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DIY Lamin-x Installation when its Cold Outside

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

temperature-2-coldSo you have purchased, or received as a gift, some fine Lamin-x product for your vehicle. This is wonderful news, but you may find it difficult to wait until the warmer season comes before installing your new gift. We can’t blame you; we enjoy instant gratification too!  Here are some tips for cold weather installation that will help you to enjoy your Lamin-x product sooner, rather than later.

   The installation technique is still the same as always, but the preparation and tools makes the difference when its cold outside.  The key to cold weather installation is keeping the Lamin-x warm and soft.  You will find that the film tends to become a little more rigid in cooler temperatures, usually 70 degrees and below. This rigidity can increase the difficulty level of installation for most vehicles, but there are some ways help work around this inconvenience. With each of the below methods, we recommend keeping the Lamin-x waiting in any warm location until you are ready for installation. This will help keep the Lamin-x happy and ready to go.

   Obviously, access to a garage would be most ideal for any cold weather installation. If the garage is already not equipped with room temperature heat, then use of portable lamps and/or a space heater will be needed. Position them within close proximity to the lights that will be receiving the film. This method could also be used for outdoor installation too, but we would recommend adding a heat gun or hair dryer to the tool list.  Use the heat gun/blow dryer to constantly apply heat to the Lamin-x during the application and installation process.  This will help keep installation area toasty and the Lamin-x softened and pliable. Even turn on the lights themselves to get their surface warmed up too. Obvious note, if heating the Lamin-x with a heat gun or blow dryer, just be sure as to not get too close and overheat the it.  Melted Lamin-x would not be good.

  If you do not have access to a garage, or the tools to keep the area and lights warm, then you have two options: Remove the lenses completely, bring them indoors, and install inside once everything is up to room temperature. (By the way, securing the lenses in a way to keep from it shifting around will greatly help with the installation process. That way you only have to deal with handling the Lamin-x, not both the lens and Lamin-x.) The last resort option is the toughest one of all…actually waiting until warmer weather comes. 

Hope these tips help.  If you have any additional comments, suggestions, or input then post them up on our Facebook Fan page.

 

 

 

Prepping your headlights or tail lights

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Most modern automobiles and motorcycles use polycarbonate lenses for their headlights and tail lights.  This plastic is very sensitive to a variety of chemicals. Contact with certain chemicals can cause crazing, softening, or cracking of the lens, which would require replacement of the entire lamp housing.  That is definitely a bad thing.  So please be aware of this and avoid the following chemicals in cleaning or prepping your lenses before applying Lamin-x.

DO NOT USE ANY OF THESE CHEMICALS TO CLEAN YOUR LENSES!!! 

Acetone
Ammonia
Agitene®
Ajax®
Benzyl
Carbon Tetrachloride
Chlorinated Water
Citrus Orange Cleaners
Diversol ®
Gasoline
Isoprophyl Alcohol
Kleenol Plastics
Lemon Joy® (phosphate free)
Lestoil®
Liquid Cleaner - 8211
Liquid Detergents
Lysol®
Methyl Ethyl Keyton (MEK)
Oils
Pink Lux® (phosphate free)
Stanisol Naphtha®
Texiz-8006, 8129, 8757
Toluol
Tricholor
Triclene®

WHAT YOU CAN USE:

Distilled Water

Brillianize

Plexus

Meguiars Plastx

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Installation Video’s

Friday, July 24th, 2009

So we have created a bunch of installation video’s and uploaded them to YouTube to help every understand the best way to install Lamin-x.   We embeded the video links in each product in our online store in the “how to install” tab at the lower part of that particular product page.  Here are the video’s for you to look over:

Precut Headlight Cover Installation
       

 
Precut Tail Light Cover Installation
       

Fog Light Cover Installation
       


Universal Fog Cover Installation
       


Convex Fog Light Cover Installation

       


Precut Paint Protection Installation

       


Universal Large Light Cover Installation

Coming Soon!


Universal Paint Protection Installation

Coming Soon!

Speed & Sound Magazine DIY Spread

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

So some our friends and fans in South Africa did a great article on a DIY for installing our Universal Covers. They went all-out and removed the tail lights, but that is not truly necessary to do.   Regardless they did a great job.   Check it out!

“The name’s Chris, I’m Editor at a South African Magazine called Speed &
Sound. In our recent issue, 94, there’s a two page feature on fitting
Lamin-X, and once that hit the shelves, I made a DIY guide for motoring
forums. I just thought I’d share it with you, it’s posted on various South
African forums, and also on UK forum I’m part of.

Here’s some links:

http://www.speednsound.co.za/site/

http://forum.autostyle.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1304

http://www.linktobusiness.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4291&p=42280#p42
280

Thanks for a great product!”