Dry Shrinking or Wet Shrinking

[Guest amax28]

Doing a big curved back window which one do you prefer wet shrinking or dry shrinking? and why................................

[Guest haroldshouseoftint]

It depends on the film, and the window.

Alot of them (extreme curved) are easier to do wet IMO

[Guest mhun9180]

Dry for sure. Better for the film, faster, sits down better on the inside. Can't even compare the two.

[Guest wilz]

Doing a big curved back window which one do you prefer wet shrinking or dry shrinking? and why................................

This is a good one

[tint45]

Before I do anything, I like to screw it up 2 or 7 times. Actually I agree with tintman on all points. As far as why?... wet shrinking seems to keep the film cooler and alows for more precise manipulation although at the cost of being much more time consuming. I'll sometimes dry shrink till I get to those heavy curves, then wet shrink the rest. BTW welcome to the board.

[want2modmygt]

wet shrink... because I've never tried to shrink it dry.

[Guest smcmahon]

I usually dry shrink first then check over with a wet shrink!!!

[Guest Dr.Window]

I'm a wet shrinker myself, but IMO it all depends on your practice and on the film!

[Guest willie]

C.) Both of the above

[wndotint]

I almost always dry shrink. I only use wet when doing something like a Cherokee or small glass on a convertible.

When wet shrinking, the film does not shrink evenly. Fingers are usually restrained and do not freely move around to allow more even shrinking. Also, some may have noticed that after you do the first shrink (wet) then you do your final cut, you may have some small fingers pop up that need more heat. This is because the first shrink "trapped" the unshrunk area "inside" the edges. When you cut the edge, you have cut off the part of the film holding the part together that still needs heat. Make sense?

Dry shrinking allows the film to move around more freely and distributes the heat better. Film doesn't need to be "cool". The water in the wet shrink makes it harder to shrink because it takes longer for the film to heat up and shrink. Also, I've noticed that since I started dry shrinking, 95% of the time I do not need any heat after I've hung the film. Vice-versa, I needed some touch-up heat MOST of the time with a wet shrink.

As for dry shrinking, then wet checking....if you need to do this, you are not using enough soap (if that's the method you use). When I get done dry shrinking, the film looks like I used water. Completely smooth and flat on the glass. No need for wet check.

I would be willing to bet that more film/adhesive failure would occur as a result of wet shrink rather than dry. Neither may cause any problem, but if one did, I'm leaning towards wet being more stressful.