Shrink Pointers, Needed

[Dano]

Fwiw the Global/Express and Xpel HP films are about the easiest on market to shrink. Also have the hardest scratch coating. Nothing will make your blood boil like installing a piece of film and pulling it back off because you scratched it during the install. 

[highplains]

On 11/20/2022 at 9:38 AM, Dano said:

CS is the bottom end used mainly to satisfy cheap a$$

That's not accurate in reference to 3M CS. It's their mid tier film and a true carbon film with tser numbers that are fairly comparable to lulu ctx. At the time I dropped 3M for Xpel the price of it had risen to within a few dollars of what I was getting Xpel Ceramic for. 3M's entry level films are the Obsidian and FX lines and then they have another dirt cheap line that I can't remember the name of. 

[Dano]

You are correct. I'm on hp and ceramic. The carbons are under my usual preference, mainly for how it handles. I'm sure it does what it says.

[Chilled]

How do you guys clean the mactac felt card? I got some of the soap bar residue onto it, and now the edges are getting a little crusty/hard. Just worried that if i use it on the film side, it will scratch it.

[Dano]

Just rince it and let it dry. I wouldn't use it for installs. 90%chance it will scratch the film anyway.

 

For installs, I could use this basic few tools all day and not really need much else. The yellow turbo is a "dark yellow". It's softer than the standard yellow that seems to leave chalk marks on everything. 

If you want to spen a few more bucks to get some more leverage and cleaner sweeps the orange crush is pretty forgiving.

 

These are the random tools I reach for when shrinking. The top left sphear I used for 15ish years and just snapped it a few days ago.

 

The grey card below it is probably my favorite unless I'm shrinking something big. Works great for doors and light curved rears.

 

Below it is a random bondo spreader with a strip of ptfe tape(amazon).

 

The other two are cards that I just put monkey/bananna strips on. Nobody needs all that crap. Any one of those would work fine, even the one I snapped.

[Chilled]

8 hours ago, Dano said:

Just rince it and let it dry. I wouldn't use it for installs. 90%chance it will scratch the film anyway.

 

Is that because I ruined the mactac with the soap or the felt scratches? I would of thought that felt was perfect for both the shrinks and the actual installs.

[Dano]

Felt doesn't have enough rigidity to push out the water....and it scratches by the time you start trying to lay pressure on it.

[Chilled]

Haven't had anymore practice sessions due to lack of time, but found an interesting point in this forum.

 

Was reading a thread on slip mixes and came across a thread where a guy was getting white dots under his tint. Everyone said that it was because he was cleaning his spray bottle properly and I was like wow there is a proper way to clean those.

 

So what is the properway to clean? I have just the chepo garden/ basic pull trigger squirter, not even the pump up pressure ones.

[Tintguy1980]

Proper way to clean any spray bottle used for installing window film is to dump unused at the end of each day, thoroughly rinse, and set upside down overnight to drain and dry.

Residuals of many soaps used by tinters can and will build up on the internal surface of these bottles and congeal over time only to release as tiny globules and show up under the film.

 

Someone can chime in and point you to slip agents best suited for installing film and lessen the production of these specks. Even so, it is still best to rinse each and every time you are finished for the day.

[Dano]

I generally use Seventh Generation Free and Clear during the cooler months because it doesn't have a bunch of unnecessary filler in it and doesn't dry out my skin. Probably 5ml per bottle, more or less depending on how it tacks. 

 

Hot weather months I use baby shampoo because it has a higher wax content to slow down the tacking. 

 

Also the pump up bottles are over rated. The geometry puts too much pressure on my hands if I use one all day. The el-cheapo zep bottles at HD are my favorite. 

 

As @Tintguy1980 says rince em out if you're not using them everyday otherwise wax will settle and build up, getting stuck in the trigger especially. I'll keep mine flushed and filled back up with plain water, but I also run em out daily.