civicrice

some like the 350z have a button on the door jam. i use clamps for those. 

12 hours ago, MR ANDERSON said:

were less then a mile away from another xpel dealer so i'm guessing you'll be fine

awesome! is there a buy in amount? must I get Xpel certified before becoming a dealer? 

klingon tint is the best bang for the buck!

on a more serious note. express window films seems to be the go to for online purchasing. 

looking into getting xpel training and doing basic ppf installs.  There is an authorized dealer in the same town.  Do they usually limit the number of dealers for an area? 

On 5/7/2020 at 5:58 PM, Tint Eastwood said:

DR-25, they like it so much I’m headed back tomorrow to do the downstairs. 

is that suntek?

On 5/31/2020 at 8:28 AM, Lucas M said:

I’ll try that. I don’t mind practicing. It just hurts a little when you are wasting 6ft of tint at a time lol. This also wasn’t the best choice for a first windsheild to learn on. Thanks!

even after 10 years of tinting some windows will make you feel like a newb. Just a few weeks ago i did a 80' camero back glass that I got right after the 5th try.  that was a 70 inch pull each time! after the third time I figured I was already invested and was willing to sacrifice my fresh roll of limo to do it in one piece lol a few failed attempts were due to jagged cuts, film not wanting to lay, and the worst one was when the film rolled up and stuck to itself as i was peeling it.  

thanks for the pics! I ended up ordering 2 rolls of luxe. my distributor suggested I post heat the whole light at 180 to 200 degrees. That's a step i did not take with my previous installs. I think heating the whole light should bring out any air pockets from un-squeegeed areas.  

what is your go to squeegee and buffer when working with luxe? 

2 hours ago, DynamicATL said:

 

The Neo Chrome stuff is the same cheap crap on eBay called Chameleon. We installed a bunch of it along with the other patterns and they tend to delaminate in under a year...it is garbage. I am not sure about their regular colors but would assume it comes from the same manufacturer in China.

 

2 hours ago, DynamicATL said:

 

The Neo Chrome stuff is the same cheap crap on eBay called Chameleon. We installed a bunch of it along with the other patterns and they tend to delaminate in under a year...it is garbage. I am not sure about their regular colors but would assume it comes from the same manufacturer in China.

 

i like the way the luxe looks.  I did a set of truck and cadillac cts headlights (the ones with sharp edges) both looked good I went over the whole whole light with heat after to look out for bubbles that might come up. none did, but after 3 months both came back they had a bunch of tiny air blisters.  my only thought is maybe i didn't get all the air out with my squeegeee patterns.  luxe is great but I cant be redoing lights all the time lol. looking into trying out the dragon laminates glossy light and dark black though. 

fun. fun. fun. all films are different but keeping your heat gun moving steadily and swiftly as you watch the film shrink helps.  take a scrap and see how much heat your film can take before it burns up. learn how the film behaves before it it burns up and adjust your gun movements accordingly.  other than that because you are new all i can say is ; practice , practice , practice.  its going to get easier. 

Hi guys about 10 years ago i was using oracal 8300 to do tailights and headlights.  however it has its limitations and its a WET install film.  this last year i dipped into using the luxe and vivvid Dry install films. Both look good and installed with ease however i've had issues with longevity.  I had oracal on my car for over 6 years and it looked good till the day i steamed it off to reveal a brand new looking head light and tailight.  with the luxe and vivvid (made the mistake of using on a customer cars) i'm getting bubbles months later with the luxe and crazy lifting on the edges with the vivvid.  I think maybe the air release techmology just isn't there yet?  

i'm looking to add more options for headlights and tailights other than the middle and dark gray that oracal offers.  do you guys have any recommendations? thank you. 

4 hours ago, Ryker said:

I don't vary my slip mix.  I use film on.

 

I have a small bottle with a heavy slip mix that I use to aid when I need extra. I especially use it on the sides of roll down windows to keep from grabbing.

film on diluted per instructions on the bottle? 

every year when the hot weather and high humidity starts to roll around my blood boils as I try to find the right amount of baby shampoo and water ratio for automotive tinting.  like today the solution worked fine yesterday but the film just tacked right up today creating creases and endless fingers. just wanted to see if any you guys had a favorite formula or product that works for you during the summer months. 

global is the shizz.!

did you use a water wick? 

just out of curiosity how much cheaper (percentage wise) will these "cheap custos" installations be compared to your normal lifetime warranty work? 

so if i was to spray the back glass to prep and noticed the lines coming off am i expected to take the hit and pay for the backglass replacement? 

i too have a spraymaster graveyard. they spray half ass'd im thinking one day i will find a way to fix them lol

this kind of reminds of the audi s4's from like 10 years ago.  tinters were frying modules left and right. 

45 deg. stainless steel should do the trick

good look'n out!

it might have been something the installer thought was no big deal. since there isn't a light gap. haven't it redone shouldn't be a big deal for them. 

there goes our jobs

walmart

The tinters I have met and worked with over the years that own their own business, the ones that do both auto and flat glass wish they only did flat because of the HUGE profit margins. The ones that only did automotive look at it as a PITA.  I enjoy both but sometimes you hit them jobs were the wooden window frames are dry rotted and it feels like your on your fifth el camino for the day, but your only half way done. Makes you question your life choices. 

On 4/23/2020 at 7:29 PM, Guest Michael said:

If you are used to Carbon or CXP the CIR film from SunTek will feel totally blue in the 35% range. It’s a good film, I think performance for the price is very competitive. But it’ll be bluer than you think. One of the reasons we switched to Xpel (admittedly a small portion of the reason) we just were not 100% loving the hues of the SunTek films. Carbon in my opinion was the most neutral. CXP got more green-y, and CIR could have been sold as a blue-black film if they had wished to brand it that way. 

how are the hues for the xpel film. from some pictures i have seen xpels looks more blue than anything. The CXP is definetely on the green side i  remember a customer wanting to match his vw tiguan fronts to the back and we ended up using the cxp 35% to match the green hues lol