Hi guys,

I just got my 2012 G37 Journey tinted at the place I tinted my 3 previous cars before (paid around $180), except this time I looked close and noticed a number of tiny bubbles in certain areas and a couple of larger ones, most of them on the rear window.

I waited a week for everything to dry as they asked, came back, since the tint shop (Speedzone in San Francisco) gave me a lifetime warranty, and asked to have this fixed, as it's never been a problem before. The guy who runs the shop warned me that if they can't fix the bubbles, they will re-apply a new one, which may make it worse due to all the sticky residue supposedly left over from the first tint. I asked him to do what he thinks is best as he does this stuff every day, and to try to have no bubbles when I pick up the car.

I picked up the car and saw pretty terrible bubbling and almost a warped surface of the tint (the latter could have been from it still not being dry). While I realize it's still day one, I don't think this kind of bubbling will go away and need your advice.

So, is it really true that once you apply tint a 2nd+ time, it will never be able to look good and bubble-free? I find it hard to believe as it means I'm pretty much screwed just because they did a poor job on the first application. Ideally someone here had to go through the same and had the 2nd job turn out better.

What should I do next? I live in San Francisco, if anyone has any recommendations.

Thank you in advance.

 

Wow, that doesn't sound right. I had the tint taken off my car from the dealer and done darker and had absolutely no problems or bubbling.

We did my wife's truck the same way, it had aftermarket tint on the front windows, I had it removed and re-tinted darker....again no problems.

I would think they would be able to remove any residual residue with ammonia or whatever they use to dissolve it.

Sorry to hear this happened, I'm sure it's very frustrating. Maybe stop by another shop or call them and see what they say.

 

I just called another highly-rated on Yelp tint shop in the area, and while they asked to bring the car by for inspection, they did acknowledge that 2nd time tinting will likely have issues. I'm just not sure they should be as bad as mine - at this point I'm cursing myself for even trying to get the first one fixed by having them re-apply.

I wonder if some shops figured out a better way to remove the previous tint with more care and perhaps different solvents. I'll see what this 2nd shop says, and will get 3rd and 4th opinions as well. At this point my otherwise perfect G37 purchase experience is completely screwed up by tint and this (which is even more ridiculous).

 

I stripped the tint of my maxima when I got it cus I wanted it redone. It did it wrong and all the glue was there. When they retained it, the used a steamer and windex to remove the old glue and reapply the new tint. A few bubbles for a couple days but I didn't roll the window down for over a week and parked the car in the sun. No problems so far and it's been 4 months.

Idk why they say it will cause problems. As long as the old glue comes off you should be good.

 

Well, I talked to another tint shop, and they confirmed that it probably wouldn't be perfect, and that the tiny bubbles are unavoidable sometimes because it's not a clean room environment, and little dust particles get through. Plus there's that residue from the first tint, even if they clean it out, some tiny bits will likely still stick around (pun intended).

They told me that my 2nd tint wasn't that bad, and that the big spots I was seeing was just moisture, so they should go away. The little bubbles should still stay though, and so will the area along the heat lines, but I need to wait 7-14 days just to wait for everything to dry and see how bad it really is. I never knew tint could be so painful before.

 

i worked in a tint shop in 3 years, that guy is defintely full of crap, he's just being lazy. with ammonia and a razor blade, you can get all the glue off the window, and retint with it looking perfect. the back window is diffucult but can be done for a re-tint. the best way i saw was (on a hot day) peel the tint off, spray with ammona, and tape the tint back up to the window to get some of the dry residue off. leave it in the sun for an hour or so, then take the taped tint off and razor blade the glue off but being care to retain the defrosters.

anyway, you can always retint a car and have it look just as good as it had been done a first time, just takes some time and patience. the bubbles however are difficult to get rid of all of them immediately. as soon as the car hits the sun some often pop up. parking it outside and letting the tint dry in the heat will help dry out the bubbles. where i worked often gave out little credit card like things to help get the bubbles out if any arose. give it a few days for the bubbles to disappear.

 

Great to hear a confirmation. The problem is, all these guys have lines of cars, so they won't spend hours carefully removing it so it's perfect. I'd need to find a place that really takes great care and can fix it, even if it's more expensive.

None of these places offered me a tool to remove the bubbles or even instructed me about whether they can be removed, or the difference between dust-spawned little bubbles vs ones that are moist and need to dry out.

I'd love to figure out just who in the SF Bay Area can perform this job and guarantee satisfaction.

 

Good luck, it's a bummer starting your new G experience this way

 

Keep looking for a better shop op. It's obvious they don't care about the service they provide.

 

if they're getting dust on the tint they are just putting tint on to get it on as fast as possible. if they took an extra minute to clean the window one last time before they put the tint on you wouldn't have any dust or dirt between the tint and window. the moisture bubbles will go away with the sun light and heat hitting the tint. the only other bubbles that could arise is from overheating the tint while shrinking it to the window, in which case further proves the installer doesn't care about how it looks. honestly i'd drive around, ask some friends that have their cars tinted and go to a place that knows what their doing or has people who recommend them. i send all my friends to my guy, and all my cars and moms cars got tinted by him, never had one single problem.

 

Damn you for not living in Cali! :P