DynamicATL

I like to say anything is possible, but I haven't seen one yet. Once film is exposed to the air, you are going to get something on there. Not to mention film can come with specs from the manufacturer. We let the customer know real world expectations straight from the jump. If they insist they have received or can receive a perfect tint job, we let them know we are not the shop for them. Then once they find that shop to please bring the vehicle to us once it dries so we can point out all the imperfections. Only had two people take me up on it and both times were embarrassed when we found over 10 problems each job. It is like when someone comes in with a new vehicle and they insist their vehicle is perfect because it is new. Cool, let's go walk the car together then their jaw drops when we point out scratches, defects in paint, scratches on glass, etc. I love walking the Tesla Model 3 since it has the worst quality paint job I've ever seen from a manufacturer.

3M Crystalline in the 20/40 shades, also believe some of the Global films have a brownish hue. Some vehicles come with brownish glass so you could just be seeing that or the combination of the two.

Absolutely, not everyone is going to want to pay for a full wrap. I just don't see the point of paying a few hundred dollars to still have a good portion of your front-end exposed from a personal perspective. It is like someone only doing sunblock on their nose but let the rest of their face get burned. I wished I took a photo but we had an Acura MDX in the shop today that had a partial PPF removed on the hood/fenders. Now part of his hood looks brand new while the rest looks extremely faded.

I can give some advice but would probably be wrong. 🤣 I do the complete front clip on my vehicles with wrapped edges plus the side mirrors and door cups. I honestly don't see the point in doing partial installs.

Our goal is to complete a vehicle in 2 hours or less on all cars/trucks/suvs. We found this is our sweet spot to ensure we are turning out top-quality work and not rushing/stressing anyone which keeps everyone safer. We usually finish a little early and on some easier vehicles 30-45 minutes earlier. That extra time is great for cleaning the area, prepping for the next vehicle, or just taking a nice break. It is all about finding the balance that works for you. Some people want to knock out 8+ cars a day which is great if you want to stack up and retire early. However, if your still doing it when you were older, you got to ask was all that extra work killing yourself worth it? I see plenty of tinters focus on speed but being fast does not equal a good tinter. The only tinter that we ever hired that was speed focused had been around since the late 80's and was by far the worst tinter I've even seen in person. Now if it is taking someone 4 hours, then yes, work on that speed. 🤣🤣 Does your shop have cameras? I would watch a video of you tinting to see your movement. It will be much easier this way to see if you're being efficient or are you touching an area too many times or too much walking around. Like do you set your spray bottle on a table that you have to walk back/forth too. Basically, see if there is anything in your process you can minimize or cutout.

@Naples Tint Company uses it quite a bit along with Huper Optik.

I looking at adding 5% to my lineup but want something that the "5% crowd" will be happy with as far as darkness. I've seen photos of Llumar CTX/IRX in 5% and I can still see in some and didn't know if it metered lighter out the box. Anyone do the new 3M Ceramic IR in the 5%?

QDP and ATC are both entry-level window films from quality manufacturers. Just go with the shop that will do the best installation.

We use the same card in the link below with the edge wrapped in felt to prevent scratches but a lot of it just done with fingers. Yes, the heating afterwards is important to lock it into place. https://www.luxeautoconcepts.net/collections/installation-accessories/products/oracal-grey-medium-stiffness-squeegee

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.

Lamin-X

Luxe

Oracal 8300

We've used Oracal 8300, Luxe, Vivvid, and Lamin-X. Oracal 8300 installation is the easiest but IMO looks the worst out of all the options. It just looks cheap installed, doesn't really add to the appearance of the vehicle. Maybe it is not glossy enough or too thin not allowing the color to stand out. We have never installed it and was like damn, that looks good. Luxe and Vivvid used to be the same film...Luxe now has a new version that is unique to them while Vivvid is still the same old film. We mainly use Luxe now since the newer quality is better than Vivvid but we still have some Vivvid in certain colors that are not available anymore with Luxe. IMO, Luxe is going to be the best overall film since it adds a luxury look to the vehicle but still thin enough to shape to most lights. Lamin-X is the best quality hands down. However, it is extremely thick (over twice the thickness of Luxe) so you are limited to easier lights. This is a problem since newer vehicles tend to have more difficult lights, so Lamin-X would be useless for many applications. The only thing I didn't like about Lamin-X was their headlight shades look a little purplish when the headlights were turned on. As far as the issues you are having, I am not sure what is causing that. We have been using Luxe for over 2 years and Vivvid for over 1 year with none of those issues. If you haven't tried the newest version of Luxe, I would highly recommend it. I added photos of each film below for anyone wondering what each film looks like installed.

Yes, only option is to remove the film and don't tint the windshield. I would personally give it a month since you might get used to it. Also, cheap sunglasses that are polarized tend to have poor optical clarity which could make the situation worse. I only wear polarized sunglasses from Maui Jim or Costa Del Mar and I have no issue with the windshield being tinted. Even when I wore cheaper Ray-Ban sunglasses, I didn't have an issue.

As already said, polarized glasses is the reason you see this...will be the same on all films. When you are wearing polarized sunglasses, the surface blocks the glare by filtering out the horizontal light waves that don't fit through the chemical laminate pattern. If you look at your phone or LED TV, tilt your head right and left...you will notice the screen will become completely black when wearing polarized lenses.

Check out Express, good quality with low prices.

https://aequalityfilm.com/

Just looking at the film options, Global will be the best option...Solar Gard will be the second best. Llumar along with other big brands are not sold online anywhere. The stuff you see on eBay is Chinese/Korean junk films that they are selling as "Llumar"...the only way to get Llumar would be to drive to a dealer. With that being said, remember installation is key. You can select the best film but if the installation is trash, the result is trash.

Someone else asked about it several months ago, don't think anyone on here uses it. As I said on that thread, probably not a good sign that the film is sold on Amazon.

You might already be on the forum, but some examples here... https://www.subaruoutback.org/threads/window-tint.520738/

If your wanting the closest shade to match the rear doors, a 25-30% will give you the best match. As for the color, does your stock glass have any blue or green hue to them? This will help narrow down a film since they all have their own look. However, there is nothing you can do to make it match from the inside looking outward. It is two different technologies, so it will always be noticeably different. The best you can hope for is matching as close as possible from the outside looking inward. Since Outbacks are not an everyday vehicle we do, I can't remember how the stock glass looks and the video doesn't really help much besides showing the stock VLT/shade.

Yeah, that is the problem with dealerships, as soon as you get anything done to your vehicle they want to void warranties. We had an issue with a Honda dealership when my wife took her new Honda HRV in for a dying battery. They instantly blamed the led lights and remote starter system for draining the battery even though this is a common issue. Cool, we told them we would take everything out to see if it still persists even though I knew that had nothing to do with it. The next day I was taking it to the shop, I noticed the gauge cluster was milky looking and fogged up. When we pull it out, they clearly dropped it and super glued it back together. There was two brackets glued back on, glue was all along the seam where the front/back of the cluster meet, etc. We took it back with everything removed, the battery issue still there, and now with this new issue. They tried to blame the shop (they didn't know I own the shop) saying that we had to tap into the back of the cluster. That's when I go from 0-100 quickly since that is completely false since it was only a remote starter add-on and speed is now tracked through GPS, so need to hook up a speed sense wire. We ended up going through 3 different bosses for them to finally admit they probably broke it and they replace it. Now she is not comfortable taking it back to them and looking to trade it in on something that is not a Honda.

Honestly, I would bet the tint shop is correct and it was defective from the start. This is not uncommon, many models are bad for this...you can literally wipe a micro fiber across the defroster lines and move them. There have been threads on here about Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Porsche having this issue. Personally, if we caught this before tinting it, we would not cover it. It would need to be covered by the dealer since it is most likely defective glass.

It needs to be redone, no reason for a gap.