Tinting a Scirocco - Big PIA - Rant

[paulmaione@videotron.ca (Paul Maione)]

>The problem seems to be the design of older cars that
>do not have a place to hid the edges of the tint. The
>tint guys attempt to do their best and shove the tint
>between the rubber and glass, the problem with this is
>if there happens to be any dirt/dust/carpet fiber,
>whatever in that area it gets sucked up into the tint
>and you get bubbles or lines along the edges that wont
>go away.

well, scirocco's are hard cars to tint in general. the problem
is that they don't have a black edge going around the window.
it's all window and then right to the rubber. 90% of cars today
have black borders around the windows, that way you can get
a perfect job. but with a scirocco you have to go right to edge
of the window, but by doing that you have a larger chance of
getting dirt in. it's weird, no matter how much you clean clean clean
and make sure there is no dirt there, you'll still end up getting some.

usually when we tint (the shop i work at), we leave a gap in
the quarter windows in the rear, that way the edges will be clean.
it's hard to make the tint stick on a rubber edged window because
you have to always work the edges with heat gun and chizzler,
and that causes scratches.

we have tinted a whole bunch of scirocco's in the past year, and
they've all come out perfect. especially patrick's, we worked the
hardest on that. (actually they did, i just sat around a picked my
sack and smoked cigarettes)

>I guess I'm fortunate they where able to do the back
>window with one piece of tint. And standing back from
>the car you can't really see the bubbles or lines, but
>when you get right up to it they become a little more
>obvious. The tint place said they would keep trying
>until I was satisfied, but since it took them over 4
>hours to get the back window done I think screw it. 

we always do back windows on rocco's in 1 piece if we're
putting on a tint that we have big rolls for. bubbles and stuff
is from dirt. but sometimes you can get bubbles even if there
is no dirt. glass sometimes becomes pitted and you can clean
and clean, and it'll never go away. example: sparks from let's say
a grinder or something can cause really tiny pits that you'll never
see without tint, but as soon as you put tint on, they're clear as
day.

it's hard to get a good job. not many people are REALLY
good at it.

paully