highplains

The sanding or steel wool? Or both?

I use old office chairs, still had a couple of them break over the years but they're usually pretty decent for a long time

Does it have the haze of CS?

How's the color and clarity on it? I've been pestering my rep for months and haven't been able to get much information out of them yet beyond "it's coming."

Below, my understanding is it's designed to fill the gap between Color Stable and Crystalline. There's a massive jump in price between those two.

Yep the sweeps will pull, the panel will lift off the sweep similar to the new Traverse. You need to remove the screw behind the handle, 7mm. It also helps to remove the upper trim from around the window to gain a little more clearance to the quarter window. I also trim the rubber around the quarter. Overall the quarter pushes them into "pain in the ass" territory for me but they're easy otherwise.

certainly not compared to others out there.

Your best bet if you're concerned about the hue being noticeable would be to swing by both shops and look at a sample of each in the shade you want and see what you like the best. That should also give you the chance to see some of their work in person and either confirm or question their Yelp rating. With the rest of your criteria I believe either film will likely suit your needs well.

The glass itself will pop out of the rubber gasket once removed from the door so you have 100% access to it. Makes life much easier.

Man I had a similar experience with Xpel, I reached out once and never heard back so I let it go. Fast forward a couple months and I got fed up with 3M again and reached out again and talked with a rep. Tried several samples, liked the product and was ready to switch the shop over. The rep just fell off the face of the planet, quit responding to all communication attempts. On top of that their warehouse had screwed up a couple times in getting the samples out so I just washed my hands of it. It's a shame cause I liked the product and the prices.

Just to show what I'm talking about, this is a '16 Sierra with just under 40k miles on it. It's been detailed and is considered "front line ready" for a dealership. At first glance it looks "clean" (I see a greasy, silicone armour all coated nightmare but that's a conversation for another day) This is what the seals/channels look like... After a quick wipe with a damp microfiber. This makes a world of difference in keeping your install clean. When I first got started I was trained to flush the sides and pass a hard card/bondo card/tri-edge down the seals while flushing and call it good. I fought contamination on the sides for months until I started wiping the seals as my first step when pulling a vehicle in. Hopefully you or someone else will find this helpful.

The Xpel for sure, I've sampled both films and the Xpel has a much better scratch coat.

Hard to say without pictures but from what you're describing it sounds like the film adhesive is failing and it's time to remove and replace the tint.

They've had a bunch of restrictions passed in the several years. Not as extensive as California, Illinois, or New York but more than others.

Unless it's brand new off the lot the first thing I do on any vehicle, but trucks especially, is to dampen a microfiber towel with some rubbing alcohol/water solution (20%alc) or slip solution, roll the windows down and wipe the seals out. That makes a huge difference with cutting out contamination.

Heater lines are what they are unfortunately, nothing really you can do there. As far as exterior window scratches go if you can feel it with your finger nail there's nothing you can do. They do make glass polishes and pads that can be effective on haze, water spots and the lightest scratches but it's pretty limited. You wont get very far by hand. With the replacement cost of automotive glass vs the cost of really working over a piece with a buffer it generally doesn't make financial sense to buff and polish anything beyond the superficial.

It shouldn't be, I'm sure someone out there has probably done it. If you have just a small gap Black Puffy Paint works well for that type of window so does black pinstripe tape. If you're trying to create a black border similar to factory ceramic fritt than windshield primer is the only thing that's going to come close and it's going to be a process to get it looking acceptable.

I'm betting that it's either striping tape, film opaquer, black paint or windshield primer. Looks too uneven to be the factory ceramic.

They forgot "window tinting" you better get your money back!

That definitely doesn't have anything to do with the tint or washing your truck after the tint was applied. It's hard to tell from the pictures but it also looks like it could be paint overspray in which case it can be removed with a razor blade. If it is just a dulled/hazed spot I would try having it polished with where it's located before jumping to replacement of the glass. I would make sure that whoever you have attempt it has the proper set up for polishing glass, it takes a special compound and pad.

That's one of the rare cases where having them sprayed is probably your best option. It can probably be done with film but I sincerely doubt it would be done well or in one piece.

You have to strip like half the interior to get the deck out. Tried it on the last one I did, fucked up a speaker and knocked a defroster tab off the glass putting it back in. Fuck those cars. Leave it to GM to produce what should be the easiest rear window to tint and make it a pain in the ass. Also when the deck does come out the design pisses you off even more because it's domed over the area, if GM had just put it in there flat or concave we would have all the room necessary

I did one about 6 weeks ago, the color is different for sure but it was growing on me after the tint and with all the black accents

3M Black Chrome has a similar appearance too if you can find it. The Express all metal is probably going to be the easiest to find and get ahold of though.