Tint Slayer

yeah, I just had to change a few things up this year. I'm getting old and I was realizing how much more time it was taking me to remove and re install seals and door panels especially on certain types of vehicles. It only makes sense to charge a little bit extra for the time it takes to do the job you want to do it. Even an extra 25.00 to yank seals out that only takes an extra 2-5 minutes can help out in paying over head and stuff like that in the long run. sometimes I will charge an extra 50.00 - 100.00 for door panel removal and reinstall, all it comes down to is how much longer is it going to take you and charge accordingly. 
 
I even have large wall stopwatch clocks mounted in my bay to time my jobs. If someone is only paying me for an hour and a half of my time then I definitely keep an eye on the clock and make sure I get it out the door within that time they are paying me for. I'm busy enough so I don't need to be bending over backwards for cheap customers anymore and spending twice as long on their vehicles than what they are paying me for while they sit and wait then have the nerve to keep asking me how much long longer until it's done. so annoying. 

The 80 and now 86 are the only two available. IDK if the others are just available oversees or what but you definitely can't find it through distributors here. I called around last year to dragon, express, and solar control. 

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. 

@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. 
 

In large markets, new construction is utilizing incredibly high quality glass, And in some small markets as well. The new building codes are soon going to mandate efficiency levels from glass / window manufacturers that can only be met by utilizing triple pane glass. This eliminates an enormous number of the films that can be installed on the inside. Add to all this, ...because all these are so efficient ..showing a ROI to energy companies or building owners...that will be in the 50-100 year range.. is not attractive. Now... more trouble.. glass manufacturers are coming out with lowE4 or 6 units that you simply can not install any film on the inside period. And let's not forget that film costs are rising and film mfrs like to wheel out their newest and greatest ceramic bla bla bla pixy dust bla bla bla 3.00 psf hocus pocus whatever... "new" film......well as these windows get better..energy efficiency gets better.. energy costs are going down in many cases..that absolutely kills ROI for large projects. .. this will be the case in the next 5-10 years... and if you don't want to hang Film on the exterior of buildings... find another line of work.. 

That's the most polite way to put that a film sucks
 

That's apart of the sales rep training program.

Strange.....when I had problems with curl and Eastman films....they said they never had anyone else complain..and I was the only one.....lol

Just out of curiosity why the switch? I've heard good things about Xpel's film. Sorry I don't have any insight on the curling issue as I've never used Llumar beyond a sample. 

And why did he paste the part about the world's fastest window cleaner??
 
 

I used to pull seals out and remove panels on pretty much everything, now I offer the customer to do the installation one or two ways, top load or bottom load. They are gonna pay me more for any removal and reinstall but get a way higher quality job with less prone to peeling. If they want to be cheap then so be it. I tuck it and out the door it goes. No warranty for peeling from the bottom and if there's a little extra dirt in the installation or creases from doing the tucking method then you get what you pay for. time is money, if anything peels from the bottom I charge a fee for doing it the way I wanted to do it the first time. No more free bee's around here.

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. 

Yep, any thread thats about being over a tool or technique thats me!!

Kinda odd the original poster being the owner of Fusion tools and creator of the Orange Crush would ask that. 

Makes me think of how many tool purchases i make just to mix it up a little, even when a tool is working decent.

Makes me think of how many tool purchases i make just to mix it up a little, even when a tool is working decent.

made the post and never active again
 

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/the-daily-disney/os-ae-spirit-airlines-disney-dumbo-livery-20190306-story.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
 

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. 

www.dragondistributing.com

@flat rock stan

Tension in the film and like highplains said moisture on that bottom seal. If you've got one that's border line and you put the seal back in wet guaranteed to pop a finger 

How you squeegee on first pass cant create fingers at the bottom. Squeegeeing along the entire top edge in one pass can create fingers in bottom.  For these I first make a horizontal pass a bit lower not following the top edge, then squeegee the rest of the top edge after.  This stretches the top straight out to the sides, reducing fingers at the bottom edge, especially if you sqeegee the bottom similar. I learned this years and years on the tintdude forum.  Its basically how you sqeegee for FG. 

A couple things that come to mind are not having the lower portion stretched as tight as the top and the lower seal holding moisture against the bottom edge of the film not allowing it to fully tack.

Carpet protection film, also good for back decks, you can probably find cheaper than this one-
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071WD4NLR/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_wbAwCb2G2TJFK