New Shop Progrees

[scottydosnntkno]

Well, we've had a few big changes in the last few weeks.

The detail company with which we were subleasing ended up leaving, so our shop is now 100% Superstarr Window Tinting's. We've spent the last two weeks overhauling the entire thing, and think that the results were well worth it.

Big thanks to my family, for helping with all the work. While I was powerwashing the entire shop space from ceiling to floor(floor twice, actually) the rest of my family was scrubbing the waiting room, office, bathroom, and removing the old decals from the storefront. The space looks brand new now, and is much cleaner and brighter than before.

Unfortunately, the transition time was conveniently located during my finals week for school, so needless to say I wasn't able to lend that much of a hand in the painting aspect. My dad and brother did 90% of the new painting, with me helping for a few touch ups/cutting in. The construction company next door was nice enough to lend us their man lift, which greatly helped the process. We painted the entire shop, floor to ceiling, by ROLLER, since a sprayer was going to be too much hassle.

Our shop is now clean, bright, and the perfect place to have your car tinted, your HIDs installed, or those new racing stripes put on your car

On with the pics:

"Before" of the whole shop:
IMG00081-20100326-1&.jpg

"After" of the whole shop:
SDC10345..jpg

Note how the back wall/door looks a LOT better. Even after being powerwashed, the dirt had actually stained the cinderblocks/paint, and was not coming off. We had initially planned to only paint a portion of the walls, but once we realised that lovely fact, we decided to paint the entire thing. I think it was worth it. Also notice the old "white" in the top by the joists. It didn't look thatttt bad before, but comapred to the new white, its like night and day

The rest of the shop:
SDC10347..jpg
The office/vinyl cutting room:
SDC10349..jpg
The waiting room:
SDC10350..jpg

what do you guys think?

[meissen]

That's awesome dude! Great work! I envy your ability to have your own shop like that!

[bri2203]

quiet the transformation! Looks good!

[TSTONE]

Looks great!!

[Darren]

Very cool! I may need to get the Blazer done... urgh.

[Gottork]

I used to commercially paint for a living, it is always night and day different, congratz on it and hopefully I will be seeing you soon for window tint

[92conv]

Looks great!!!! Nice transformation.

[97BlackBird]

Nice job! Looks good!

[SS4Matt]

Looks good! we usually have to repaint our entire shop every 2 or 3 years since it just gets trashed and dirty from all the humidity in our shop. What brand of film do you use for tinting? just curious?

[scottydosnntkno]

Looks good! we usually have to repaint our entire shop every 2 or 3 years since it just gets trashed and dirty from all the humidity in our shop. What brand of film do you use for tinting? just curious?

I use a company called Express Window Films. They are a private label company who has their films made to their spec, not just reboxing someone else films. They've been in business since '84, and have the best customer service of any company I've ever dealt with.

A little history on the window film industry:
ALL good quality window film worldwide is made in 3, possibly 4 plants. It requires extremely expensive equipment, and requires running tens of thousands of square feet at a time. Two large film companies(Llumar and Global/Garware) own their own facilities, lulus is in martinsville, Va and garwares is I believe in Korea. SolarGard, Johnson Window films, SunTek, and SolarGard don't actually make their own films, they are made by one of the aforementioned companies. Basically, once the company makes the product to meet their quota, they open their doors to anyone who wants to pay for the 50,000ft^2 Minimum Order Quantity. EWF is one of the few companies out there who can meet this quota withiout being a "big name" company. All their films are made to their spec, from their spec'd materials and processes, because obviously Llumar isn't going to produce their own films that they've spent years and years developing and just hand them off the someone else.

Also, while any shop that installs 3M will promise you the world and tell you different, 3M is FAR from being a big name in the window tint industry. Now, EWF is not a big company either, I'm not going to deny that, but they have been around a long time. In fact, 3M is one of the smaller companies in terms of total film sold/installed, they are just able to rely on their film to sell itself because of their name. If you ever get bored, do some research online about their products, and their shady testing/reporting methords, and you'll see what I mean. Now, they don't make bad films, but they just exxagerate their performance claims, and have had several major product failures in recent years(adhesive pinch on the Color Stable line, distortion in the panther series, etc). Not too mention the fact that you can get a comparable film for a much cheaper price.

[ITSSLOW]

Great progress! Really looks nice after seeing what it looked like before.

[SS4Matt]

I use a company called Express Window Films. They are a private label company who has their films made to their spec, not just reboxing someone else films. They've been in business since '84, and have the best customer service of any company I've ever dealt with.

A little history on the window film industry:
ALL good quality window film worldwide is made in 3, possibly 4 plants. It requires extremely expensive equipment, and requires running tens of thousands of square feet at a time. Two large film companies(Llumar and Global/Garware) own their own facilities, lulus is in martinsville, Va and garwares is I believe in Korea. SolarGard, Johnson Window films, SunTek, and SolarGard don't actually make their own films, they are made by one of the aforementioned companies. Basically, once the company makes the product to meet their quota, they open their doors to anyone who wants to pay for the 50,000ft^2 Minimum Order Quantity. EWF is one of the few companies out there who can meet this quota withiout being a "big name" company. All their films are made to their spec, from their spec'd materials and processes, because obviously Llumar isn't going to produce their own films that they've spent years and years developing and just hand them off the someone else.

Also, while any shop that installs 3M will promise you the world and tell you different, 3M is FAR from being a big name in the window tint industry. Now, EWF is not a big company either, I'm not going to deny that, but they have been around a long time. In fact, 3M is one of the smaller companies in terms of total film sold/installed, they are just able to rely on their film to sell itself because of their name. If you ever get bored, do some research online about their products, and their shady testing/reporting methords, and you'll see what I mean. Now, they don't make bad films, but they just exxagerate their performance claims, and have had several major product failures in recent years(adhesive pinch on the Color Stable line, distortion in the panther series, etc). Not too mention the fact that you can get a comparable film for a much cheaper price.

That's cool, I was already aware of that info, I personally do not like the johnson/solargaurd/3m products, they don't have a very good color in my opinion... I personally use Llumar and have been for years. I've never had a problem with them and they provide me with a great product, not to mention performance films is just 3 hours away so I can always get my order to my door next day if I get to them by 4:30! Nice to see another window tinter around, best of luck on the new shop!