Stay up-to-date via RSS!

I’m not one to quote songs, but this Sunday was really frustrating, however, I’ll get to it later. Let’s start with something much more exciting {at least it was for me}.

When my car {I still can’t get over calling it that; perhaps I should name it. In retrospect, that sounds kind of tacky} was sent for PUSPAKOM Inspection, a prerequisite for name transfer, the tinting had to be removed. It is a known secret that PUSPAKOM happily reject all tints, unless you use a runner. I’m cheap and I don’t need a runner when I can do it myself.

So anyways, the tint had to be removed and my car didn’t have any protection from the blazing sun. Needless to say it got really hot inside at times, even with the air-condition blasting at 22.5*C. What was even more worrying, besides my scorched testicles was that I could not leave my phone on the handphone holder I had installed in the car as direct contact with sunlight would heat it up. This made it extremely difficult as I was unable to have direct view of the phone when using the navigation capabilities.

Figured it was high time to get it tinted, so as usual I used the internet to scout for deals. Finally found one that was pretty affordable, and it was a Safety Tint. Basically Safety Tint will hold your windows in place when a would-be-assailant tries to smash them. Whilst the window may get smashed, it won’t fall off, effectively keeping the other person outside. As cool as that sounds, it still perplexes me, because the windscreen and back window are without safety tinting, and can be shattered by applying blunt force trauma on it!

The tinting was supposed to be a long process, close to 2-3 hours. As a strong believer in Murphy’s law and having the Krishnan luck, I knew it would take longer than expected. To make the wait less of a chore, I enlisted Kenneshwaran Kandiah. For those of you who don’t know who Ken is, he’s a rockstar. Nuff’ said.

That’s Ken, in his voracious self. Can you not detect his excitement waiting for my car getting tinted clad in his Facebook Merchandising T-Shirt?

As customary, the need for before and after pictures are quite important, to avoid any psychological effect of thinking there were no changes to the end product. Here are some before shots.

The circular air bubble in the middle is my handphone holder. Placing my handphone there gets it roasted faster than they roast chicken at Nandos.

Reflective, yummy

If you look at the bottom right, below the roadtax, you will see a nice shiny circular sticker. That is the PUSPAKOM logo to indicate the car has passed PUSPAKOM’s check. Say your goodbyes.

Another PUSPAKOM sticker at the left side window panel. There’s just something nice about reflective metallic paint

This is the tint shop. This is the first tint shop that I’ve seen with an orange theme. Perhaps they may offer something different from the various competitors out there?

My booking was for 1 P.M. Being a good punctual chap, I arrived at 12.40 P.M. having good faith that I will be able to bail by 3 P.M. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Apparently, Tint Garage is the panel for nearby car dealerships. What this means is, whenever a new car is purchased, one of these dealers will pass the customers a discount voucher for tinting their new car that can be redeemed here. Unfortunately for me, they overbooked, and there were 4 new cars waiting to be tinted.

When I arrived, they were already busy tinting a brand new Honda City. I gave them my key and went for lunch. An hour later, I return and the Honda transformed into an Accord. They were working on an Accord now, and a Myvi was also inside. Looks like I’m last in the queue.  They finish up the Myvi and I got a bit excited, however it was short lived, as a new Nissan Teana took its place. I took this opportunity to inspect the car and it was gorgeous. Japanese cars have come a long way in their luxury class vehicles. I suppose with Nissan owning Infinity and Toyota owning Lexus, they’ve learnt a thing or two. The Teana looks absolutely amazing. Keyless start, navigation, ample space, and plenty of gadgets to fiddle around.

Finally, when they were done with the Teana, they took my car in.

You can’t really see it from here, but the car in front is a brand new Accord 2.0 being tinted. We noticed the number plate and hypothesized that this is definitely not a chinese chaps car, considering the number had a lot of fours. We figured it was a Malay chap. We were wrong. An Indian man and his wife came later to claim the car. You just can’t judge anyone these days, so learn from my errors kids.

I later enquired the lady working at the counter regarding the kind of tint the Accord is getting done. He’s gone for the Premium Package worth RM 3000. Phew! It is actually a Security Film of 8mm thickness, compared to the measly 5mm of mine. It had a shade of blue for the side windows, and the front, I could not really tell, but it looked a bit like gold.

The workers were pretty meticulous about their work. I suppose they took real pride in the service they were offering. The chinese chap on the left side of the above photo, he was working on the back panel window of that car for a good 30 minutes, trying to push air bubbles out. Not the window that can be rolled down, no, the small window behind that! 30 minutes on that is no joke. Perhaps this explains why they dare give a 7 year warranty?

When they were done with the Accord it was finally time for my car! I was excited.

Here you can see the chap prepare the dashboard prior to working. As he is about to wash the window, he places the cloth there to ensure none of the grime gets on the dashboard. Notice the man in the background? He is another customer who is about to get his new Nissan Livina car tinted. However, he does not possess patience that I have. He got bored after a while and went out to get his hair cut. When he returned, they were still working on my car

Giving the inside panel of the windscreen a thorough wash to remove remnants of glue and any other grime that may have made its home there.

When he is done with the washing, he rolls out the tint and places it on the windscreen outside. Unlike the saying of measuring twice and cutting once, this chap didn’t even bother measuring. They have so many years of experience in applying tints that he just started cutting it out of the blue.

Next step is to apply some heat to straighten out the rowdy tint film that refuses to stay put.

Once straightened and settled, he does some final accurate adjustments to the film.

When he is done with the film, and is letting it cool down prior to adhesion onto the windscreen.

Once he places the tint onto the inside window, you can see the workmanship show.

Meticulously works on pushing all remaining air bubbles out, with perfection the only acceptable level for him as another customer looks on!

With the windscreen done, it was time to start working on the side windows. Similarly, the tint film is measured outside the vehicle.

Whilst all this was going on, another chap was working his magic for the rear screen.

Here are the mandatory AFTER photos.

They did such a good job I didn’t mind the free advertising I gave them on the back screen

Even the smaller window at the rear seat was worked on meticulously. I am most impressed with their service.

Tint Garage have coloured me impressed. I would seriously recommend anyone who is looking for a tint job to head there. They are good, and they take pride in their work. Their pricing is also competitive and affordable. Doesn’t matter if you drive an R-35 or a Persona, if you need tinting done, go meet them in Kota Damansara.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.