civicrice

you have to come up with scenarios that would make it plausible.  there are scratches on glass that can't be seen until they are tinted. I see it all the time and even worry I will be blamed. the majority of the cutting i do is on the peel board to avoid any problems that relate to this. 

did the customer expect zero contamination with that price? 

I used the ceramic 40 on my dads cobalt 9 years ago. it still looks good. no adhesive failure. If i ever decided to switch over geoshield would be an option i would look into. 

2 hours ago, clear solutions said:

This is a great film. The adhesive is just the right amount of aggressiveness. Super clarity by the way.. Looking forward to bringing this into my daily lineup! 

nice! how does it compare to xpel and the other big names? I'm undecided between madico and global. 

adhesive promoter?

shouldn't be too bad. They have a 10 year warranty on it which leads me to believe its a stout film. have you had any samples of it? wondering how much orange peel it has. 

14 hours ago, supamaka18 said:

New to this forum, need some help comparing a few quotes for a 2020 Toyota Avalon. Got my Avalon mid November last year. It's a dark amber brown exterior and cognac leather interior, it's the original leather so need to get my car tinted as I live in Sacramento and the summers here get really hot. I can already feel my car getting hotter although it's not even Spring yet. 

 

Now coming to the tint options itself, I got a few quotes and was deciding between two of them. Hoping someone could suggest what's the best one to go with out of the options I have based on your experience. I am trying to seek as many opinions as possible to do my own research and finalize on one of them. The quotes are for both front and rear windows.

 

Option 1: 

GeoShield Ceramic - $500

 

Option 2: 

American Standard Window Film(Ceramic) - $400 

 

Option 3: 

Vortex Solar Guard - $600 

 

Please let me know what you think of the above quotes and which one you think is the best one to go with. 

solar guard should work .

2 hours ago, Jerry Hernandez said:

If its an A8, definitely your sweeps. Roll your windows all the way down, pull back the sweep that touches the inside of the glass, if you don't see felt, that's the problem.  You need to take your car to get the felt added on.

scratches were on the outside

5 hours ago, Justint said:

My lighting around the shop isn’t great at all. So I’m trying different things the only problem is getting the light to show the bubbles which is a bit frustrating. 

the closest i've come to being able to see bubbles is using a daylight spectrum flood lamp on a light bulb holder (the ones with a single aluminum hood shielding). then angling and adjusting it with one hand to be able to inspect the entire glass. i had to do this to accommodate tint jobs late into the night. 

On 1/26/2021 at 5:25 PM, aquarian said:

 

Here you go.  The same type of scratches on the rear glass, but no deep ones like the side windows.

Is it time to hang up the pouch? I think i've seen it all at this point. From issues with water frying pricey electronics on door panel switches ( new range rovers), frying computers on rear decks (new Mercedes), and faulty brittle defroster lines (I've seen it on jeeps, chrysler, and Buick), the delicate U.V. coating on the newer Lexus and Toyotas, and now your telling me that plastic can scratch glass?! it seems like doing cars is starting to be a liability, regardless of safety measures.  To the OP, thanks for posting this. will keep an eye out for these Audis. 

wrap institute has a vid on it

in defense of the tinter it might have looked good fresh.  definitely get it redone. they shouldn't hassle you about it either. 

I low key want a stainless steel keg pressurized sprayer. hoping somebody has been listening to my complaints about my spray bottles this summer lol 

On 3/14/2017 at 4:51 AM, Jake said:

I have had this happen a couple times also. Luckily they were for the dealership and they took care of it. Now I am very careful with the amount of water I use. I put paper towels in the bottom to soak up water when squeegeeing. Then I use a hard card and paper towel to push the water out of the film to the side letting the paper towel soak up the water best as possible. Have not had a problem sense. I do a decent amount of them 

if that worked for you, one should be good using a water wick then? 

On 12/3/2020 at 6:14 AM, Bham said:

 

   This,,, this is what I am currently doing and it's about to kill me.     

I would love to hire someone but training is so expensive on the backend and they usually leave after a year anyway.  

Finding an experienced tinter who is honest and not methed out and won't rob you blind is hard.  

The ones who are good are usually happy where they are and don't ever leave,,,,,

the ones that jump from shop to shop are tough to tell and you just hope you don't get one of those. 

 

edited to say that I only do 3 cars a day and some sets of doors every day.  4 cars is tough unless they are easy.   :tired 

I won't train someone for the fact that i have never worked at a shop that hasn't created their own competitors. I have worked along side meth heads though, fun times. 

That will cure. May I suggest you give the yellow sledgehammer squeegee a shot from pro gasket tools.  Best squeegee I have used that gets damn near all the water out with one pass. 

gross or profit? 

you figure $300 a car  is $210 after you pay Biden his cut -$30 in material - $45 (roughly) for overhead= $135 net profit

you do 100 full cars a month on the good season (700 for 7months) and 300 cars on slow season (5 months worth of cars)= 1,000 cars a year 

$135 x 1,000 cars= $135,000 I didn't include insurances and based the shop rent at about $1,000 a month. 

totally doable for a 1 man op but the stress can be devastating. 

just depends if there is any tint shops around you and the level of income the population around you gets. if you live in a poverty stricken area you might have to trade tint for food stamps. 

busier seasons 5 to 8 a day

thanks ryker, I was referring to the roll up windows. I'll try that out for the back window though. 

I was doing a time study on my tinting technique and I'm curious to see how many of you guys smooth the film (with a softer squeege or pass) before you really lock it down with a hard pass. I'm trying to cut time down without sacrificing quality. 

interesting to read the customers perspective on situations like this. 3m crystalline is notoriously difficult to install, your windshield might just be that get right after 5 attempts piece of glass. considering the cost of materials it sounds like the shop doesn't want to keep wasting film, thus the previous subpar installs.

bump

NT blades are sharp as Sh!t. I had an unused pack that i got a year ago and had to use it because my olfa ran out. I can double cut with ease and rarely have to go over cuts when doing back  windshields. For some reason though i can't get a crisp cut on the top door edges. they are jagged and feel rough. I use the olfa for the top edge on rolls downs. 

its crap tint.  In my opinion any film that can last at least 5 years is solid enough but 2 to 3 years is to soon. I've been using global for 10 years no problems.