RE: Tinting Windows

[MountainMax]

I just tried to tint the windows in my vibe, the side ones are ok but i tried to do the hatch in one peice, but it has too large of a compound curve in it and all i got were finger wrinkles, had to strip it off and put on 4 smaller strips (temporarily) but it looks bad, tried to join them at the grid lines but you can still see some air lines there. What I wanted to know was how to the pro's do these compound curve windows in one pass? how do they shrink the tint? Im sure it's not that hard, but no-one in my province (Labrador) does tinting so i have to do it myself.

[WaveAction]

i think they use a hairdryer type thing and push the hair out..i would never attempt tint unless i knew exactly how to do it..it's one of those things where..sure..it may look good now..but wait in a year or 2..and see how it'll look.besides most tint places has warrenty..my old tint on the fire had a 5 year warrenty on it..so i never had to worry about it bubbling or anything

[keithvibe]

Check out:http://www.tintdude.com/They have very good tips. I too did try to shrink the film with a heat gun but it didn't turn out very well. I ended up doing what you did with strips. I don't mind the breaks too much. It's just to keep my dog a bit cooler in the back on sunny days.

[redlava]

They did mine by cutting the tint and placing the individual strips in between the defroster coils. You could try that, but it would probably take a long time. Personally I would just have it done professionally that way it looks nice and not all crappy.

[MountainMax]

Thanks for the replies, I done mine in strips, joining it at the grid lines and it looks ok from the outside, but not perfect from the inside, I heard of people putting powder down and laying the tint on it, then using a heat gun to genly shrink the tint to fit, then installing it like normal. I have no problem tinting windows, just not good at the shrink method.....

[2ruSpeed]

What my tinter did was lay the film on the ouside of the hatch glass (make sure both the film and glass are UBER-wet) then used a heatgun to smooth it out then trim it (got to really take your time with the heatgun).I also tried to tint the car myself with the smaller strips but I eventually just gave up and let him tint the car for me.

[tangerine]

Quote, originally posted by 2ruSpeed »What my tinter did was lay the film on the ouside of the hatch glass (make sure both the film and glass are UBER-wet) then used a heatgun to smooth it out then trim it (got to really take your time with the heatgun).I also tried to tint the car myself with the smaller strips but I eventually just gave up and let him tint the car for me.Outside? Eek that won't last.

[2ruSpeed]

Haha should have added he transfered it into the inside afterwards. He just made the template on the outside first to get the curvature.

[MRCN RCE]

i've got some silver DIY tint, i've been hesitant to put it on cause i don't want it to look like crap, even though i got it for 99 cents a roll

[98ex]

Most pro shops now have a machine that will cut the tint into the pattern of your rear window. This way there are strips in between each defroster line.