A Piece of Luxury with Allen

(Vehicle that has been tinted)  

Driving along 10848 Chestnut street in Kulpmont, Pennsylvania as you're driving and surveying the sides of the road you may pass by Luxury Auto Tints, an automotive repair shop run by Allen James. As it seems from the outside the shop is just plain and simple with a  two car garage, often you'll see Allen doing some kind of work on a car weather it would be detailing or putting tint on to even sandblasting and powder coating. Some will say Allen does not look like a person that works with cars simply by the way he dresses which is just a t-shirt and shorts, automatically people think of people who work on cars wear coveralls or a jumpsuit. 

(Figure 1 photo of Allen)

When Allen James was just 15 he had this idea of opening a detailing shop of his own, along with his brother. Allen always had a passion for cars and keeping them looking good as possible. He began to start doing little things such as washing and waxing cars. Then as he got further into his life through college he got a degree in business with 3 other degrees in automotive repair and detailing. He got a job with Geisinger from 2015 to 2018 working in coordination of benefits, along side doing his detailing business that he started in 2005. Allen want's his customers to feel welcomed, stated by Allen "we want our customers to be welcomed by a handshake and a help yourself to our refreshments in the fridge." Allen say's that's the way he was brought up to be.

                                                                         As previously mentioned, Allen has been tinting for quite some time, more specifically 14 years. The process of tinting is fairly compelling. It all starts with preparation. More specifically cleaning the surfaces tint will be applied to. After the cleaning of the surface film solution is applied. Following the film solutions application, the tint is applied  and shifted accordingly to achieve ideal placement. After the tint is applied, a tool called a squeegee is used to compress the excess film solution left between the window and the film. Allen states to leave the windows up for three days to prevent the film from getting shifted until all the solution is no longer visible. 

(Figure 2)

Allen just doesn't tint vehicles but he also wraps them too.  Many ask what wrapping is and what it does for the vehicle, when Allen was asked he simply just replied that its a graphic or a large decal that covers the vehicles paint and if you don't like it, it can always be removed. One of the most difficult parts Allen also stated about wrapping a car is that it takes a good amount of time and it isn't always the easiest to do with certain vehicles simply by the way they are designed with their edges and rounding of them. Wrapping also looks just like paint if its done the right way shown in figure 2.

As mentioned before Allen also does sandblasting, when he was asked what sandblasting is and what it does. Allen said "Sandblasting is way too smooth and strip a surface of anything that's not supposed to be on that object." Also sandblasting is good for the vehicle to take off the paint without doing any harm to the vehicle. Sandblasting  can smooth out a hollow indent on the car as well. But  before doing any sandblasting Allen said "we have to put a cleaner on that really cleans the surface we're going to sandblast and we usually power wash it to make sure it's clean." Down below are two images figure 3 on the left side Is before being sandblasted and on the right 

(Figure 3 photo Allen took)

is what it looks like after being sandblasted as you can tell there's a very big difference. 

Allen also does powder coating, Allen explained it as a type of dry coating unlike paint. Powder coating is good for cars once it's been dried or cured. Allen said "it's basically so hard to beat the crap out of it's a very hard surface to beat up so its really good for your cars rims".  The curing process Allen said takes a couple of days so its not a good idea to drive the vehicle all over the place after being powder coated. Down below shown in figure 4 is a rim that has been powder coated unfortunately, we didn't take before and after photos. There's really not much to say about powder coating besides it's a great way to get your rims done.

(Figure 4)

Another part of the luxury from Allen is you can get your vehicle ceramic coated by him. Allen say's "it's like super cleaning your car and putting a liquid polymer that bonds to the factory paint making it look basically new again."  Allen put's the liquid on by hand, he personally thinks that's the best way to do it.  As mentioned previously in Allen's quote ceramic coating is another layer of protection so you want have to wax your vehicle and ceramic coating last's longer than wax. However the only down side of this is the cost is expensive. But Allen's says it's worth it in some cases like if you want your vehicle to look good and it'll take care of the vehicle for months down the road. As shown below in figure 5 the top is a before photo and the bottom is after being ceramic coated, again as well you can see a big difference after being ceramic coated.

(Figure 5)

Luxury auto tints or Allen James will always greet you with a "Hi how are you doing and a feel free to anything in the fridge there's a TV on the wall of you wanna watch something feel free to use it." From Allen James's Luxury Auto tints it will give you the best it can offer to you as a customer and will always answer you with any questions or concerns about your vehicle, if they don't do it they definitely know somebody who does.