd one side did it and not the other. Cleaning with Windex didn't do that I don't care if you didn't do any other cleaning than Windex it still couldn't cause that imo

Bham · June 13, 2019

Pretty sure those marks are external. That seems to be a liquid that has etched the glass but wasn't visible until tint was applied.

Inspect it really close externally, wet the area and see if the water changes. See if you can feel it with a razor blade or see what happens when you hit it with some 0000 steel wool.

But from the pics, that looks like messed up glass on the outside, not the film :twocents

Edited June 13, 2019 by Bham

sacrileger · June 13, 2019

12 minutes ago, jh812 said:

Looking at the pics it almost looks like you're pushing the color out which would be manufacture defect and not noticable until installation. Still odd one side did it and not the other. Cleaning with Windex didn't do that I don't care if you didn't do any other cleaning than Windex it still couldn't cause that imo

thank you.. i have been wondering about the same thing for a while now... the reason for that is because my fingers and hands were getting black from the water which i pushed out. also, i noticed that the water bubbles underneath the tint were miscoloured and brownish if the soupy water was left there for longer time.. as if the tint colour started bleeding into the soapy water. the soapy water simply was not clear.. it was brownish.

i wonder if the type of liquid detergent soup reacted with the tint color. i wonder if i should have used baby shampoo as some sites recommend to avoid this.

as far as the other side, .. i did not use as much liquid and was working a bit faster since i was able to position the film where i wanted it quicker. i struggled with positioning on the driver side a bit so the water was left on for longer

Edited June 13, 2019 by sacrileger
clarification