“We were slammed,” says Jeff Croteau, owner of Coastal Window Tinting in Toms River, N.J., near Seaside Heights, one of the hardest hit areas. “The shop was busy up until that weekend of the storm. We finished up that Saturday and figured we’d be back to work on Wednesday. We didn’t actually get back to work until Friday. Phones were down for five days so that’s five days of calls I missed. We had a pretty good week scheduled until this second storm, then we had the nor’easter and everything’s a mess. All of my appointments are now rescheduled again. It’s kind of looking like November is going to be rough for us. We’re trying. We’re just hoping that this is the last of it.”

“We haven’t tinted a car in a week and a half,” states Thomas Kovach, owner of Art of Tint in New York, N.Y. “Here in Manhattan it’s very slow for cars but we have been doing some residential work on windows that have been broken as a result of the storm. The shop stayed closed until the electric came back on Saturday.”

“No one’s getting their cars tinted because they aren’t drivable; they’re flooded,” adds Jerry Hastaba, owner of Sound, Sight and Security of Staten Island. “We missed two weeks of business; the electric was out until yesterday.”

Some area shops Window Film magazine attempted to contact are still closed, noting on their answering machine messages that they would remain closed until power returns.

Despite the lack of business, shop owners say they are fortunate to not have sustained any severe storm damage to their shops.

“The whole town around here is wrecked,” says Croteau. “Shops just a few blocks from us were three feet under water. Everyone’s lost a lot. I was fortunate to only have one foot of water in the shop.”

“The water came within a half a block of our shop on 10^th and 25^th street,” says Kovach. “There was no water damage, we just lost power. My home was evacuated. We were in a mandatory evacuation zone so we went upstate for a few days until we could come back. What really hurt New York was the water from the high tide. My house didn’t get hurt by the water, but 90 percent of the buildings in Manhattan had flooded basements. Probably 40 percent of lower Manhattan is still out of power at this point.”

“It’s looking disastrous over here but we’re not doing too badly,” says Hastaba. “We just got the lights back on last week. This storm is very fresh; people are still trying to get their electric on. Staten Island was one of the worst hit areas.”

“I’m considering myself very lucky; I had a very good summer so I feel comfortable with the slow period,” says Kovach. “I do have some anti-graffiti jobs scheduled for the next couple of months to compensate for the decrease in cars. I do believe that the shops that only do cars are going to be very slow through November.”

As owner of a shop that provides a variety of automotive services in addition to tinting, Hastaba agrees that automotive shops will have a hard time bouncing back.

“Most cars are going to scrap right now,” he says. “We count on installing remote starts for cars in the winter. With all of these vehicles being scrapped and the shortage of gas, no one wants to start the car and leave it running while wasting gas.”

Croteau plans to employ word-of-mouth marketing to drum up extra business in the hopes of making up for lost business.

“Hopefully the snow will melt down and people will start getting out and about again,” says Croteau. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years; we go strong. We really push but I do think this is going to really affect us. I’m just counting on a lot of pounding the pavement and going back to our roots of shaking hands and going out there to get business back up.”

Attendees walked the SEMA Show floor searching for the latest products on display.

Despite the poor weather that recently affected the East Coast, SEMA Show exhibitors in Las Vegas have seen consistent, some said higher, numbers of attendees.

Greg Duchinsky of Sharpline states that, “attendance is up from last year by about 15 to 20 percent.”

Suk Won Choi, president of Nexfil, saw a difference in attendance this year compared to last year.

“The weather has definitely lowered the attendance for the show,” he says.

“It’s pretty much similar to last year, but it’s a little slower,” adds Michelly Pak, sales assistant manager for Nexfil.

Though there have been contrasting reports on attendance, the quality of products on display this year has remained stellar.

Luxo Window Films, which currently caters to international markets but is looking to expand in North America, is displaying its Crystallite, TiNite and Metallic window films. The Crystalline films, which the company claims are virtually invisible and reject heat without altering the look of the car, offer of visible light transmission (VLT) between 42 and 73 percent. Infra-red (IR) rejections is available in 91 to 98 percent. The nano-ceramic TiNite series comes in a VLT range of 32-71 percent and an IR range of 10 to 48 percent. The Metallic series ranges a VLT of 9 to 48 percent and an IR of 60 to 80 percent.

ClearPlex is displaying its ClearPlex Invisible Windshield Protection. According to the company the protection film is a “patented film applied to the exterior surface of a windshield, preventing damage from ordinary highway rock strikes and road debris.” Additionally, the company is offering its polymer treatment ClearX HD. This treatment is a system to protect the ClearPlex windshield film to maintain scratch resistance and water repellency.

Another notable display came from the Scorpion Window Film booth where NASCAR driver David Ragan was available to sign autographs for show attendees.

Though some attendees may not yet have arrived as a result of the effects of the hurricane, day two of SEMA was certainly a success. Stay tuned to www.windowfilmmag.com for more show updates and videos.