smookee408@yahoo.com

Contamination can be many factors. Easy for some and harder for others. The biggest are your prep and environment. I was tinting in my garage for many years and didn’t realize how good I had it. I use to have the garage open when tinting even with a slight breeze would get excellent results. Now that I’m in my new shop I have to have the roll up doors closed when tinting. I’ve also figured out that it has to be closed for a few minutes before peeling. I use to peel the backglass off of the car but can’t do that anymore and use my peeler. The small holes in the shop also contributes. I’ve patched up small holes with duct tape and has helped. There’s small holes at the top of the shop A frames where dust is coming in from my neighbors but I need a big ass ladder to get to. Hard water can be issues. To get excellent results you have to control the environment. Every day I use a leaf blower and dust mop multiple times a day. 

As for using razor blades I’m moving away from that as the new glass are chit and can scratch easy. Use a scrubbie! If you can’t control the environment then maybe it’s time to move. 

12 hours ago, Tint Slayer said:

the rubber towards the bottom looks slightly scuffed and damaged and looks like something hit it pushing upwards

I didn’t do nothing to the rubber except clean it with alcohol prior to tinting. Nothing a lil armor all can’t fix. 

Update customer missed her appointment and wanted to reschedule for later in the day. I had ask have you tried rolling the windows down yet? She said no. I told her you can try that the windows are fully cured by now. Later I get a text that a friend of hers has looked at it and corrected it by trimming the rubber and windows look good. I’m glad that’s over with. 

It’s a 2018 Civic hatchback. Install is straight forward I have an oe glass that shrink backglass on. Doors were computer cut. Nothing was taken off car except for the cargo screen to gain access to the backglass. Customer sent many pictures and I was not sure what the problem was until she circled the picture. Says that window seal is bent from my installation. The only thing I can think of that might of caused that is something all of us Tinter’s do and that is slightly push the window out and up and we roll it up. Bare in mind customer is a female in her early 30’s. How do you guys diffuse the situation?She is pretty pissed and is coming in tomorrow for me to fix. No complaints about workmanship but did say there’s bubbles which I’m assuming it’s because it’s not dry yet. Any war stories that relate to this situation? Thanks 

Great topic! I just moved into my shop and noticed I have really hard water. Just spraying my peel board which is a mirror would leave a white haze. I’ve since switch to bottle water from my local pure water store and that problem is no longer there. Only thing I noticed was my slip tacks up a lot faster. I think a bit of minerals might be a good thing. I’m going to bring tap water from my house. It has worked great before. Might try Mikes solution from Amazon. Mike from midtown do you have a link? 

Use it on the edges where it doesn’t lay down. The alcohol will make the adhesive extra tacky. Don’t go over 20% alcohol!

Use a 20% alcohol solution and squeegee. 

Mods go ahead and move this to the make/models section. 

Got it! It’s one nasty biatch. Two clips hold the headliner to the brake near the ends. You’ll need a slightly angled 10mm gear wrench to remove bolts. Bolts are tension so you won’t need to hold bolt while turning. The bolts are long. 3rd blue clip is at center of light. Pop down and remove 3rd brake. 🍻 

Anyone removed one yet? I’m going to try and figure it out but if someone can help it would be appreciated. Thanks 

Just did an 07’ Bmw 3 coupe for the front side windows. Film laid down good. I used 600 grit wet sandpaper. A few passes was all it took. Might look into doing it for the dot matrix 

On 7/10/2019 at 2:04 PM, Midtown Houston said:

Hey Bro how Do you guys do the front windshield? I know the modules are on the driver side. Any moisture and their toast. I won’t tint the sunroof or front windshield. I once I did the sunroof and the screen started freaking out. Lucky for me once dried it went away but definitely scared me. 

Yes just pull the from the top toward the middle of the car. It’s held in by clips and a bungee cord so don’t pull to far. Once out take the cord off of the panel. There’s also another plastic retainer that’s made to keep the panel in place once the airbags deploy. That you need a 90 degree pick. It has four retaining clips two on top and two on the bottom. Just pull and pick the clips up to get it out of the sheet metal. Once out grab the panel and pull towards the front of the car. This will make the install a breeze. I usually tape all the modules to prevent slip from getting in as there a lot of slip with a glass this big. Use microfiber rope at the bottom of the glass to soak up excess moisture. 

Global Ceramic 50 on all windows 

14 hours ago, WhyTint said:

On 8/16/2018 at 9:25 PM, smookee408@yahoo.com said:

I’m confused about you post aswell. I started at the dealership as a Tinter. That was my way in the door. They started me at a low hourly wage but I didn’t care because I knew where I wanted to be and that I was going to get there. I came into there knowing that I wasn’t going to give them no choice and they had to make me a tech. In less then a years time I got a 40% increase in pay and now I’m union with all the perks and benefits. I worked hard and help everyone out and was a star employee. You see I never finished college and I did go to tech school but I never finished either. Being a journeyman tech is always something I wanted to see to completion. They pay for my schooling/training and certifications. I get paid for lunch travel and while I’m in school. In the meantime I run my tint business on the weekends. Yes I work 7 days a week. I’ll tint five cars every weekend with one  employee I’ve hired and I’m always booked several weekends out consistently. I’ve already got one high income skill and that’s tinting. I’m developing my second high income skill. My boss has plans to eventually phase me out as a Tinter and become a Tech only. Honestly I love what I’m doing now. My boss and work environment is awesome.  Whytint you sound like you’re your own problem. It doesn’t matter whatever you do you have to put in . Really who cares what others techs think. When I first started the other techs didn’t respect my line of work but i feel that was my predecessor fault. He was a hack that got fired. Now it’s kinda funny they all say what are you still doing here you should go full time with your business. 

I agree dont know why his here. I'm in the same boat as you are. I'm really trying to become a tech, and considering just doing the tint as a business on the side for now so how did you market, do you use a plotter? Good to hear you're doing good

I’ve been tinting for over 14 years and I have a large clientele base. That’s where most of my work comes from the other 1/3 is from Yelp. I’ve been hand cutting most of those years and funny got a plotter two years ago. I really don’t know why I didn’t get one sooner. As for being a tech it’s great I like the work but it’s looking like I’m going to retire from it once I’m a journeyman. Last year I made more money from my side tinting business then as a tech. Considering that I was only tinting weekends. Factor in how much money I spend on tools and it looks like I have to open my open tint shop. We’re all here a short time so I have to make as much money in the shortest possible time. Let me know if there’s any other questions. 

I remember using the tip of the reach and was able to squeegee all of it out. 

The tinter is just inexperience in cutting. Over time you learn to snap the blade more and cut at lower angles. Most of all the amount of pressure it takes to make the cut. Later on in my career I started to use a button and markers but mostly I’ll scored the film. Especially on the backglass and quarters. Then I’ll tear the film away or finish it on the peeler. Now that I’m using a plotter I’m even more scared to cut on the glass. It’s because if you’re not cutting it on glass you’ll lose the feel for it. When I have to cut on glass it’s always a new blade and with enough pressure to just score the film. Man I really hate it when I don’t have a pattern in my database. 

Definitely the Tinter’s fault. If he’s a stand up guy he’ll replace the glass. It happens even to the best of us. I’ll admit it and I’ve replaced a customer glass because I’ve scratched it. Good thing I have a plotter now and that’ll never happen again. 

I do a walk around on all vehicles I tint. I’ll point out everything that I think they don’t know about. It does suck that sometimes they feel embarrassed by it but better then they saying I caused it. 

So are you using the blue Max exclusively to squeegee?

I have a theory on why this happens and I think it’s those windows that have the anti-fog treatment. It reduces the bond of the adhesive and once the tint is peeled the treatment is also gone. What do you guys think? 🤔

Global sells 50’ x60” and I’ll Have it cut 22” and 38”. 

Here’s how I do a reverse roll on a back glass. Once you’re done shrinking clean the back glass with the pattern on it. Now spray the pattern. This will kill the static. Peel on side and make sure the liner doesn’t fall back on the pattern. This is why cleaning is super important prior to peeling because it can happen. Spray the pattern and repeat on the other side. Now just roll it up and it doesn’t need to be too tight of a roll. Once inside pull your pattern down like 12” then flip the liner over and begin sliding your pattern in place. Unroll it over the backglass. Once you’re near the end peel the liner off completely. This works the same for the front windshield. 

19 hours ago, Super Dave said:

Just booked another one for Wednesday!

Good luck bro! I would also like another try at this car again. First time I laid the film front to back and used a combo of the ryk method and normal shrinking to the sides after I trimmed it. I got a feeling that just laying my 60” roll with an anchor straight down the middle and leaving all the excess to pull shrink. It’s a hunch that this method might work better.