Definitely my least favourite task, Rob was banned from helping after attempt two. He ended up getting frustrated that when it seemed that the bubbles wouldn't smooth out, lose his cool, scrunch up the tint and throw it away. The whole process was getting too expensive, so he was out and I was going to attempt the tints by myself.
I would love to say that unlike Rob I kept my cool throughout the whole process but that couldn’t be further from the truth and we set up this blog to bring you on our journey honestly, through every hurdle we face.
Attempt one, catastrophic. Firstly, I have no idea why we thought tinting in the dark would be a successful idea. It was not, evidence below.
Attempt two, shocking. This was about the time that Rob stopped helping with the tints- we were nearing the end of the second roll of tints and we had nothing to show for it. For context, one roll should have covered all the windows on our minibus….!
We would get so close to believing that we had nearly competed a window, attempt to push the last bubble out and the film would rip, for what felt like no reason! We were ready to give up and pay a professional to do the job for us. Baring in mind that we have a minibus, there are a lot of windows and this job felt unachievable and a total waste of time. Feeling defeated we decided to humour ourselves and posted a picture to our instagram to share with our followers our tinting fail.
Social media is a funny place, it can be filled with the harshest of critics that can tear you down from behind their keyboards but if you’re lucky you can find an incredible collective of likeminded individuals that will raise you up and support you. When we first set up our instagram account we thought it would be a cool opportunity to share our journey with friends and family and a good way to document the conversion and beyond as a type of visual, digital journal that we can look back on. We quickly realised that instagram was actually a great place to connect with other van lifers for tips, tricks and inspiration.
The digital community we have built did not disappoint, we were inundated with messages of support, encouragement and understanding. They shared their own tinting experiences and mishaps, whispered tricks and tips and spurred us to try again. Well, we couldn’t go and pay a professional now, could we!?!
Attempt three, acceptable. Heres the basic steps taken to tinting windows effectively:
1. We cleaned the windows well with a lint free cloth
2. Use a razor blade to shave the window, removing grit and other bumps attached to the glass (Remember I told you the film would randomly rip with no rhyme or reason… invisible grit is why!)
3. Cut tint to a manageable size, slightly bigger than the window
4. Spray glass with a lot of very soapy water
5. Peel off the tint backing and position on the window- you should be able to slide around the tint with ease thanks to the soapy water.
6. Use a squeegee to push out excess water and bubbles. (You’ll find what works best for you, many people prefer to start I the middle and push the bubble out. I personally found starting at the top and working down to be easier)
7. Cut tint down gradually to size (don't get too excited.. it can easily go wrong at this step)
8. Squeegee bubbles out and cut again until you are happy with the finish
And Voila- hopefully that was less stressful for you than it was for me…
The key tricks that I would want to pass on to the next amateur window tinter would be- A sharp Stanley knife, many razor blades, a lot of very soapy water and an abundance of patience.
A massive thank you to Emily and Lloyd from @ourconvoyage for helping us through the tinting disaster and answer a million and one ridiculous questions!
Rob and Adele
Products used:
Tinting Kit: https://amzn.to/33iaPn5
Stanley knife: https://amzn.to/2M2KAvx
Razor blades: https://amzn.to/2MJyeYs
Squeegee: https://amzn.to/2M5Xb0I
Lint-free cloth: https://amzn.to/2KhgjXz
Spray bottle: https://amzn.to/2T8LHuc
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