I'm new need advice on heat shrinking......

July 16, 2005

I was tinting my 94 cadillac fleetwood front windows and I always seem to get to one finger at the end of the tint job that I have a hard time getting rid of.

On my driver window I'll get about 5 fingers about 1" thick but after I make 4 fingers go away the last one always takes forever and I had a hard time making it shrink I had to tint the window 5 times until I got it done.

the first 4 times what would happen is the last finger wouldn't shrink anymore when I heated it slightly it would no longer distort it would just stay like a finger and even when I smoothed it out it would stay the same I'm not sure if because I heated it too much it might just stay how it is.

The one question I have is are we supposed to heat shrink before squeezing all the water from the tint?

at the moment I squeege all the water from teh tint and then at the end when I get the 4-5 fingers I heat shrink them but im wondering if I'm supposed to shrink as soon as I lay the film on or how?

as I read the tutorial on tintdude.com it says to make an anchor from side to side and then heat shrink the fingers but this isnt really how ive been doing it I usually squeeze as much as I can fromm top to bottom then heat shrink the bottom fingers and on my fleetwood I usually get 1 finger at the left side which gave me a hard time and I had to throw/remove a couple tints.

my other question is what does tintdude.com mean by I must heat shrink towards the factory edge?

my last question is what is the best method of shrinking when the film is on the outside of the glass after I made my cuts before I remove the liner and apply the film to the inside?

I tried it once but it didnt go very well......at the moment I am only trying wet shrinking.

Thanks

wndotint · July 16, 2005

It's much easier to shrink the film prior to installation. Shrink it on the outside with the liner still on. Make all the fingers on the bottom. Keep the bottom of the tint about 1/2" above the gasket. The factory edge is the edge of the film that is at the ends of the tube or roll. If you hold the roll of film at a vertical stance, the factory edges are at the top and bottom. Most every film can only be shrunk towards the factory edge. Wet shrinking is the only way to go for doors and stationary windows.

July 16, 2005

my other question is what does tintdude.com mean by I must heat shrink towards the factory edge?

[*]299074

This to me sounds like it may be your problem. Tint will only shrink towards the edge that is perpendicular to the box. If you lay the box down horizontally in front of you and pull some tint out toward you the factory edge will be on the left and right. Most of the time when tinting this edge will be the top and bottom of the film so you must push all the fingers to the top and bottom to shrink.

July 16, 2005

my other question is what does tintdude.com mean by I must heat shrink towards the factory edge?

[*]299074

This to me sounds like it may be your problem. Tint will only shrink towards the edge that is perpendicular to the box. If you lay the box down horizontally in front of you and pull some tint out toward you the factory edge will be on the left and right. Most of the time when tinting this edge will be the top and bottom of the film so you must push all the fingers to the top and bottom to shrink.

[*]299076

:spit Yeaup... machine direction runs the length of the roll and all excess film to shrink must cut across the machine direction (or perpendicular to). And this isn't necessarily so for all door glass. With door or side glass shrinking can be performed on the bottom or top or if you choose to, top and bottom.