“I literally got this car tinted maybe an hour ago.”
A Florida man who had his car’s window tinted thought the job was done right. Not long after leaving the shop, however, he noticed something strange about the tint. He says that it went “horribly wrong.”
Online gaming enthusiast Drippy (@drippy_zone) recently posted a video showing the serious mistake the tinting company made.
Drippy didn’t initially notice anything wrong when he picked up his red Mazda sedan.
“Guy did a great job just by looking at it, right, okay,” he says in the TikTok. However, further scrutiny revealed major issue: the tint was applied to the exterior of the windows. He grabs a flap on the edge of the glass to demonstrate that you can pull the tint right off.
“Then you get closer you start realizing tints should be on the inside,” he says. “Or should it be on the outside?”
“I don’t know, can you guys tell me? Because, I’m a little confused,” he continues. The tint is on the exterior of all the other windows and could easily be peeled off.
Now he’s worried about how long the tint will last.
“I literally got this car tinted maybe an hour ago. It took him five hours,” he says. Afterwards, he directs his attention to the rear window, which also shows signs of film chipping. “Yeah even the back glass. It’s all on the outside. Everything’s on the outside,” he says, continuing to roll back the tint-edge on another portion of the car. He pulls it off entirely then crumples it up in his hand. Then he continues removing the tint, even though he’s still unsure of whether it belongs on the inside or outside.
Folks in the comments section of Drippy’s clip had varying opinions on the quality of the tint job. One person wrote, “This has to be a joke.”
Others believe he was the victim of a con job. “Cash only, huh?” one penned. Another agreed, “Hope you paid with your debit card so you can dispute that charge.”
“You paid for that?” someone else wrote incredulously.
Several commenters agreed that tint should always be placed on the inside of car windows. “That needs to be on the inside and you need to get your money back,” one advised.
Others were perplexed that Drippy destroyed the tint after removing it. “Why did you peel and crumble it? That was an easy fix. But now you damaged the tint, he wouldn’t be held responsible for that,” one argued, adding, “The way tint is done they mold it on the outside first then transfer it to the inside. So either way he needed done on the outside first. He could have simply had other jobs going and forgot to do the second step.”
Drippy wasn’t buying it. He replied that once the protective layer is removed, the second it gathers dirt from glass, it’s unusable and cannot be re-applied.
Ultimately, tint film is almost always supposed to be applied to the interior of your car windows. Automotive detailing company Detail Solutions says that tint is applied on the inside to protect it from damage by road debris, weather events, and grime.
The International Window Film Association confirms that tint goes on the inside. “Window film installation on a car involves applying a thin, transparent film to the interior side of the vehicle’s windows … the film is carefully positioned on the inside of the window, ensuring that it aligns properly with the edges and contours of the glass,” it writes.
But it is true that auto detailers will sometimes apply tint to the exterior. But it isn’t supposed to stay there.
Auto aesthetics company RMA notes that some professionals use a heat shrinking process to “achieve a perfect fit” in window tinting. The business writes that “window glass in vehicles is rarely flat … heat shrinking solves this issue by reshaping the film before final installation.” RMA adds that “professionals begin by placing the tint film on the exterior side of the glass. This allows them to work with the natural curve of the window before installation on the interior surface. Once positioned … small imperfections are adjusted during this stage before the film is transferred to the interior side of the glass for final installation.”
Motor1 has reached out to Drippy via TikTok direct message for further comment. We’ll update this if he responds.
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