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Ok so I’m finally done, well I finished last night at least. Took about 2 1/2 hours to do but I think thats because I took my time and didn’t wanna call it done till i was 100% happy with it. So here goes…
I ended up getting the pre-cut film from Targe Industries and watched their video a bunch of times till I felt like I really had a grasp on what I needed to do. In their video they say clean the window and surrounding area 3 times, well i lost count after 5 only because I wanted to make SURE there was no debris on this windshield. The squeegee, hard card, and scrub pad they give you in the kit is bad azz!!! Really nice stuff, the squeegee I got with my 3M film was small and cheap, definitely a throw-away piece but this kit, naw I’m keeping it.
Ok so I got it all cleaned up and moved on to the wet-check. Here you’re checking to see how its going to lay and whether your slip solution is slippery enough. They recommended 3-4 drops per 16oz but I feel like i used a lot more than that. Enough to where when I was scrubbing the windshield with the scouring pad it produced suds. We got the film on the windshield and noticed the overlap on the lower portion of the window is a LOT more than i expected. From the video they mentioned you’ll have to tuck the film on the Bronco so I’m thinking 1/8 to 1/4” but nope, this sucker had an overlap of like 3/4” to 1”. Which I guess is good because the cowl sits on top of the bottom of the film so with that big of an overlap you dont have to worry about it lifting. Ok so now I went to see how to tuck it but the cowling is too damn stiff, I could barely get the corner to lift so now I’m like sonofabish!!! What did i get myself into. Then remembered a video of someone installing ditch lights and how they had to lift up the cowl to tuck their wires. So I removed the two fasteners at the end of the cowl and lifted up and blamo! You dont have to remove it, but popping it up gives you enough clearance to get in there to tuck it. Problem solved!
So now we go to install the film…make sure you spray the sheit outta everything. My assumption is that the more you spray, the more the solution removes the debris that may float onto your film or windshield. I have one of those 32 ounce sprayers from Chemical Guys and I must have used about 3 of those for the process but I figured its better to be safe then sorry later.
Film went on super nice, no issues with my slip solution, started doing my passes with increased pressure as I learned from my 3M Film install, was going really well until I went to tuck the film. Now keep in mind the wipers are sill on so the cowl is still on the truck and it acts a bit of like a seesaw, you lift one side of the cowl, the other side goes down, you push it away from the windshield, the opposite side moves towards the windshield. We’ll wouldn’t you know i was tucking the passenger size, pulling the cowl away from the windshield and heard my son yell OH SHOOT! I look over and sure enough the cowl lifted up about a good 6 inch corner of the film, man it looked horrible, I figured I was done. I should have been paying attention. We’ll I lifted the entire corner, sprayed between the film and windshield again and was able to get it to lay down without issue. Crisis averted but note to self, PAY ATTENTION.
So I ended up making countless passes on the film, I think in the video they did like 3 but i kept going over and over to make sure I got all the bubbles out and all the fingers laid down. There were TWO SONSABISHES on the drivers side that kept popping up though, see pictures. I kept laying them down and they’d pop up, repeated that process like 10 times and it kept coming back up. I was going to bust out the hair dryer when I remembered another video (different product) where the guy mentioned just walking away for 20 minutes and letting the film dry out a little, plus i needed a break. So I took 20, ignored the temptation to go back early and check, and when it was done I went out, laid it down two more times and it stuck!!! Thank you Jesus! I waited another 20 minutes, and then ran around the edges with the hard card. Once I verified nothing else came up I called it done and put the cowl back in place.
Looking back at the film i found 2-3 little specks of dirt in the top passenger side corner that got trapped, but you can barely see it from 1 ft away so I figured I’d leave it. I think that happened when I ran a towel across the top of the film to collect the extra solution, sprayed again and some debris from the towel washed under the film. I didnt do it to the other side and it came out fine. So if yall do it, dont wipe with a towel.
I applied the ClearX wax to it and now its sitting overnight to cure. They suggested no hard driving for 24 hours, not sure what’s considered hard driving so just to be safe I’ll let it sit till tonight. We’ll the process wasn’t that HARD to do, just a lot of prep, a lot of repetition to get the bubbles out and everything tucked nicely. I’m going to wait a few days to let everything set up before I speak to how clear/not clear it is and how it holds up to the elements. Just thought I’d post my experience for those of you that are considering it.
I ended up getting the pre-cut film from Targe Industries and watched their video a bunch of times till I felt like I really had a grasp on what I needed to do. In their video they say clean the window and surrounding area 3 times, well i lost count after 5 only because I wanted to make SURE there was no debris on this windshield. The squeegee, hard card, and scrub pad they give you in the kit is bad azz!!! Really nice stuff, the squeegee I got with my 3M film was small and cheap, definitely a throw-away piece but this kit, naw I’m keeping it.
Ok so I got it all cleaned up and moved on to the wet-check. Here you’re checking to see how its going to lay and whether your slip solution is slippery enough. They recommended 3-4 drops per 16oz but I feel like i used a lot more than that. Enough to where when I was scrubbing the windshield with the scouring pad it produced suds. We got the film on the windshield and noticed the overlap on the lower portion of the window is a LOT more than i expected. From the video they mentioned you’ll have to tuck the film on the Bronco so I’m thinking 1/8 to 1/4” but nope, this sucker had an overlap of like 3/4” to 1”. Which I guess is good because the cowl sits on top of the bottom of the film so with that big of an overlap you dont have to worry about it lifting. Ok so now I went to see how to tuck it but the cowling is too damn stiff, I could barely get the corner to lift so now I’m like sonofabish!!! What did i get myself into. Then remembered a video of someone installing ditch lights and how they had to lift up the cowl to tuck their wires. So I removed the two fasteners at the end of the cowl and lifted up and blamo! You dont have to remove it, but popping it up gives you enough clearance to get in there to tuck it. Problem solved!
So now we go to install the film…make sure you spray the sheit outta everything. My assumption is that the more you spray, the more the solution removes the debris that may float onto your film or windshield. I have one of those 32 ounce sprayers from Chemical Guys and I must have used about 3 of those for the process but I figured its better to be safe then sorry later.
Film went on super nice, no issues with my slip solution, started doing my passes with increased pressure as I learned from my 3M Film install, was going really well until I went to tuck the film. Now keep in mind the wipers are sill on so the cowl is still on the truck and it acts a bit of like a seesaw, you lift one side of the cowl, the other side goes down, you push it away from the windshield, the opposite side moves towards the windshield. We’ll wouldn’t you know i was tucking the passenger size, pulling the cowl away from the windshield and heard my son yell OH SHOOT! I look over and sure enough the cowl lifted up about a good 6 inch corner of the film, man it looked horrible, I figured I was done. I should have been paying attention. We’ll I lifted the entire corner, sprayed between the film and windshield again and was able to get it to lay down without issue. Crisis averted but note to self, PAY ATTENTION.
So I ended up making countless passes on the film, I think in the video they did like 3 but i kept going over and over to make sure I got all the bubbles out and all the fingers laid down. There were TWO SONSABISHES on the drivers side that kept popping up though, see pictures. I kept laying them down and they’d pop up, repeated that process like 10 times and it kept coming back up. I was going to bust out the hair dryer when I remembered another video (different product) where the guy mentioned just walking away for 20 minutes and letting the film dry out a little, plus i needed a break. So I took 20, ignored the temptation to go back early and check, and when it was done I went out, laid it down two more times and it stuck!!! Thank you Jesus! I waited another 20 minutes, and then ran around the edges with the hard card. Once I verified nothing else came up I called it done and put the cowl back in place.
Looking back at the film i found 2-3 little specks of dirt in the top passenger side corner that got trapped, but you can barely see it from 1 ft away so I figured I’d leave it. I think that happened when I ran a towel across the top of the film to collect the extra solution, sprayed again and some debris from the towel washed under the film. I didnt do it to the other side and it came out fine. So if yall do it, dont wipe with a towel.
I applied the ClearX wax to it and now its sitting overnight to cure. They suggested no hard driving for 24 hours, not sure what’s considered hard driving so just to be safe I’ll let it sit till tonight. We’ll the process wasn’t that HARD to do, just a lot of prep, a lot of repetition to get the bubbles out and everything tucked nicely. I’m going to wait a few days to let everything set up before I speak to how clear/not clear it is and how it holds up to the elements. Just thought I’d post my experience for those of you that are considering it.
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