Chilled

Depending on your budged and access to installers. Check out Crystalline 70%. It does get a lot of hate because of the $ and difficulty in shrink.

Yep, love thy Crystalline, I have it on a couple of windshields. @mobiledynamics Nah, that was OP in his thread. I was just giving ideas on how he could try to lay it down. I'm thinking of wrapping my cars and seen that over the last couple of years, few of the brands have released some updated to the films. Was wondering how things stack up now days. In terms of installers and access, the easiest one is 3M, followed random brands, Suntek, XPEL and a distant STEK. I don't really care about the $ to performance, as I know 3M gets allot of hate been the most expensive vs the relative performance. Xpel, gets the hate based on the all or nothing contracts and in some cases having less than the best products. But I don't want to get into those arguments. All of the installers say their chosen brand is the absolute best (i'm sure they are not financially incentivized to say that). So I'm just after some feedback on how thigs are looking with these updates. The big thing for me, is rock-chip and brush past protection, long lasting/easy removal in 5yrs without damaging the paint. Ideally without introducing a fton of orange peel, or the ppf going yellow. The hydrophobics are nice, but can put ceramics on top, and I don't mind washing my car regularly.

HI Guys, Just after some thoughts and opinions on 3M's newer 200 Series PPF. I did read that it got an updated top coating that is more hydrophobic but was wondering what's the real wold feel from the pros. How is this new film stacking up against Stek's DynoSheild or xPel Ultimate. I did have a chat to a local installer that(based on the raving review is one of the best) and he said that 3M are junk and recommended Opti-Coat PPF. In the same conversation he said the same thing about 3M's tint and said that Rayno make the best film. After this, I decided to node my head, agree and thank him for his valuable time. So what are everyone's thoughts on the new 200 Series?

I have Crystalline 70 on a couple of my cars, and no issues. The day/1 after there was slight watery/ripple affect, almost like super large orange peel in paint but see through. Once it dried out, if it wasn't for a random dog hair on one(diy install my dog), you cant tell the windshield is tinted.

Out of interest, why is that? Is the product just bad quality, and what would you recommend as a better alternative. How is the newer 200 series?

I want to preface this response with, I am not a professional, I am not event an enthused/ amatuer that knows anything. I am just someone who watches a bunch of youtube, and thinks that its a cool skill to DIY/learn. To my knowledge there is no such thing as 3M VViViD, those are two separate companies. It maybe/has been made in the same factory, but the specs are completely different. The only place you see this label is in knock off ebay/amazon. So if the kit you bought off ebay is 3M VViViD, its fake. Have you tried to put in some relief cuts? I would say that if this is your first attempt, you goal should be just to get it on. Even if you have to use relief cuts, that's ok. The reason why you are getting the creases is because you are: Not using enough slip on both under the film, and on top whilst squeegeeing. ( the entire surface layer looks dry.) You squeegee way to fast. There maybe too much film to press down.( in your case it does not look like the case, just bad install technique) So try: use ALLOT, more slip for both underneath and ontop. Get a proper squeegee and loose the felt edge. (The felt stuff is for vinyl wrap, not wet ppf I would not use that hard card to do the install as it would scratch the ppf. Get one of those soft rubber squeegees.) Put in some relief cuts. ( Looking at some of pre-cut packs from like xpel, the headlights all have a relief cut in them. For the relief cuts i would say you have 2 options, either do a single horizontally on the edge to remove the excess material and flatten the top and bottom sections. Or option two, flatten out the bottom and side of the headlight and but a vertical cut a bit of the way in. And prob watch some PPF install vids.

Can give it a try. Was there anything wrong with my approach? Just thinking, could it be moisture/condensation in the air? Unfortunately the garage is having AC issues, so it gets really hot and humid in the car. To the point that when i'm squeegeeing it, the tint starts getting a blue moisture/condensation hue on it. This is on the tint side, not adhesive so it goes away the minute i squeegee it, or wipe it.

Any ideas? Was hoping to give it a try this weekend, would rather have something new to try.

Doing the centre line down fist, starting in the middle and going up, then down. From the middle going out to the side and when I get about half way, going 45° towards the corner. Then I start in this corner going up for this side moving to the centre line. So doing upwards strokes, progressing outside in. Once both lower and upper sections are done, from that middle strip, going out straight to side. The lift is usually in that triangle that I do last, at where I go 45°but usually once i go to the side on it, its down. I did try the H pattern, and had issues. Allot of lift and re-squeegeeing that led to creasing. This angle method i tried whilst I was checking the shrink on the outside and noticed that if I tried to squeegee the film down in the H. It would take allot of effort and passes. The 45° thing made really quick, easy and no creases.

I've been using that blue max with black handle, so no issue on force and I do have the bulldozer for the edge line. The red area is where most of the residue marks are. There is a good 6"+ of perfect clear tint between the bottom of these residue marks and the bottom/dot line. The 2nd attempt had these in only these two areas, nowhere else. The first attempt had 1 more, but again around the same height, slight different positions. Granted, it does take me about 30s-1m to unroll the film and line it up, before i start to squeegee. The squeegee process does go fairly quick and smooth 30s-1min for full windshield. Don't have any creases, or sections the tack down and then i need to re-squeegee to push other bubbles that would leave the adhesive residue rainbow. Definitely non of that tacked on cringle sound. So the initial pass tacks it down, for this i use just a banana edged hard card. Then i go over hard with the blue max/handle to get the moisture out. But even before I get the blue max, I could see the residue both times.

Sadly, no photos. The best I can describe it as, is dried water residue on paint when you don't wipe down the car. I don't think its contamination as really does look like water/soap splatter as its running down the window. As if you use the spray bottle, onto the window/tint, let it run down and that is roughly what it looks like. The biggest sections of this residue area are in a l 5"x6" section, and all towards the middle/lower of the windshield. On the first attempt, I thought it was because i didn't use enough slip mix on the adhesive when I put the liner back down. So this time I drowned it, and same goes for the windshield. It was actually kind of annoying as the tint was sliding all over the place. I had to hold the top area whilst tacking it down towards the bottom, otherwise the minute I touched it with a squeegee, it would move in that direction. I did try the whole heat window from outside and try to push the air/water out, and nothing. I thought it could be the slip is drying whilst I take the film inside the car, but I pre-lift both liner corners a bit before lift it half way. So that when I lift it and spray it down, i don't have to fight and try to find the liner on the other side. The time from me spraying down the first half of the windshield liner/adhesive, to in car installing, is 1-2 minute (maybe, if that). I spray the windshield when I have the film ready, so its not old slip that has dried up. Could it be moisture/condensation in the air? Unfortunately the garage is having AC issues, so it gets really hot and humid in the car. To the point that when i'm squeegeeing it, the tint starts getting a blue moisture/condensation hue on it. This is on the tint side, no adhesive so it goes away the minute i squeegee it, or wipe it.

So made some attempts at actually tinting, and things mostly went Ok. Side and rear windows all good, and at this point I was humbled again when I tried to do the front windshield. I tried to do some 70% Ceramic on the windshield and messed up the install. The issue I keep getting is that I keep getting dry soap/slip residue between the film and the tint. The windshield was spotless, as I spent close to 1hr cleaning it between attempts, inc using 99.8% alcohol to make sure there were no streaks or haze smears. 2 times now there seems to be dry/greys-ish soap residue/bubbles that looks like it was running down the windshield/tint and it dried. Both times the residue started vertically in the middle of the windshield and the residue runs were towards the bottom edge of the glass. So it wasn't dirty or debri from the top of the window/roof when I lifted the liner and sprayed it down, as these started in the middle of the windshield. These dry soapy runs happened on both sides(D/P) but in only like 2-3 places. The top half of the window was perfect clear. After I initially saw this, I decided to up both the amount of J&J I was using and the total amount of water i was dumping on both the windshield and between the liner and tint. All this did was make the film slide allot easier. This residue did not look like the streaky/rainbow mess that you get if there is not enough slip, it tacks on and then you peel it off ore move it. And no it was not the moisture/white soapy bubbles. I did try to leave 1 of these attempts on the windshield for a couple fo days to try out, and as predicted this dry soapy residue did not go away. Any advice/ ideas, please.

Haven't had anymore practice sessions due to lack of time, but found an interesting point in this forum. Was reading a thread on slip mixes and came across a thread where a guy was getting white dots under his tint. Everyone said that it was because he was cleaning his spray bottle properly and I was like wow there is a proper way to clean those. So what is the properway to clean? I have just the chepo garden/ basic pull trigger squirter, not even the pump up pressure ones.

Is that because I ruined the mactac with the soap or the felt scratches? I would of thought that felt was perfect for both the shrinks and the actual installs.

How do you guys clean the mactac felt card? I got some of the soap bar residue onto it, and now the edges are getting a little crusty/hard. Just worried that if i use it on the film side, it will scratch it.