I am in the exact same boat.
Wanting to tint my own cars and I am a DIY person.
I spent hours and hours on youtube looking at how others do it, and tools they use. Window tinting is a very small toolset.
I went ahead and just purchased all the tools and tint I needed to do my own cars. then the extra will be used for friends and family cars, either free or cover the cost of materials to get my money back.
I did the following
- purchased tools from about 3 different places. a few cheap items on amazon, rest at SolControl, NDGraphics and 44tools ( which i wont order from again... ) I am in canada, so going across boarder is a pain with taxes and duty.
- I already had a heat gun.
- i got : P2 sprayer, various squeegees and cards, blades, knife.
- i ordered one roll of 5% Suntek, split roll cut in 24" and 36" .
Then, just went to town on my daughters car. first window ( the small 1/4 glass ), took me about 8 tries.
try - check, peal and re-do.
not much to it.
Rear window was the hardest... mostly because of contamination. took me 3 tries. it's not 100%. there are a couple flaws with some debris. but, for her car, she is very happy with it.... except I only see the flaws when I look at it.
To start off, with the tools and 1 full roll of tint cost me about $550 .
i have since gotten a second roll of 35%.
Now, it's just a matter of going a few cars for $50 - $75 to recover some cost.