New York in September … I had secured a contract to a very popular TV show that tapes all across the country. It’s a crazy whirlwind job as they require LLumar 5 percent auto film on the windows to reduce the light coming in (I know, I know … we aren’t supposed to put limo tint on flat glass cause it can very easily cause thermo fractures … they sign a complete waiver and are responsible for any breakage). In cameraman terms it reduces the light by 5 F stops so they can have the proper lighting for filming. Then they may want you remove it after the days shoot so they can do some night shots and need all the light. You then reinstall before the next morning for the next day’s shooting. We generally hire a local dealer to do the install as we like to spread the work around and that logistically works better for the client. Finally when they are done filming you do a final removal. So in essence the film is only up for 3-4 days.

3 a.m. … One row done, one to go. Add one gallon of Dunkin Donuts coffee and one dozen donuts and we’re good to go.

I had everything lined up until the 11th hour when the dealer called and backed out 36 hours before the install. Have tools will travel … yes yours truly packed up his tools and grabbed one of my best installers, Alex Asuquo and headed to the airport. One “red eye” flight later we are onsite at 10 a.m. with no sleep from the previous night … so we’ve been up for over 24 hours to this point. After tracking down the film and taking care of all the logistics they told us we couldn’t start until later that night as they were going to do some shooting. Fine with us …so we headed to the hotel to get some much needed shuteye. By the time we got to the hotel my head hit the pillow at 3 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. the phone rings … you guessed it they were ready for us.

So after a full 90 minutes of sleep we head back to install 1,800 square feet.  Keep in mind that these windows were 83 inches wide by 102 inches tall and two rows worth. So every window had to be seamed and it was frameless glass to boot. We finally got started around 6:30 p.m. and the final squeegee stroke happened as the clock chimed 9 a.m.

We’ve all been there on demanding jobs like this but 90 minutes of sleep in a 48-hour time frame … I’m gettin’ too old for this; actually I think it’s what keeps me young.

One last look before taking it all down.

I think I’ve taken enough of your time this month so I will save the Nigeria visit for next month. However, let’s briefly touch on SEMA. Huge as usual but attendance seemed lighter. No doubt due to Sandy. My first observation while walking the rows and rows of exhibitors is the increasing amount of “film manufacturers.” Most of the big companies had their normal large booths with their full entourage but the amount of small booths with rolls of film being displayed was astounding. Mostly oriental in origins and it was very difficult to communicate. They surely can’t all be manufacturing their own film. I lost count at around 28 different window film companies displaying and that’s not counting all the PPF booths and the wrap booths. Our industry is going through some monumental changes and the choices available to dealers are growing. In some ways it’s good for us dealers to have choices especially when we get yet another price increase from our mainline manufacturers. But in other ways it’s reducing the quality of film and could hurt the whole industry in the long term. We shall see.One new film that I thought was interesting was from NDFOS. It’s a marriage of two films Anti-Fog and Ceramic. This combo automotive film claims to stay fog free when damp out and block 95 percent heat and 65 percent VLT or 35 percent heat blockage and 85 percent VLT. Competition breeds innovation.

The survey in my last post asked if you knew about Scotchkote before my article. Seems like I enlightened the majority of you as 91.7 percent were not aware of this product while only 8.3 percent were. I’ll keep looking for new products throughout my travels.

This month I want to know how many of you have ever gone to SEMA. Of course it might be skewed as not every film dealer does automotive … but then neither do I. I go to see what’s new on the film front and make connections with the dealers I work with all across the world.

Quote of the Month

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.” — Sam Ewing

“I have had the pleasure and displeasure of working with all three.” — Ross Kehl

“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.”