civicrice

9 hours ago, Dano said:

Start charging for what you can do reliably and stand behind your final product. Also get whatever is the going market rate for your area. Discount nothing except multi car and fleet volume with a signed work order. MTRX has a good scheduling and billing app, expensive, but good.

 

Careful on the windshields, they can cost you a fortune if something inside the dash decides to stop working. Most customers are too arrogant to believe that water and electronics are a bad mix...because they "never had that happen before" and they always "know a guy".

 

Check out the thread "peanut killer" for defrost tacking.

 

Congrats on sharpening a new skill set.

curious as to what a fair discount would be for volume work. 

so you wipe the glass down with the rapid tack right? not use it as a slip for the tint. 

majestic cranberry

10 hours ago, DynamicATL said:

There is no such thing. Window film naturally looks clearer/lighter when looking out versus outside looking inside. However, the darker the film, the less visibility you will have looking out. Looking at one of his videos, the side window looks pretty clear because it is a sunny day, which allows it to look lighter since there is more light outside of the vehicle. The same way you can do 15% on your home but at night with interior lights, it looks like there is virtually no tint. Also, when looking at his video, you can easily see the side windows are much darker than the windshield when he pans around the interior. So no magic, no new technology, just a sales gimmick for an Amazon-quality film with some idiots believing you can install a 5% film but have 90% clarity looking out. Regarding Carbon Ceramic, I do not know of a quality brand that makes it. Many cheaper films add Carbon to their Ceramic films to make them color-stable. Adding Carbon is much cheaper for small manufacturers to make a color-stable film versus the standard dyed process. Only the big boys (Eastman/Garware/3M) have the money and technology to use the dyed method to make a truly color-stable film. If these small manufacturers tried this, their films would turn purple and fade quickly.

he did a few vids of a 15% windshield at night during the rain. i will admit it was pretty convincing. back in the day i tried the flex film carbon line and did notice a difference in clarity compared to other films. when i put their carbon 5% next to globals qdp. it was easier to see out of  the flex film. i appreciate the response. its going to be a PITA explaining all this to those customers though lol 

I've been having customers call for tint then asking if i do the tint that you cant see in but can see out ? they describe it as a tint that can be dark as a limo but easy to see out similar to OEM tinted glass. Anyone heard of this? something about a carbon/ceramic , ceramic.  I do keep having a "gabes detailing shop" guy come up on my instagram feed. He shows off this magical tint and when I commented about it he just says its a 100% ceramic with 99% IR rejection. doesn't mention what brand or anything like that. can't find any reputable carbon film suppliers that are worth stocking aside from maybe flex film (newer stuff held up for 7 years on baby mammas whip).  judging from his other videos seems like he uses lexen's carbon and ceramic lines. Thats an iffy brand IMO but i heard about it over a decade ago and its still going so has to be decent. another thing that led to lexen is he did a windshield in 25%. 25% is a unicorn percentage and lexen does make it.  Any tips that point to where i can find this magical tint will be greatly appreciated. thanks. 

madicos optivision line is the best ive seen. 

dang i just tinted one two weeks back yikes! didn't know about any issues with those. roped and dash toweled it like any other windshield. no problems yet. the customer is returning the car because its a lemon. so not really worried at this point lol 

global has been on my autie's whip since 2011. in socal. still looks the same. no fading or bubbling. i was dumbfounded when i visited this summer. the same day the global was installed i put charcool by madico on a different car. there was adhesive failure on the back glass but the color was  still there, 

this forum prevented me from attempting a mirror removal on those trucks. i have always cut around and slit on top. no complaints. on a side note i have bumped mirror on a cherokee with my shoulder reaching for a tool. cracked that shield down the middle. 

15 hours ago, Cooltimes said:

Who has used scorpion films and if so which ones. 

i use their 0% for the limo tint fanatics. its really thin though and has given me issues with a few peel ups. 

anyone done the panoramic roofs on one of these? is it save to use a dark film? im just trying to avoid  any thermal stress facture incidents. 

7 hours ago, Tintguy1980 said:

Dano, this caught my eye and reminded me of the early days ... well, five years in should I say.

Me and my crew began doing tint tattoos for any glass back in the mid-80's. We used overhead projectors to enlarge-to-fit any picture a person brought us. It started by tracing a pic's lines with super fine sharpie onto liner material (we saved liner when doing large commercial glass for this purpose). Film would be installed, liner taped to the other side and begin cutting away unnecessary film to achieve the end goal. Layering in colors, if they wanted it in color.

 

I've attached a couple 3 pictures showing the liner trace of one particular picture somebody was interested in, an entry door to a radio station in Estero FL and one with all of us pictured at window film art tint-off held in Orlando by Gila Films. We took first place in both auto and flat glass categories, blowing everyone else out of the water to the extent we were not invited back unless we bought their film.

 

Oddly, we eventually heard about a guy in Tampa doing the same type film art of commercial glass. His company was Solar Graphics and was sold to Solar Gard a few years later. I think Richard, the owner, was working for SG after the sale.

 

Fun days for sure. The picture with the three of us, well, I'm the long drink of water, Lee with his submission to the contest (we lost Lee a couple years ago) and Donna, who tagged team with me on the Blazer's back glass.

I'm mind blown. how ... just how?  can you make a youtube tutorial? 

16 hours ago, no ma'am said:

Been awhile, still got it. 

I have a client who has one that is already tinted but has lots of air in the dotrix. he would like to save it. any ideas on how to re-glue the dotrix and make it look uniform without having to redo it?

20% is a common oem shade that comes with any privacy glass (trucks vans etc).  its just right as far as seeing at night for most peeps. 

genius!

here i thought i had it bad. my new jaguar v plotter stops half way through a cut. haven't touched it in months. i would loose my cool if an entire roll got ran through at high speed lol 

your car had previous tint on it. installer was probably unaware of the glue residue  and more than likely uses the "new age" cleaning style of using safe plastic scrapers/ scrubby pads instead of the old school masculine steel razor blades. they should have no  problem redoing it for you

thats like early 2000's pricing. 

3 hours ago, Tintbox said:

Just wanted to say Hi! I'm a longtime tinter and lurker. This site has always been informative. I was just wondering why there aren't to many post's. I'm guilty of not posting as well! I upgraded my membership a couple of weeks ago as well. Thank you!

i believe all the tinters from the past have retired. 

looking for a material that offers maximum glare reduction (tv in the sunroom) and is safe to use on low e glass. I am looking at using madico's optivsion 15 reflective but still iffy about potential thermal fractures. 

that looks like a mighty fine job to me....

if it was tinted outdoors

yeah by looking at the pics it appears to be f'd. but you can just let it dry and check on it in a week too. 

covid

tried lining the edge to the tick marks?