Tips for window tinting please

[Robmatthews]

hey guys my old truck had tints and i just cant get used to the new one not having them-i gotta keep tapping the window make sure its closed lol!

so im gonna give it a go myself,any tips or how to's would be greatly aprectiated:-)

also where to buy would be good to,is there a cheap and avoid type or is it all the same?

[TonyN]

do it in the warm is the best tip i was given!

but we got SlyDog to do ours.

[wiggy]

sorry goin to bed now but missus did the truck from scratch in a day....back window a drama but having problems with past owners maint! will post back bythe mornin

[wiggy]

Missus did the ones on mine with light and dark smoke... fair bit of swearing for the first one then the rest went on fine but the back one is a bit of a dramahttp://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=360177027742 good fast service and finally a good demo vid for doing it oh and make sure its a warm (ish) day and you have extra film!

[wiggy]

Hi there, this is the "misses" I just thought I would tell you what I did as it was also my first attempt at tinting windows too. I learned quite a lot to say the least! First, the link Rob gave you for the seller on ebay is a good one to buy from, it was inexpensive and a good quality film and the postage was fast, plus they give you a how to video which helped a fair bit. It cost me 12.99 for a 6m roll, I bought a roll of light smoke for the front and a roll of dark smoke for the passenger windows and the cargo area and even with the mistakes I made I still had plenty left over. You want to make sure it is a fairly warm day and it's not raining or if you have a garage you can use that would be best. If it is too cool (or damp) out you will end up with loads of air bubbles under the glass, they will work out with some patience but it can be a pain! You will need a good squeege, a break off razor blade a spray bottle and some soft lint free cloths. There are places that sell a "solution" for applying the tint but I just used a spray bottle with bottled water and a few drops of baby shampoo....I googled what to use and this is what was most suggested....The one thing I can say about the how to video on the ebay site is, they tell you to measure and trim the film on the outside of the window, this worked great on all windows with the exception of the side back ones. The outside glass measures much larger than the actual surface on the inside by a few inches, so not realising this, I cut the film to the outside glass size and I ended up stuck in the back of the truck blinding and swearing with a piece of tint that was too big for the glass. You need to make sure you keep the film and window wet so the film moves easily when you are applying it, you can squeege the excess out later. Clean the glass inside and out (and the door) really well with the lint free cloths and the water/shampoo solution and get inside the window seals really well too, if there is any dirt, lint etc it gets stuck under the film so you end up with more bubbles. For the windows that don't roll down I found it easiest to use wax paper on the outside and trace around the shape of the window then put the film on the waxpaper and cut around it. The day after I put the tint on I found a few air bubbles had popped up but they worked out with no problem because there was still some moisture under the film. I can't think of anything else, but you definately need to keep a sense of humour in the beginning! I had 2 goes on my first window before I got it right! Hope this helps? Good luck!

[Robmatthews]

Ok thanks for that has helped a lot!,did you cut the film so it fits to the edge of the window or to the rubber seals?

[wiggy]

Ok thanks for that has helped a lot!,did you cut the film so it fits to the edge of the window or to the rubber seals?

Mornin
I think Holli cut it so that it was to the seal at the top of the window but overhung about 2cm at the bottom, which was then tucked down between the window rubber and the glass so that the film didn’t catch when the window was lowered.

Will get her to check this in a bit tho.

[wiggy]

Glad it helpedYou don't want to put the film to the very edge of the roll down windows, there needs to be a gap at the top so it doesn't get caught in the top seal. It's just a small gap though maybe a couple of mm? I cut it to meet the rubber seals at the sides of each window and left 2-3 cm at the bottom to tuck in. Don't know if that answered your question but there is a video on the ebay link that Rob put on an earlier post that would probably explain it better, I think it's about 5 minutes long and has cheesy music on it but worth a watch.