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About mrsunshades

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    Alpharetta, GA
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    United States

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  1. OK - My customer JUST left my shop with his NX 300 ...TOTALLY satisfied, AND after I scratched the SH*T out of his driver's window!!! So, I never got the tech bulletin / warning from Eastman, and I always get those - they send them out on any bad situation that would arise from installing film on new cars, as they become aware. So like I said, the first pass of the razor on the driver's side dug right into that IR coating, and it wasn't pretty. So I read about the posibilty of removing all the coating by dry scraping, and it actually works - you can, with new SS blades (I used 6"triumph as well as regular 1" SS blades), remove the coating. I then went over the whole glass with #000 steel wool, squeegeed and installed my piece. Voila - no bubbles, no troubles!!! FYI: The only glass that has the IR is the driver's and passenger's front, but not the small triangle one on the fronts. You can actually see the IR; it starts about 1/2 inch from the top of the glass (roll it down half way and look from an angle - you can clearly see the edge of the coating. I also heard that other Lexus models have this, but am not sure yet; will post after clarifying that. The image here is when it first happened, after my first few passes - I should have taken an after pic, but got too excited that I was going to solve the problem and not have to stroke a check for hundreds to have the glass replaced!
  2. Yes, I did feel like I was getting customer-no-service with ST. To be told that doing something that I've done for the last 25 years (like reverse-rolling film) won't work with their film is hard to accept, and IMHO should be stated on the box or maybe a note inside with the film. I am supposed to just know this somehow ... Anyhow, I do appreciate your advice : to reflect on "what did I learn from this" ... as with any bad experience or tough situation in life, if I just complain and don't learn something - about myself, a product, a technique, etc then it was truly a wasted moment. Thanks for your replies - consider me sucking it up, and moving on !!! Cheers!
  3. I recently ran into a serious issue with SunTek film while doing an install on a commercial building. I was filming large panes (roughly 4' x 6'), using their SDS20. I was working film by myself, and of course using the reverse roll method, which is something that any seasoned tinter knows well, but I will describe here, just so there's no misunderstanding about what I did with the film : So, you pull out enough film for the window, cut it off, and then roll it up in a tight tube. The liner is on the outside of the roll in the box, but when you pull it out and roll it up, the liner is to the inside of your tightly rolled up tube. Then you simply wet the film that will be at the top, peel back the liner, letting it stick to the back of the film, and drop the roll, holding onto the corners. So the film unrolls, peeling the liner off and leaving it on the back of the film to be peeled away and trashed. Does this sound familiar? Of course it does, because that's how it's DONE! So WHY am I going on about this? Well, go back to the job I mentioned: I started noticing long horizontal lines in the film once I had it installed. It turned out to be what's known as "tunneling", where the liner comes off the film, and forms long fingers when it's rolled tightly. And you can read all about it on the Eastman document site where it's clearly stated not to STORE film for long times rolled up like this. But that's not the case here - I was merely pre-cutting the film and rolling it up to be installed the very next morning. So I called SunTek, and they told me that I can't do that, and using the reverse roll method will cause this tunnelling issue, and that all of their installers know this already. They also told me that some installers who use the reverse roll method special order their film so that it is rolled up the other way on the core, with the liner on the inside. 1st of all: are there any SunTek dealers out there that have heard of this? I asked them if they had installers who do the reverse roll method with the liner on the outside of their tube, and she said yes, everyone is different and some like it one way, and others the other way. Because that makes no sense - it doesn't work! I actually tried it (pulling the film out of the box, rolling it up in the same direction it came off the core, with the line to the outside) IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!!! So SunTek won't pay to have those panes re-done, because they said I was doing something they don't recommend, I should have know this! Any feedback?
  4. I recently completed a 5000 sq ft job, and did a fairly good job ordering the right amount of the different widths to complete - I didn't want to over-order and end up with lots of film left over. So I got what I figured would get me through most of the way, and then could order more at the end. I had to order enough, at the very end, to cut out THREE windows! (job had close to 400) So that all worked out well, but I was thinking how nice it would be to have a program, or app or whatever, which could calculate how much to order. With all the different heights, widths, # of panes etc, it can be very hard to know on a really big job, you know? So any thoughts?
  5. Sorry - for some reason I can't see the jpeg could you post it another way so it will show up on my phone
  6. I like to walk into an office area, hold that thing High over my head and say "alright - keg party!"... pretty much everybody knows these are used for Homebrew