Jmuth197 Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 Hi guys, I am fairly new to tinting, and I am having some problems shrinking the side window roll downs. Do you ever find yourself needing to shrink both the top edge, where the film gets tucked into the gasket, AND the bottom edge? I have an Acura TSX that is giving me a world of problems, and I know this car has some pretty curved windows. Maybe its my method. Do you guys typically use ivory soap on the roll downs? Ive heard about this method for the rear windshield but never on the roll downs. Any advice would be grealy appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryker Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 You only shrink the machine, factory edge, of film. If you are getting side fingers then you need to work on the way you are squeegee the film out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota21601 Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 that is one thing I read somewhere. Shrink with the grain of the film like Ryker said. Still workin on this myself with rear decks only cause I am having an issue getting the sacrificial rear decks....lol. Gonna steam mine out and redo here soon and do and redo until I get it just right. All about practice. I have done every window on my car probably 3-4 times. 08 Civic. Has very long door windows as it is a 2 door and they have a curve front to back and top to bottom. Tried many things with them. Preshrinking them a little at the bottom definitely made a difference. But could still be done without it, just with a ton of fingers to heat out. But overall, I just tint, strip, tint, strip, tint, strip...etc. I have shaved my time way down. Just stripped my old tint off our van off two windows and retinted with Carbon 18 and also did an eyebrow in under 2 hours which is nothing compared to some of these guys, but I was pretty happy with it. The first window I ever tinted almost took that long...lol....without a strip of old tint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmuth197 Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 I got that! I know you can only shrink one way, but I guess my question is, if I tack down my film in the middle of the window and work my way down using the h pattern, I'll shrink all those fingers out, and THEN I will still have a ton of little fingers up above where I squeegeed. I will then lift up my film and replace it so that it hangs about an inch below the window basket, and shrink the top portion of the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmuth197 Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 It is extremely time consuming and I was just wondering if this is normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bham Posted April 14, 2015 Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 I'm gonna give this one a shot. Let's see,,,, this is wet shrinking...Not dry !! *** If hand cutting *** On side windows and roll ups. Pay attention to how the film lays out on the window as you are cutting it. This will tell you how much of a shrink you will need to put in it. On non moving quarter windows like a Civic coupe, lay your film on the glass for cutting and look to see if you have fingers in your viewing area. If so, work them top and bottom and shrink them before you cut it out----just like a backglass----this will keep you from having "pop-ups"Some cars like the TSX you mentioned and the Accords take a little different approach to the roll-ups.This is a little confusing but I will try,,,, using a peel glass. Place your cut out roll-up film piece on the peel glass. Force your fingers across the bottom of the film--- evenly spaced fingers about 2 inches tall-- and wet shrink these out. Now you have preshrunk your roll-up so you don't have "pop-up" fingers. Now on the tougher ones like I mentioned earlier. After force shrinking on the peel glass, I will place the film on the outside of the proper window, leaving a 1/8 gap above the outside bottom rubber, so that it is almost lined up as if for install. I then squeegee the film down with a turbo in the same patter as I would for install. Leaving the bottom 2-3 inches that I have already pre-shrunk loose. Now I RE-Shrink the bottom section that has already been shrunk, to ensure a proper match to that window. Be careful not to roll the sides when doing this. Focus on the middle of the bottom not the sides.I hope this helps a little. Here is a piece before shrinking on the peel glass. Not a perfect example but might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jmuth197 Posted April 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 14, 2015 I'll give this a shot on my next install! Thanks ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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