"Zibodiz" (zibodiz1)
04/08/2014 at 23:02 • Filed to: None
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"Zibodiz" (zibodiz1)
04/08/2014 at 23:02 • Filed to: None | 0
| 5 |
I'm a hardcore DIYer, so when my latest car came with bare windows, I saw it as an opportunity to try my hand at tinting.
Man was that a mistake.
I used to apply stickers & decals for a living, so I figured "if anyone can do it, I can." I like to use the 'wet method', where you soak the surface & the adhesive side of a sticker with windex, lay the sticker down, then squeegee the windex out from underneath. For stickers, this method works great. On a flat window, it probably would too, but car windows are curved, which I failed to take into consideration. The curve creates these little 'pockets' of air that just refuse to go away, no matter how much you squeegee them. I used a heat gun on them as I flattened with the squeegee, which helped, but it still left me with these darker black 'ghost ripples' that I haven't figured out how to get rid of. The side rear windows only took about 15 minutes a piece, but that hatch window seriously took me nearly 2 hours.
If I ever buy another car without window tint, I think I'm going to knuckle down and pay a professional. Sadly, though, I've already bought tint for my wife's car, so I think I'm going to go ahead and give it a try too. Why not, it's only ~6 hours of my life, and a bunch of burns on my hand from the heat gun.
Update the following day: The bubbling at the edge can be rubbed away after the tint has fully dried. The creases are still there, but at least the bubbling is 95% gone. The black 'ghost ripples' also disappeared almost completely after sitting in the sun all day. It's still not perfect, but at least I'm no longer ashamed to be seen driving it.
jvirgs drives a Subaru
> Zibodiz
04/08/2014 at 23:08 |
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I miss my Escort. Had a white '93 wagon with blue interior.
Kinja wouldn't let me tag the picture
Deputy Kovacs
> Zibodiz
04/08/2014 at 23:11 |
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Thanks you sir, for my evenings entertainment.
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Zibodiz
> jvirgs drives a Subaru
04/08/2014 at 23:13 |
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I'm pretty fond of mine. I've owned about 20 cars over the years, and this is my third favorite (after the Miata and the Wagoneer), and it's a lot more sensible for my current needs than #1 & #2.
YesILoveCars
> Zibodiz
04/09/2014 at 01:37 |
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Problem 1: "the adhesive side of a sticker with windex"
Don't use Windex. It has ammonia. Use a soapy water solution.
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Zibodiz
> YesILoveCars
04/09/2014 at 22:57 |
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You're the first person to ever mention that. I've never had any trouble from that, but I do wonder if its decreased the adhesive life. I haven't had any trouble from stickers that haven't lasted, and one of the places I used to place stickers was on the floor of retail stores (Safeway, Albertson's, Kmart, etc), where they got a LOT of traffic, and never peeled up. It may have been a special type of adhesive that's designed to handle ammonia, though, I have no idea.
I avoid soap, because, unlike windex, soap doesn't completely evaporate. Unless you scrub it off (which you can't do under a sticker), there'll be a bit of residue left over. Under window tint, that residue might be visible; I've seen DIY tinting jobs that looked 'cloudy', and always attributed it to that, although I could be completely wrong.