Sunbreakers

Nevermind...Originally didn´t see this thread was now 4 years old...Moving on. 

22 hours ago, Tint Eastwood said:

I do the modified hybrid wipe.  

 

Paper towel and finger wipe in one pass, less lint & debris on the squeeg.  

I used to love the paper towel wipe..problem is the quality of paper towels these days......you can´t trust the amount of lint they put off or in my case anyway. 

3 minutes ago, Tint Slayer said:

 

How do the other ice cool grey VLT's look? they all blue-ish down to the 40% or are any truly grey?

 

I feel like i'm way to hung up on hue sometimes. I've held up 2 pieces of films (greenish and bronzeish hue) to people and asked which they like better and every one tells me whichever makes me more money. I think we care more than they do.

So true about we notice more than they do....I can´t speak about the other Ice Kool VLT´s. the 80 is all that is carried by the distributor...or at least that I am aware of. The color vs. money argument is a fine line..I think we are more hung up on shade because usually cheap = awful color and you have to be careful that a customer can visualize his entire car done in a particular film..I remember we once had a discussion on this board where we were talking about film colors and someone remarked that their ideal coloration is a "grey" Turns out Llumar has exactly that coloration across most of their shades and lines. Global to me had a more "bronzy" look across the line except for the QDP 15 and 4% which are very different colors from the rest and the 70 and 80 percentages. I have friends who use solar guard and ASWF and their complaint is the 5% is either purple or blue. I even had a friend come and get some global 4% from me to redo an entire car simply because the customer did not like solar guard 5% and they demanded it be changed...Not sure I would be willing to go that far for an illegal shade, but to each his own. 

59 minutes ago, highplains said:

 

 

Have any of you guys tried the 80%? If so how does it compare in appearance? 

The 80% Ice Kool is definitely a LLumar Air 80 cousin. Looks blue like the llumar..thicker..but very similar...Strangely I find it to be a little less "sticky" than the the QDP but am told its my imagination. It is definitely a little more blue than the llumar. 

I think the QDP 70% is great to have available and looks good once installed without being able to really notice the coloration...just like the blue 80% films...but for some reason people are discouraged more so it seems. 

@Apex TintDo you find customers tend to complain about the color of the QDPC 70%? I have it on my sample board along with all the other Global shades and it almost appears to have a greenish hue or even a "Kakhi" color as some have called it. I have a hard time selling it because of the coloration I find at times. Just curious about your experience. 

Sure...I understand. There are different approaches to this..One of my installers will squeegee and leave streaks...not a big deal to him. Me personally I squeegee with enough force to completely remove all traces of liquid on the window leaving it dry. I start at the top and work down towards the bottom and depending on the window I usually try to cover as best I can and then finish the sides once I have completed everything easily accessible though again it depends on the specific vehicle and particular window. 

@whitehog sells solar fx and Global. Those are great films. You also have Express window films. Great folks. Both of them are sponsors of this site. 

Another big helping factor is squeegeeing the window twice. That makes a big difference. 

3 hours ago, ericferguson8 said:

Hey guys,

 

I'm trying to decide between these shades for my full windshield, I've had 50% in the past on this truck (2017 Ram) and I absolutely loved it.  But the cops sure didn't, it wasn't overly noticeable with factory tint matching but once I went dark (double 15% fronts, 5% over 20% rear) it looked pitch black from the front.  I wish 60% was an option but its either 50% or 70%.  I know 70% is practically transparent but would it add a little shade since I'm running dark tint all around?  50% didn't hinder night driving at all and it added a lot more comfort in the cab, I'm wondering if 70% is a waste or not.  Both pics have 50% on the shield, just with different tint set ups. 

 

Thanks!

My vote would be to actually tint the side front door windows to something more reasonable. 2x 15% is just simply irresponsible and unsafe as that would be darker than even 5% and while it might look "cool" it is these types of installs that attract more attention to all of us who tint and/or have it. At that darkness the cops are going to notice, as they should, anything on the windshield as that contributes to the whole package. 

I used the clear max and felt I wasn't getting enough water out of windows. I then went to the Orange Crush just to not use a blue max and have other installers take my handle and not bring it back. Then I went back to the blue max wanting something harder. Blue max would get nicked up quicker than orange crush. I went to the red line and loved it, but it was worse than the blue max so I am now back at the orange crush and I love it. Just my evolution. 

I agree with the opinions...However, this is a loyal frequent return customer..I really didn't know how to handle this one I have to admit.. If this had been a one time customer, then I would have been less likely to have done anything about it, but given the strange circumstance I simply did what I thought necessary. Already had a referral from them that almost covered the windshield cost so eventually I will make up the expense. 

If I am seeing the picture correctly, that crack is on the inside and not the outside correct? If so that really sucks as that leaves you on the line for a replacement. I can count on less than 5 fingers the glass I have broken in 32 years, but the other day we did a windshield on a Honda Odyssey and a week later it comes back with a broken windshield on the inside and broken in an absolute circle..a perfect circle as if I had put a gigantic coin on the inside and traced around it. I had to replace it as I couldn't come up with an explanation as to why or how. 

Signwarehouse also offers the Q series Vinyl Express plotters which are a graphtec plotter but their own brand. Price may be close to graphtec, but worth checking out. Call them and ask for Katie Zinck...ext 2140. 

4 hours ago, pbalentine said:

Klingon is the best film...performance specs are 100% across the board. They also have a new plotter coming out that shrinks everything as it cuts! BTW they make all the above films mentioned. 

Wow, can it tint the window too? That would be awesome. 

Whitehog sells solar FX, as seen in his avatar, and Global. Both are wonderful films and good to use as a transition to what you would use for mainstream business. I highly recommend them. 

We do a lot of PPF on different price levels of vehicles. We always stress that this is a sacrificial product meant to protect better than anything else they will find outside of leaving it in their garage. Is it perfect? No, but it is better than nothing. I don't know that it adds value so much as protection. I used to advise customers to remove prior to end of warranty and replace. That was when we had 5 year warranties...I would feel that most removals are just like tint removals...if you know what you are doing it comes off with little to no residue or problem. Body shops raise hell about tint removals...those guys have no clue what they are doing..same with PPF. The one struggle we have is most of our work is dealer work. We have some interest from outside of that, but just not that big of a market. I think when it becomes more mainstream...at least in our area, then the perceptions about it and popularity will improve as well. The dealer only side of things does make it feel more of a scam. Think of the dealer who charges $400 for tint on the front doors of an SUV. We have seen dealers get $1k for a whole hood, but they can discount down to what they actually pay us without losing anything and/or finance it into the deal so it serves a good purpose for them at least. For us it helps us keep our numbers up during slow parts of the year. Just my humble opinion. 

Ok, I"ll bite. .What is the name of this film company? What is the name of the film? Hard to help you when there is this "mystery" around who and what it is. If you really are serious about wanting help, then give us the info so we can honestly advise. However, I can tell you now....you are on the wrong path. The only thing you will accomplish with film like this is two lessons....how to put it on and how to take it off...1-3 years later I would bet. 

You get what you pay for. Cheap stuff is always good to learn on, but do yourself and the rest of us a favor and use name brand quality stuff for the public. The warranty is only as good as the dealer/distributor network. If your "friend" stops selling it is there another distributor? Solar guard and Suntek have their own horror stories though some have good experiences with them. You might try solar FX or Express window films. They are good products and known to last. You don't see or hear anything bad about those two. Plus the distributors are great folks. @whitehog sells solar fx. Hope this helps. 

Hi @mrteak. My contact's name is Katie Zink. She works for signwarehouse.com and their phone number is 800-899-5655. Her extension is 2140. You are going to want the Vinyl Express Q series 42 or 64. Be warned she has greatly disappointed me lately. Used to be you could call and get a deal off of list price on the website..Last two folks I have sent have been quoted full price blaming it on the the China tariffs. At that price you are better off buying a full brand Graphtec FC8600. Good luck and let me know what you find out. 

The fact that the HP Charcoal is known to be a poor performer and have failures would be enough for me...sort of like ASWF. If you know at least one of their lines IS going to fail that to me means none of it is worth the box it comes in. The way I understand it from some of the other old timers is SG had a good thing and then cheapened out on a key component which made it a bit grainy. Factor in the lawsuits and court mess and I would go with Solar FX or Global. You consistently hear good things and these two lines appear to be rock solid. If @smartie2shoes comes out and says he would use Global today, and you have any idea of his background, you should jump in and ask questions later. Global=Solar FX=Express by the way. 

It was off the cutterpros dot com website. The model was P1350i. It was around $1,200 and was supposedly a great machine...never worked like it should have. I mean never. Tech told me I would have to change out blades every 2-3 weeks...WTF?? I have been using the same blade in one of my machines for over 2 years. Plus tech support is mostly non-existent. I am so happy to be out of that one. 

I remember me and you both on a forum where someone was talking about using one of the Titans off the US Cutters website. The only concern I had was when he used the words "finicky" and added that at times you had to be patient with it...I wasted almost a whole roll of film if you add it all up trying to be patient with that cheap plotter I had. The good ones you load and they keep going and going. Used to you could get the Signwarehouse Q series plotters for a great price...they are the exact same machine as a graphtec FC8600...even same owners manual, but now I sent someone here to them and...they claim the tariffs have made them much more costly. Now they are just as expensive as a Graphtec..No good options now it seems. 

Don´t do it...I went with a cheap Chinese off brand plotter my tint software company said was "great" and "worked well" and such...it didn't. It was slow and loud and inconsistent. I had to send it back and pay the shipping and lost a fair amount of money with that test.  If you do this for a living you cannot go wrong with a good investment in your future. There is no such thing as "the deal" when it comes to plotters. 

Office computer chair with the back taken off. I get them free all the time as the back part is what breaks. You have a stool with a super wide seat that sits you higher up than a typical mechanic's stool and it is free. 

That tractor looks awesome tinted...I bet all of that climbing and up and down felt like a week long workout at the gym!!

@no ma'am I am just curious and gotta ask....do you ever lose any driver bits?  LOL!!