[tweeter81]

Hey guys,

As some of you may know, I just got my car "Blacked Out" about 1 month ago, which included powdercoating the wheels, painting the side markers, and brake lights, and having the shop apply some pre-cut smoked tint film to the headlights and foglights so I could remove the tint if it was too dark or just didn't look good.

Well...fast forward to today and my left headlight tint is starting to peel pretty bad on one of the edges.

What would you guys recommend for trying to get that stuck back down. I have read a couple of different ways to try and accomplish this:

1) Clean area, apply soapy water to the back of the tint film, and use a heat gun or hair dryer to heat up the tint, reapply, and hope that will work, or

2) Use some sort of adhesive that will stick the tint to the headlight once again. The problem with this is I don't want to use something that will permanently stick to the surface of the light and ruin the housing incase I want (or need) to remove the tint completely.

Also, as an aside, what brand of oil filters do you guys use? I have always just used FRAM stuff, but I bet there are better options out there. I'm getting ready to change my oil this coming weekend and would like to have some options.

Let me know what you guys think. I just don't have any tinting experience...

:thumbsup:

 

[nxlr8]

Option 1 should work. Applying a constant pressure while it dries (couple hours in the sun) would help a TON.

 

[ctsv154]

WIX oil filters. I run them because I've been told by a trusted source that a hydraulic engineer said the WIX filters are the best. I know thats a lot of hearsay but I have only heard good things about them. I have heard of some problems with the frams but dont know how valid the claims are. There are a lot of variables like how often you change the oil and how often you change the filter. What oil you run, how trashed your engine already is. You know.

 

[BLACK CAR]

The headlight film probably has dirt under it which will prevent it from sticking. I would try cleaning the back of the film with goo gone to get the dirt and old adhesive off. Go to Walmart in the craft section and get a clear gel glue. NOT super glue! Squirt the glue under the peeling part and use a bondo card to push the excess glue to the edge and wipe off. This will be your best chance of saving the film.

This trick also works for the dots at the top of the back window if you have tint. Just peel your tint down to where the dots start at and run a bead of glue where the dots start from one side to the other. Use the bondo card and start where your bead is at and work the glue towards the top of the window. When you are done, no more crappy looking tint where the dots are at. The glue actually fills in the space between the dots where before the tint did not touch the glass between the dots.

I have a tint shop and have been doing tint for 20 years. :cool2:

 

[tweeter81]

Thanks a lot for the info guys.

I think I am going to try option 1 first and if that does not hold then I will definitely try BLACK CAR's option. I actually like the second option best but do not want to risk having that gel glue get stuck to the headlight if I want to remove the tint totally. Or...I guess my question would be, does that clear gel glue come off with Goo Gone if I needed to?

WIX filter it is.

 

[CadzillaTN]

think twice before performing the rear window dot fix. conceptually its a great idea and does seem to work but depending on what kind of glue you buy (i opted for 1.75 elmers and not the thick 7 dollar stuff), how old your tint is, and how far down you peel....


you can really fkuk it up good!

 

[atdeneve]

So which glue? Cheap is no good or the thick stuff is no good?

 

[AlmostAV]

Im telling you right now....the peel off tint will not last (unless you glue it, but IMO that kind of defeats the purpose of the film and in that case you should just paint them). You will be dealing with peeling edges for the duration. My buddy has had probably 4-5 sets of those, and all have wound up peeling. They work okay on flatter headlight surfaces (but even those peel after time).....Id just get them sprayed with something you feel comfortable with, worse comes to worse it can be sanded off and polished to new (stock)......you could save the film for days you want to show the car, in which case you could darken them up, and peel the film off when the car shows over.

 

[BLACK CAR]

Option 1 will not work. I wouldn't waste my time. The only reason to use soapy water is to let you move the film around, it deactivates the glue temporarily until it dries. If your film isn't touching a surface it has dirt on it and will not lay.

Here is a pic of the glue I use and it is water soluble for clean up. It is no stronger than the glue already on the film, so if you opt to remove it is no different.

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww63/ctsvdaddy/IMG_0946_1.jpg

 

[BLACK CAR]

think twice before performing the rear window dot fix. conceptually its a great idea and does seem to work but depending on what kind of glue you buy (i opted for 1.75 elmers and not the thick 7 dollar stuff), how old your tint is, and how far down you peel....


you can really fkuk it up good!

All good points. I would not want someone to mess up their tint. Some on here would be able to do it and some not. I do this on a regular basis so sometimes I forget how hard this would be for most people. So everyone should just bring their car by my shop and I'll fix it for them. This is the glue you should use if you DIY:

 

[tweeter81]

All good points. I would not want someone to mess up their tint. Some on here would be able to do it and some not. I do this on a regular basis so sometimes I forget how hard this would be for most people. So everyone should just bring their car by my shop and I'll fix it for them. This is the glue you should use if you DIY:

Thank you very much. I owe you one. Now I need to see if I can pull of the fix and actually make it look halfway decent.

 

[CadzillaTN]

So which glue? Cheap is no good or the thick stuff is no good?

the higher price is thicker because it's just better. the cost didnt sway me, I was worried about it being too tacky too fast. the elmers was way too runny. it was a mess.

If this was done during initial installation, it would work perfect. The guys that did mine were supposed to be "experts", "17th best in USA they said"... yeah expert rip off artists. got about 225 out of me. they had to redo a side window twice and the rear window once after repositioning the tint left lines that would not fade.

I'm going cut the old tint right along the bottom line of the dots using a template of the line's curve. (the dots stop lower than the last solid line of the defroster) Then using a spare piece of super dark tint, I'll cut the same line, match it up, use the glue and see if that works.. if not, I 'll get it completely redone by a true true professional. I never liked they job they did anyway.

here's a pic of first starting to peel the tint back. thunderstorm in background took out my power for 3 days

 

[BLACK CAR]

Be careful cutting that tint, if you cut one of those defrost lines that section will not work. I would complain to the shop that did the original work. You should not have to fix their mistakes. If I make a mistake I fix it plain and simple.

I do the glue trick at the initial install but have done it for cars that have had tint on for a while also with good results.

I can't believe they charge that much. I guess they have a lot of overhead. I charge 140 for a 4 door and 120 for 2 door cars except for the new VW beetle, I charge 180 for those. They are a PITA to tint with bubble shaped windows.