DIY: Window Tint

[miken517]

Hey everyone,
I just recently bought Gila Tint Film. (http://www.gilafilms.com/auto/heat_reflective.html) at the flea market for $5. This is also sold at Walmart for $13.00 or so. I have the 50 %, and the 35%. I was wondering if this type of film is any good? I would like to do it myself, but i know it's going to be hard. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

Is there a place that does good window tinting, if you don't suggest me doing this myself? Thanks for any help.

[Eye8Pussies]

good luck

but seriously....since you got it so cheap, you may as well try doing it yourself....if it goes bad, just take it off....

but yeah...for that kind of price...I'm sure it can't be very good....you usually get what you pay for...

[oismail]

i suggest that you get it done by a professonal, and get the highest quality tint out there, cuz if you use crappy tint and do it yourself (if you never done tinting before) its most likely gonna turn out bad.

i live in Northern VA, and theres this local tinting shop called L.A. TINT. They probably do the best tinting job i have seen. I paid about $280 USD for my tint and thats with the highst quality film on the market.

but if you still wanna do it yourself, you should at least buy a higher quality tint.

hope this helps, good luck

-omer

[Fever]

I have used a couple different brands of tint in the past (not the one you mentioned though), and I find the 3M brand of tint the best. It's certainly not the cheapest, but nothing says ghetto like a cheap window tint :p , all purple and bubbly, which the cheap stuff ends up like.

I suggest calling your local shops and find out who supplies 3M brand. I am in no way associated with 3m other than a satisfied customer.

Gene.

[psyjoniz]

i agree - pay to have it done - its not worth looking like a retard in 3 months when the stuff bubbles

i got my entire car done for 170$ limo dark as you can get and it was the top brand - they did a really great job too. this is the 8th car i've had tinted and this was by far the best job i've seen



its a bad res pic, sorry - but you get the idea

[3SGTE@daSpeedof]

Yea, U guys are all right but nobody answered his question.

U'll need;
a bucket or container of soapy water.
a squeegy(sorry I can't spell)
a cloth
a pin
window tint

First off you have to line up the window film with the window, then you have to cut it out, make sure it covers the entire window.

Then you use the rag to get the window all soapy, peel the film from the window tint, and apply to window, it should slide around. Now use the squeegy to remove the soapy water from the film.

Use the pin to pop any air bubbles that u might make, and then use the squeegy to remove the air from the tint.

Do it to the rest of your windows.

Instant window tint.

[miken517]

Hehe, thank you everyone for all your input, but i think you'll are right. I will prolly do a crappy job, and f-up my Camry. As i would not like to do that.

And thanks 3SGTE@daSpeedof for your help. Now i'm stuck with Tint..no one will buy it from me..

[psyjoniz]

it was only 5 dollars man - i've made waaaaay more expensive mistakes

i don't think anyone was comin down (ie: not answering with 'you will need blah blah blah'); i think everyone was just voicing the end result of what they found with tint and whether or not you should do it yourself or just let someone else do it. only reason i would learn it is if i were going to do it as a job - since i'm not there's really no point because it dosen't save enough money whereas doing my brakes myself can save me way more and is tons easier.

sell it on ebay!

[Bigshoguns]

OK. I have done tinting myself, and it came out great except for minor imperfections.

If u wanna diy go do some research and learn how it's done. then go to pepboys or Autozone and get the DIY tint kit ie squeegie, razor blade, this other type of squeegie kinda like bondo. and make a 10:1 water to dishwasher solution. it should cost u like 7 bucks. ur gonna need a spray bottle, but u can take a old windex bottle and put the solution in there.

The steps are not that hard, but u have to make sure u cut the film exactly or u'll have non-tintet corners like me. they are small, but still bugs u.

U wanna do it on a Cloudy Day or in your Garage cuz if it's sunny u'll mess up more and the liquid will tent to evapourate.


PM or IM me if u want he exact steps on how to do it. cuz i don't feel like typeing them now.

for futther info Check out DIYNET.com and TintDude.com, they have some great tutorials and videos.

it's not hard if u study the method and do it by the book. but just dont go out and do it cuz it will come out halfassed, research, study and then do it.

hope this helped. let me know how it goes.

[shuluke]

Ive tinted 6 cars myself and had 2 cars professionally tinted. I think one of the main things when doing it yourself is patience. After working on the first window for an hour and realizing how nice its going to look once i finish, i somehow start speeding up making the rest of job half ass. Now if i compare my first job to my last there is a big improvement. If you have great patience, i would tell you to do it yourself. If you dont get it professionally done. I just got my Gen 2 camry done, 5% everywhere for $100. Everyone says that its the best tint job and id have to agree. Good luck tinting your own though, there are good instructions in this post above. One thing i did that i didnt see there though was that i took the door apart so more of the window showed. That way the "whole" window is tinted.

Shuluke