Think twice about film

[4banger]

Anyone gettin paint film read lots before giving your credit card to anyone south of the border. I ended up dropping $700.00 and learning the hard way that I could have had the same locally for about $300.00. I wont name names but Americans can market more than they can deliver. CARP DEIM buyer beware ect. ect.

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[tora]

What is paint film?

[eclone]

Looks like you should be mad at yourself for not researching.

Again, what is paint film?

[Extraze]

he's probably talking about some 3M protective "clear bra" film

[benyl]

Actually, $300 is even high here in Canada. I got the Bimmer done at Shadow Tint for $275 and that was for 18 inch wide film instead of 12 inch. The 12 inch IIRC was $225.

Besides, I always try to support locally first. After shipping, duty and taxes, sometimes the good deal is not such a good deal. It is only when there is a significant savings do I go south of the boarder.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by benyl

Actually, $300 is even high here in Canada. I got the Bimmer done at Shadow Tint for $275 and that was for 18 inch wide film instead of 12 inch. The 12 inch IIRC was $225.

Besides, I always try to support locally first. After shipping, duty and taxes, sometimes the good deal is not such a good deal. It is only when there is a significant savings do I go south of the boarder.

My experience with Shadow Tinting is that they suck at applying tint. The 3M film was done well but holy crap the tinting was bad. I've done both myself on my '05 RS wagon that Subaru replaced. They sent the new car to Shadow tint for these two items to make the replacement "same" as what I had.

The first time that I stopped to pick up the car, there were lint bubbles all over. Not the small dust bubbles that could be smoothed out as the water evaporates but big pieces of lint. One spot had the tint damaged from the tinter trying to squeeze of the air around some debris. All creased and wrinkly. One window had a circular patch that was discoloured compared to the rest of the film. They ended up replacing the tint on all four windows (rear window was not tinted). Also, one window had these horizontal scratches that I thought was the tint but it wasn't (see below).

The replacements were alot better in terms of bubbles but then I noticed the rear quarter window had two long cuts in the glass (4-6" long) that looked like someone ran their razor blade across it (to cut some tint, maybe?). Asked them about it and they say that they didn't do it. The series of three horizontal cuts in one of the other windows turned out to be cuts in the glass as well. How the heck?

Went to talk to Paul at Centaur and he was still singing praise about Shadow tint. After talking with the sale rep for Subaru, he agreed to replace the two pieces of glass that were damaged. Doesn't quite end here...

After the windows were replaced, the car was sent to Shadow Tinting for re-tinting once again and somehow the rear door glass ended up with a patch of bubbles over an area of about 3"x6". Looked closer and saw some openings in the tint that looked like someone tried really hard to scrape the bubbles out and ended up ripping the tint. That window was tinted before Subaru installed into the car Shadow tint said it was the Subaru tech when he installed the window. Subaru service manager said he asked the tech and he said that window was like that when he got it. The service manager tooked the car over to Shadow tint and watched the guy put the tint on this time.

Four tries and two pieces of glass to get the tinting done...