Bham

Inquiring minds want know = other than price, why are you not happy with Global?? Your title asks about the top manufacturers. Well you are not happy with one of them and the only other two choices would be Llumar or 3M. Anything else you go with is still more than likely one of these 3. At least you better hope it is.

The coating can be removed by "dry scraping" with stainless single edge razor blades, but it is very time consuming and tedious. The coating comes off like a super fine powder. If done correctly there is no damage to the glass and you can tint it just fine after a thorough cleaning. I scraped the drivers door clean after making the mistake of scratching the coating but I did not scrape the passenger side. After tinting you could not tell the difference between the two.

The hardest thing to tint on these is the windshield. Other than that,,, eezy-peezy.

I just noticed the name. First and last letter missing from yours. duh

Can’t have bad tint on our own vehicle. R&R completed 👍

Those Ford mounts with the spring retention clip are the worst. One time on and not supposed to come back off. The tool they make for removal is sketchy at best. I spent a very long time, trying many different methods learning how to take those off properly. If you don't know for sure how to remove these, then skip it and cut around it. I am glad to see they have gotten away from this style of mount now.

I second the Global suggestion. If you can get past the color(khaki) of the 70% ceramic, it is the best performing film in their line. It has amazing heat rejection properties at a 70% film with very little low angle haze. I don't have anyone complain about it. If you install 50% on windshields then you will LOVE the Global 50% ceramic. One of the prettiest films i've dealt with and I would say "almost" zero low angle haze. It does not perform as well as the 70% in my opinion because they have almost the same "stats". @Dano Hang in there with the brand recognition. Just spit your knowledge and let them look it up if they want too. Global is my favorite of the "big 3" and the recognition is getting out there.

My thoughts on this are that tint shops should have never started agreeing to discounts for dealerships. I mean why? Because they bring you " a bunch of cars ". Well so what. That doesn't make them any easier to tint. Dealerships ask for outrageous discounts and blame it on the volume they bring you. Tint shops should have never started agreeing to these type of discounts. Dealerships can well afford normal pricing. If anything, give the 10% off the total of an invoice, not 10-20% off each vehicle. At least that will cover you if they don't bring you a bunch of cars and will also give them a better reason to bring you more at one time instead of one here and there. 20% is not necessary in my opinion, but they will want at least that just because they are a dealership. This is just my take on this subject. Many will have a different opinion, but I think if shops had stood their ground years ago on this, dealerships wouldn't expect these type of discounts.

Slow seasons for most tint shops that do strictly window tint are the coldest times of the year. You already being in the frozen tundra most of the year your slow season could be very long. just sayin.

I'll put it this way = it is very hard(almost impossible) to waste a piece of film because of a sharpie marker. Cutting directly on the uprights = once you make that first cut, the second cut BETTER be perfect. Otherwise that piece will never fit the window properly and you will have to make another pattern. There is no room for correction cutting directly against the uprights. Same principe applies to the rear glass or windshield or quarter window. It's impossible to hurt a piece of glass with a sharpie. It is rather easy to etch a piece of glass with a blade.

If you are talking about when you are cutting the edges of a roll-up window = you have to start your cut above your beginning point and then swoop in at a curve to make contact with the edge so that you can slide you blade along the edge. Kinda like the curve of a skateboard ramp. If you just plunge the knife in exactly at your cut point, the plunge will push the knife blade a little farther than you are wanting to start your cut. Hence the gouge that is lower that your glass edge cut. The gouge at the end of the cut is due to the angle of your blade when you finish your stroke. Again, curve the cut out and finish the edges(make them straight) with a ruler on the peel board. Also, the cut along the edge of the glass should be one smooth stroke. If you pause or try to restart you will have "ticks" in you cut line. Came back to say as I am cutting one out that if you are trying to cut down the sides of your roll-up windows by pushing the knife into the edge and running it down, instead of marking and cutting on a peel board, you will ALWAYS have that gouge in your pattern. This method of cutting never works properly and you will not see a reputable shop using that method of cutting patterns.

This is pretty cool for the Tesla rear glass but not practical for anything else. You could not use that method for anything with a trunk and especially not SUV's. Only other thing I could see it used for is a pano roof but my next sentence will negate that. It's neat and all but my shoulder hurts from watching you heave that thing around. And I'm pretty sure I would burn my shorts because my shoulder gave out and I couldn't hold it up any longer.

100% normal. 100% correct. Automotive glass is not as “clear” as you think it is. Most windshields will meter around 72% to 74% and if you add a 70% film to that, it will meter around 52%. +/-

That is 100% heat gun damage. It is from them trying to fix those creases in the tint that should not even be there. Sorry you got hit with a bad installer. There is no reason fo creases in that area other than inexperienced installer. Whoever did this tint job should replace that plastic piece and re-tint that window.

I'm pretty sure @Dano would embarrass an uneducated film rep if they came in his shop.

I'm glad @DynamicATL reminded everybody that Xpel is Garware.... aka Global. Garware makes a SOLID product and Xpel is NOT stupid. They hit the PPF market hard, with a solid product. Why would they not do their research once again when getting into the film market. They went with what is known to be a solid manufacturer, picked the colors they wanted and started selling window tint. I would have to agree that IF there are any failures in Xpel film it will not actually be the films fault. I still have yet to have any type of Global failure that was actually film or adhesive failure. edited to add that there is not a film out there that " likes " dot matrix. So that doesn't count.

I use Tint Slime Ultra year round. Even though they say it's made for hot weather installs, I don't like switching up from the regular(green) to the Ultra(orange), so I just stay with the Ultra and use a little less in the winter.

I love my Tint Slime!!! Was gone for a solid 14 days and came back in Monday morning, shook up my solution left over from before I left, and went straight to work. No issues at all. No gunk, no smell, no breakdown, and no issues with slip. Tint Slime Ultra plus distilled water for the WIN!! Tint Slime Rocks!!

There are people way smarter than me but I'll sling a guess out there that what you are experiencing is the difference between IR and R factors. Window tint blocks(absorbs/reflects) UV and IR parts of the heat spectrum, BUT window tint does not have an " R factor " like the pink stuff in your attic. It takes mass to create an " R " factor. The shade is designed to reduce heat and also has the mass to create more of R factor in heat rejection and I am assuming that is the difference you are feeling.

No sir. All of those post are 100% correct. The part they don't mention is the reaction of your skin to the part of the heat spectrum being blocked or absorbed. Either way the IR (what you feel most) is not getting to your skin. Ceramic films unless very dark do not do much different than a regular dark film for the over all impact of the total heat spectrum, which involves way more than IR. But since or skin reacts to IR in feel more than any other part of the spectrum, a film that blocks or absorbs more of that spectrum would be the most beneficial. As long as you are on the other side of the piece of film so that you feel the performance factors of said film.

The nonsense is that you are not looking at all the factors of the situation and just trying to eliminate part of the equation when the other part of the equation is still plausible and part of the problem. You also are not understanding the fact that if you didn't have skin the type of film wouldn't matter. The only way you know ceramic works is by feel and IR is what you feel the most of. This simply explains why ceramic films work. But you seem to know way more than someone in the business so best of luck to you and your expertise.

My assumption as you put it is not any different driving or siting still. Parked or moving, Radiant heat is just that and you can't beat it only reduce it, as you are trying to do. Ceramic film both absorb and reflect. Yes you could put some sort of mirrored film on there to try and reduce your problem but it is not legal, even on the roof. And it would have to be applied on the outside to have any decent effect. Which in my opinion would be more dangerous than the on the side windows. Truck drivers would crash when you went over the first hill in front of them at noon. As I said before, you best option is a ceramic film. I didn't mention that it would probably be best in a mid to very light shade 50%-70%, but I am now. All of these options still run the risk of thermal fracture due to the amount of extreme exposure the roof gets from the direct sun. And to go along with my assumption, your vehicle will be parked in the direct sun for a long period of time at some point and adding any type of film changes the dynamics of the glass. Now reflecting or absorbing in some sort of way hence causing risk. Perforated film applied to either side will do little to nothing for heat.

You will NEVER be able to stop all the radiant heat that is going to happen when parked in the sun. Doesn't matter what film you choose, the radiant heat effects that your vehicle experiences after the car is sitting in the sun will never go away. The most expensive, best performing film on the market still won't work. Direct opaque blockage of the sun (i.e. complete shade) is the only way to stop the solar energy effects of the sun. That being said, you need to focus on the best IR film for your needs. You (your skin) feels the IR part of the heat spectrum, hence the reason IR films "perform" so well. They block a spectrum of heat the we feel with or skin. The IR spectrum has little do with the plastics, metals, and glass in the vehicle. Best case scenario which is RATHER RISKY in my opinion because of thermal fracture possibilities would be a 5% ceramic which blocks as much light at IR as possible. This option would ruin your visibility thru said glass roof kinda negating the reason for it. Plus the risk of thermal fracture and the cost of replacing said glass roof makes this decision quite a quandary. Good luck and I hope it doesn't shatter. The perforated vinyl will do very little to fix your problem other than obscuring vision and holding water.

To add to what @TintDudesaid,,, @GiftBobson since this is an off-roading video, this is more than likely a windshield protectant film that does actually go on the outside. It is not for normal vehicles and is sort of like the paint protection film you see on peoples hoods and fenders. Normal window tint goes on the inside of the vehicle so the elements of weather do not destroy the film. Also part of the joke here is the fact they installed it horribly in the outdoors.

The pics look like this is a Tesla so the rear glass would have to be a 60" piece to be able to do that in one piece. If I am correct and it is a Tesla @TrojanGoose I would have them remove the rear glass and not re-tint it unless they can do the whole thing in one piece. Tesla's have a reputation for "thermal fracture" due to the longe curved design of that rear glass. Tinting only half the glass could possibly cause it to crack.