smookee408@yahoo.com

Those towels are the best. Virtually no lint and hold up well. The ones that get over used are put in a box that I later use to clean the side seals with alcohol. After that it’s discarded. It’s $34 a box on 44tools.com. 

I wouldn’t worry too much about that review. You’re always going to have that one out of a 1000 that’s never going to be happy. Reviews about pricing is subjective. Look on the Brightside he only has one review and no friends on yelp. It will mostly likely get filtered and not even effect your overall score. 🍻

Thanks for the replies. I had to cancel my appointment and the customer was really understanding. I don’t stock 60” rolls. Hearing about this glass makes me really want to do one. Like another notch on my belt. I’ve done old and new Corvette tear drop glass. Vw bug and several old Seabrings all one piece. I definitely wanna try this one day. 🍻 to the guys that can do it with Crystalline. If I ever had to do this I already know the style I would tackle this back glass and that would be sideways Ryk shrink method with a taped down four quarters. 

Hey guys I have a 2018 model 3 coming in for an appointment in two weeks. This will be my first 3. My film designs cutting software shows that the back glass is only 23.918 inches tall. Is this true?  If it’s like the picture above and I won’t be able to do it because my rolls are max 38”

I tint for a dealership and I can tell you that they charge $900 for a name brand dyed film. I feel for those customers and I always do the best job I can on them. This includes installing felt when necessary. Hey tint jobs come with a loaner vehicle and car wash. 

aFAIK Honda Civic don’t need felt installation. The only Honda’s were the 03-07 Accords. Acura TSX around the same years as the Accords. 

For cleaning the adhesive I’ve found the orange degreaser bottle that sells for a $1 at the dollar store works real good. Another tip is always tell the customer there’s a chance they’ll lose their defroster lines. Once you warn them then it’s on them if anything happens. Good luck bro. 

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. 

On 4/17/2018 at 12:46 PM, jh812 said:

Just for future reference the best way I've found for finger free is to shrink the film, once it's flat lift it kinda rolling up on itself. Let that fall naturally and then shrink again. I do that on the Honda Accord that had the pia rear door.

☝️ This technique is called double shrinking. 

Double shrink all roll ups. Maybe you’re not being aggressive enough on you upside down u anchor. I’ll use a blue card dry and it’ll give me enough grip to aggressively tack a u anchor. 

My graphtech fc8600 the pressure/ force is set digitally as well as the speed. You need to set the conditions for different materials. I LOVE this feature you can cut tint and next cut Vinly by just changing your preset conditions. 

On 3/8/2018 at 7:00 AM, mrav8tr said:

O.k., here's the latest and hopefully the last.

We had to replace a computer module, $900 through Tesla.

 

I have on solid information:

The Tesla 3 has (2) modules mounted on the inside firewall, below the windshield right next to the "a" pillars on each side. These modules give information to the main computer and have the "plug" opening facing up which allows any liquid to drain into these modules causing a short.

We are not the only one's having this occur. Tesla has had a few happen and is working on a redesign for the future 3's. They wont fix currently made 3"s just making changes to ones being built now.

So a recap, it doesn't take much liquid to run down the "a" pillar areas on both side to be a problem. Take extra caution in these areas.

 

Thanks bro. I’ll definitely pass on these from now on. 

The wire can be bought at almost any hardware store for usually 15 cents a foot. I’m sure you can find better deals online buying the whole spool. 

There’s a tip from a very long time ago that I still use today. Get some 14 gauge wire black wire and stuff it into the seal with a bone. This will open it up and leave a small enough gap to slide the film in. Leave the wire in there when you’re done. The wire acts to slightly separate the seal from the glass and lock in any debris behind it. 

6 hours ago, shadytints said:

wheel acid on a little steel wool removes it as well

No way! That’s about the only thing I’ve never tried. I’ll definitely have to try that the next time I get one of those windows. I’m just worried about getting that stuff on the door panels. Of course I’ll have it covered up but have you gotten any on a panel? 

Bottom left light is great for hand cutting the back glass. It has three modes. First is a flashlight that can help see the bottom edge when cutting darker films. The other two modes is medium and high of 400+ lumens. The only thing I don’t like is I wishe they had made it micro usb rechargeable. It has its own usb plug. $80 bucks on the truck. The magnetic base is really useful and you can put the wand in any position. 

On 1/29/2018 at 12:54 PM, AbsoluteTintLa said:

Not bad, I just typically use the Visor. Pop it down and tuck them under. There are a few that are too short to reach.

 

That’s also what I do with those wires. Ones that’s too short I use masking tape to the headliner 

I only use scrubby pads on the backglass and only for a few cars.  I try to save them for use on removal.  Roll ups I use a single edge razor and my olfa for the sides to clean. We basically have no choice but to use a white scrub pad on the back glass. Once they get old they’ll leave particles. 

I’ve used fvd and pcs. The only thing I liked about pcs was the line would turn red and not let you cut a pattern that was bigger then your cutting area. Fvd has that disadvantage but has many more positives. One of my favorite features is you can change a pattern by enlarging it and delete any features of the pattern you don’t like. Say you got a roll up that has big rounded corner and there would be a gap. FVD lets you tweak the pattern in the software by pulling on it at certain points. One of my favorite features is cutting from multiple  cars on the same cutting table. Say you have extra space on the cutting table you can cut quarters for the next car. 

15 hours ago, CaliTINT said:

Did you install felt? Was wondering if the Audi Q5 needed felt. 

The Q5 and SQ5 don’t need felt. I can tint them without removing the door panels but I’ll get small side creases at the sides where the break line is at. Not really noticeable when heated out but with the few extra min it takes to remove the panel I can do an even cleaner install faster and easier. With the panel removed I just do a full peel and bomb drop it. Then I’ll move to the next door and come back at the end to file the top edge. The hardest panels to remove are the A6 and A8. A6 has tight clips and require you to lift up. The A8 has the power shades. The rest of the Audi line up only takes less then 2 mins a door for removal. 

Sounds like a bad connection. Most likely caused by a bad install using t-taps. Did the installer use tach or voltage sensing? 

Lol I don’t even use “NO” when I get quotes through yelp asking if they can get a discount if they bring in multi cars. I just hit the “I don’t intend to reply” button. If a customer is asking that they’re the worst kind. Usually cheap and picky. 

It’s an anti-fog coating it makes the slip bead up. To this day I have not found a solution that can take it off. The only thing that works is tinting it and letting it fully cure and removing it. The tint will remove the anti-fog. On the plus side once tinted removing the film is usually super easy and won’t leave any adhesive. Cars that have this require extra work like removing panels or seals to make the install go faster because you don’t have a lot of time. I use a two bottle set up. One spray bottle with limited slip for roll ups and a pump bottle with extra soap  for back windows and for the bottom of roll ups so that it’s easier to tuck. The cars with anti fog I’ll use the pump sprayer for rolls up. 

Guess I’m an old fart doing the average car in 3-4 hours. Then again I rarely have a warranty or redo. Charge more and work less is my goal. 

Get black wire if you can. No need to remove it once your done. The tool you’ll need is a white equalizer stick or any blue bone stick and make sure to spray slip in there first so the wire will slide in.