Well, some of you might remember I asked if anyone had ever tried to do tint themselves... the responses were kind of mixed, but I figured what the hell and went for it.
I bought 35% HP Smoke tint film from Window Tinting at SnapTint.com. the pieces come pre-cut to the window and fit PERFECTLY. I also bought their tool kit which included a gasket jammer, plastic scraper, and the rubber edged squeegee. Also picked up a sprayer bottle from ACE, some lint free cloths from the car place, distilled water and johnson's baby shampoo from the grocery store.
The kit came with instructions, and I watched every video I could find on the net of people applying tint.
Here's a quick version of what I did...
remove the door panel and interior felt/weather strip on the bottom edge of the window. Remove the weather stripping around the window, and with the window down pull the rest of it (to the rear) out of the door. The stripping runs the full length of the window travel, starting at the bottom front, up the track, around the door, and back down into the bottom of the back of the door. I didn't pull the front edge just because it was too hard to get out. This is a little confusing in words, but its pretty self explanatory if you go look at it.
Then I just cleaned the window like crazy, inside and out. I did windex first, and then used the 1/2 teaspoon of baby shampoo to 1qt of distilled water mix that I made per the instructions. Did that like 3 times. Turns out my "lint free cloths" left more lint than just plain old brawny paper towels. go figure.
Then just cover the window in the soapy water mix, and get ready to get the film.
The next step was the only 'difficult' part of the whole process, which was removing the film from its backing by myself. You spray the soapy water onto the adhesive as you pull it, so you really need about 3 other hands, two to hold the backing as you peel the film, and another to spray the water onto the backside of the film.
Then you just slap the film onto the window. I thought this was going to be the hardest part, and it was insanely easy. the film practically sucks itself onto the glass once you press the top edge onto the window.
Then just position the film how you want it, and spray more soapy water onto the surface of the film, and squeegee the water out from the top edge to anchor the film, then down the middle, and then from the middle to the edges. This wasn't difficult, but time consuming and meticulous.
SOO...anyway, I bought the 35% film thinking with the slight tint found in the stock glass, I'd land at a final percentage somewhere around 28% to 30%. GA's tint law is 32+/-3%, so I should be OK. The whole process took me about 4 hours start to cleanup done, but that was with a 30 minute food break between windows, and about 1 hour of cleaning the windows.
Here are some pics:
So far I can't see any blemishes or inclusions. I'm sure as I scrutinize it I'll find junk stuck under there. It's slightly hazy, but that's normal until the adhesive cures fully. I've got the window switches disconnected to save myself from myself, which has already happened once. The kit say to leave em up for 3 days.
My thoughts?
This was pretty damn easy. the hard part is removing and keeping dust off the clean glass. A larger garage than mine (so you could actually open the doors all the way) and an extra set of hands (to help peel the film) would make this a walk in the park. However, the fact that I was only doing the front windows made it a lot easier. They are really accessible, and a relatively flat simple surface so you don't have to fool with heat shrinking the film or navigating a 5' wide piece of wet film into the back seat, etc.
the film was $24.95, and the whole thing with the "tool" kit was $49 shipped. I bought the water, sprayer, shampoo, and towels for another $13. So...for $62 bucks I may have lost money on tinting just the front windows, but at least I learned I can do it and had an excuse to spend time on the truck.
Anyway, this post is long enough. If you have any q's fire away.
Paul
I bought 35% HP Smoke tint film from Window Tinting at SnapTint.com. the pieces come pre-cut to the window and fit PERFECTLY. I also bought their tool kit which included a gasket jammer, plastic scraper, and the rubber edged squeegee. Also picked up a sprayer bottle from ACE, some lint free cloths from the car place, distilled water and johnson's baby shampoo from the grocery store.
The kit came with instructions, and I watched every video I could find on the net of people applying tint.
Here's a quick version of what I did...
remove the door panel and interior felt/weather strip on the bottom edge of the window. Remove the weather stripping around the window, and with the window down pull the rest of it (to the rear) out of the door. The stripping runs the full length of the window travel, starting at the bottom front, up the track, around the door, and back down into the bottom of the back of the door. I didn't pull the front edge just because it was too hard to get out. This is a little confusing in words, but its pretty self explanatory if you go look at it.
Then I just cleaned the window like crazy, inside and out. I did windex first, and then used the 1/2 teaspoon of baby shampoo to 1qt of distilled water mix that I made per the instructions. Did that like 3 times. Turns out my "lint free cloths" left more lint than just plain old brawny paper towels. go figure.
Then just cover the window in the soapy water mix, and get ready to get the film.
The next step was the only 'difficult' part of the whole process, which was removing the film from its backing by myself. You spray the soapy water onto the adhesive as you pull it, so you really need about 3 other hands, two to hold the backing as you peel the film, and another to spray the water onto the backside of the film.
Then you just slap the film onto the window. I thought this was going to be the hardest part, and it was insanely easy. the film practically sucks itself onto the glass once you press the top edge onto the window.
Then just position the film how you want it, and spray more soapy water onto the surface of the film, and squeegee the water out from the top edge to anchor the film, then down the middle, and then from the middle to the edges. This wasn't difficult, but time consuming and meticulous.
SOO...anyway, I bought the 35% film thinking with the slight tint found in the stock glass, I'd land at a final percentage somewhere around 28% to 30%. GA's tint law is 32+/-3%, so I should be OK. The whole process took me about 4 hours start to cleanup done, but that was with a 30 minute food break between windows, and about 1 hour of cleaning the windows.
Here are some pics:
So far I can't see any blemishes or inclusions. I'm sure as I scrutinize it I'll find junk stuck under there. It's slightly hazy, but that's normal until the adhesive cures fully. I've got the window switches disconnected to save myself from myself, which has already happened once. The kit say to leave em up for 3 days.
My thoughts?
This was pretty damn easy. the hard part is removing and keeping dust off the clean glass. A larger garage than mine (so you could actually open the doors all the way) and an extra set of hands (to help peel the film) would make this a walk in the park. However, the fact that I was only doing the front windows made it a lot easier. They are really accessible, and a relatively flat simple surface so you don't have to fool with heat shrinking the film or navigating a 5' wide piece of wet film into the back seat, etc.
the film was $24.95, and the whole thing with the "tool" kit was $49 shipped. I bought the water, sprayer, shampoo, and towels for another $13. So...for $62 bucks I may have lost money on tinting just the front windows, but at least I learned I can do it and had an excuse to spend time on the truck.
Anyway, this post is long enough. If you have any q's fire away.
Paul
....now i leave it for the pros....
