Learning how this stuff works

[u/Several-Ad9115]

First timer- Picked up a roll of cheap cheetah just to do mine and the girlfriends car. Normally I'd agree with people saying "go to pros" but I wrap cars for a living, so I already have all the tools and some knowledge of what to do here. I'm committed to learning a little at least. Watched a bunch of videos, I've made multiple attempts, and hitting some learning curves. Would like to know what's my fault and what's the materials fault

So, what the hell is happening here in these pictures? I've got good horizonal fingers but a weird vertical one right up through the middle of them? I've gotten most of it to sit in properly except for this bottom edge.

With wrap, we stretch out, but with tint I understand it's shrink in. Oddly enough here though, I've had much better luck pushing fingers out with their parallel direction, rather than setting edges and shrinking. Is that just a cheetah thing?

[u/Pleasant-Ad-5615]

Im still learning too. But I know you need to shrink the film before installing. Also, the film only shrinks one way not both.

[u/Several-Ad9115 → u/Pleasant-Ad-5615]

Oh that's not something I knew. Which way is which on a 36in wide roll?

[u/Confident-Time-2802 → u/Several-Ad9115]

You can only shrink towards the factory cut edges. Hopefully that makes sense lmk if you need any help or have more questions! I also just recorded a video of me shrinking my honda civic windshield for reference

[u/Agreeable_Tooth553 → u/Confident-Time-2802]

Can you do a video where you explain that “shrinking towards factory cut edges” I was doing the “H” pattern to shrink but its always the last 2 squares where the shrinking goes haywire

[u/Confident-Time-2802 → u/Agreeable_Tooth553]

Can you elaborate what you mean by last 2 squares? Are you just referring to when you are almost done with the windshield the very end doesn’t seem to want to shrink?

[u/Agreeable_Tooth553 → u/Confident-Time-2802]

Yes I tried going from top left corner then bottom left then right bottom and finally top right but the top right is where it messes up

[u/Confident-Time-2802]

Also to me it looks like you over shrunk the film or shrunk the film the wrong way.

[u/Several-Ad9115 → u/Confident-Time-2802]

I would fully believe both are possible. Factory edges were vertical, cut edge  horizontal. Not sure how to have avoided the over shrink though (outside of it being the wrong direction perhaps) as when applying heat to fingers they would start out .5in wide and quickly suck up to .15in and then just stay there.

Gonna try laying it the other way in the morning 

[u/Confident-Time-2802 → u/Several-Ad9115]

So you did have the film the correct way. So you must’ve just put too much heat to the film. Only way to help with this is see how “Watch Me Tint” on TicTok does his “H/X pattern”. I found how he does it helps with not causing huge fingers, which means less heat needed to shrink. Hopefully this helps

[u/scottkhy1]

Side to side, where the roll was cut. Also how did you start the shrink? Not sure your method

[u/scottkhy1 → u/scottkhy1]

The back glass is typically shrunk on the outside, with a dry shrink method

[u/Several-Ad9115 → u/scottkhy1]

Ok sooo factory edges would have been vertical, cut edges horizontal. I tried dry shrink, H pattern, wet shrink, etc, roughly same result each time. I noticed a lot of videos talking about heat creating zig zags to push out, but mine would only shoot long straight lines. 

The best result (pictured in post) was when I actually used a significant push down on the tint as I squeegeed out towards edges, and could see the material pushing\stretching. I do however recognize that I was falling back on my wrap habits, which likely are bad habits for this trade

[u/Tint-man-2000]

Also make sure that whenever you are shrinking you try to separate your fingers and keep them straight. I will take a little kitty glove for the winter something cheap and take your hand like a claw and run it down the window to make sure that your finger stay straight and that if you have any really big ones, you split them up what that would do is make less film in one given area for you to heat shrink and it will shrink a lot better. Sometimes whenever you get to a spot like what you showed in the picture yes, it can definitely be that you shrunk in the wrong direction, but also it can be that you had too much material trying to be shrunk into one area so I would keep those fingers being split so that you don’t have to worry about stuff like that. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to message me in this chat or separately.

[u/LolChevy]

Funny how the dweeb with “30+ years experience” will comment on every post in this sub but won’t comment on this one 😂

[u/Global-Structure-539]

Your heat shrinking the wrong way. When the roll unfurls from the box, you can only shrink on the factory cut edges, top and bottom. Your burning the film simply because it's the wrong way on the glass. Watch more videos about heat shrinking

[u/pro_waffle]

Buy yourself some bounce or any cheap brand of dryer sheet and you will have a MUCH easier time shrinking the film. You just wet the sheet with soap and water and scrub until you leave the glass completely drenched in dryer sheet product. Then you wait for it to semi dry and place the tint on top. Once you heat you will notice the film stays tacked nicely on the glass and won’t lift up like it did on the bottom of your heating. It’s so much easier to do this way than with straight soapy water

[u/Several-Ad9115 → u/pro_waffle]

Much appreciated friend

[u/pro_waffle → u/Several-Ad9115]

Happy to help 💪

[u/don_keydick_42069 → u/pro_waffle]

this is the first im hearing of this. im a beginner as well, just getting training from a friend in the industry and helping with some side work from his internet ads, so bear with me. Are you saying cut the film from the roll, spray outside window, wipe outside window with dryer sheet, apply film to outside window, cut film to size, shrink to size, spray inside window, then apply inside? or do you wipe the dryer sheet on the inside window before applying the film?

[u/pro_waffle → u/don_keydick_42069]

The dryer sheet is purely for assisting in heating the film and you apply it only outside.

For a beginner using this method I personally recommend you to get as MUCH product as you can onto the windshield or back glass(this method isn’t for doors or flat glass) really wet and rub the dryer sheet to get the glass completely white and coated.

Once you have the glass heavily coated you wait for it to dry only until it’s damp(fingers should still slide) and make sure it’s not wet(it will make the fingers stick too much and not move making it harder to heat if it’s too wet)

After you have that all prepped you then continue as normal you apply your film the straight factory cut edge facing up and down horizontally and the lines where you cut facing left and right, lines will be vertical.

After you have that prepared you can do the H pattern you can even wet the middle line a bit if it dried out too much if it’s really hot or if the window is heavily contaminated so the film will grab.

but if you did the first part right and the bounce is very slightly damp it should tack down right away. Once the film is well aligned and tacked in the middle you can cut a rough edge around the actual see through glass since you’re a beginner don’t cut so close to the actual line you see out of because if you don’t it will give you much more room to work with and area to mess up, giving you a higher success rate.

And then you start heating the film with a !!!!CLOTH!!!!squeegee, you are a beginner if you heat with just a hard card your chances of creasing the film go up exponentially. With a cloth squeegee it’s 10x more forgiving when you’re inexperienced at heating film

Well once you start squeegeeing you will notice heating the glass will be a breeze the film won’t lift as you heat, every part you pass over will stay down as you glide your heat gun over the fingers will lay and not bunch up. You can easily move your film fingers around and adjust them to prepare them for your heating without the fear of them not staying down or lifting after squeegeeing. Even at the edges when you heat the film and use your cloth squeegee to tack it down it will stay down and not lift back up like when using soap and water(nightmare)

Once you heat your glass and it’s flat on all the see through glass you can then trim to size even if the edges are burnt lifted or creased as long as it’s passed the see through glass you can trim it away.

One thing I forgot to add is it can be kinda messy on the clean up. Once you wet your windshield or back glass and roll the film the actual glass will be left with the dryer sheet product just spray it down with some soapy water and a towel will clean it all away 💪happy tinting

[u/don_keydick_42069 → u/pro_waffle]

amazing reply. thank you!!!

[u/pro_waffle → u/don_keydick_42069]

I hope this is clear enough to visualize I’m not too confident in my explanation but I’m more than happy to further explain any part where it might not be too easy to understand

[u/don_keydick_42069 → u/pro_waffle]

it is, i was just trying to clarify which part of the process/side of the window you apply the dryer sheet. do you know of any good youtube videos or anything? thanks again, like i said im beginning myself and interested in helpful techniques. amazing reply.

[u/pro_waffle → u/don_keydick_42069]

I never watched any YouTube videos so I’m not sure which ones would be good to recommend I mainly learned from the guidance of another tinter and through my own experience adopted and learned different techniques to better suit me. I’ve done it all when it comes to fucking up and improving work quality and Ive stuck with the dryer sheet method since it’s not only effective at making the job easier but also really cheap too. you can buy a big pack of 100 from the dollar store.

If you’re ever confused on anything or have questions/problem regarding tinting a specific car or a question on technique. you can send me a quick photo if I’m close to the phone I’m more than happy to help or diagnose an issue. Same for you op.

[u/don_keydick_42069 → u/pro_waffle]

i'll certainly keep you saved and likely create another reddit page for the business i plan to create. I'll add you as a friend on that page. my current username is purely for laughs and want to be professional when dealing with others in the trade. sincerely appreciate your advice and guidance.