Our History (The Flow-On Tinting Era)

In 1959, a teenage Dennis Baldock went into the flow-on glass tinting business as a helper. Before long, he was installing for Transparent Glass Coatings, quickly becoming their ace installer. By the mid-sixties, he had the opportunity to purchase E-Z-I Glass Coatings, an established Orange County company based on residential and commercial installations. His true passion, however, was tinting cars, and he was a gifted pioneer in the auto tinting industry. Dennis trained numerous people in the trade.

In 1967, fellow flow-on pioneer Jerry Moen and Dennis opened a thriving car tint shop in Vegas, sponsoring race cars and making TV commercials. Car tinting was very much in demand, and Dennis rode that wave all through the 60's, 70's and into the 80's. For over twenty years, he was the master car tinter. 

He trained his nephew Raymond in 1984, who opened a successful car tint shop, Auto Tec, in Orange, California. Auto Tec had high-end clientele such as Bob Hope, among other illustrious clients. The film guys had nothing on flow-on; in those days car tinting with film required seams, as there was no "shrinking" process for the film, and it turned purple. Eventually, window film evolved to become a respectable product, but in those days it was absolutely inferior to a proper flow-on application. Dennis' expertise in flow-on was unequaled, and he shaped the careers of many flow-tinters.

That's where Dennis and Howard's younger brother Lynn comes into the picture, helping Howard after school, on weekends, and during summer vacation. Howard, who taught Lynn to swim by tossing him in the deep end, applied the same sink-or-swim philosophy to tinting. 

The young Lynn caught on quickly, and Howard entrusted him with nearly every aspect of the tint job, aside from the flowing itself. 

By the time Lynn was in high school, he was doing sub work for the big companies. The school principal, who called Lynn into his office for skipping class, took an understanding to Lynn's drive to go out and work, and so Lynn left school to tint full-time, never turning back. 

  This led to Lynn becoming a pro by the time he was 20, and going into business with Dennis Baldock in 1970. They started West Coast Glass Tinting, Lynn hired a secretary, and they rented an office on Century Boulevard in Garden Grove. The business quickly became successful.   

By 1973, Lynn had married Toni and had started a family, relinquishing his half of West Coast Glass Tinting to Dennis. Dennis sold West Coast Glass Tinting, and proceeded with his endeavor in tinting cars all over the southland. Lynn was able to take over the accounts of all the designers, which kept him throughout his whole career. They loved the way his coating did not turn purple or discolor, and would last 10 to 20 years. 

All through the 70's, he was able to build more and more connections to designers, using the ones he'd obtained with Dennis. In the early 70's, he made connections with people in charge of the Mission Viejo Decorating Center. They sold Lynn's window tint as an upgrade to the houses, as Mission Viejo and Lake Forest were still being built. Lynn did hundreds of jobs for them over the course of several years. This led to many new connections with designers, some of whom started their own design firms.

 Not one to stick a toe in to test the waters, he jumped in the deep end and tinted 64 rooms at the Ramada Inn in Palm Springs with reflective window film. He did the job alone, never having installed window film, which at the time had a separate adhesive that needed to be mixed and sprayed on the film. Lynn didn't leave until the job was done. He got paid and left confident in his window filming abilities. 

Lynn's younger son, Tim, learning the family tradition. Looks like the nut doesn't fall far from the tree!

Lynn's older son, Tom, grew up skateboarding on big ramps and helping his dad do flow jobs. Then he started his career as a car tinter, owning and operating a shop for many years. He no longer tints cars, choosing instead to lend a hand on Baldock's Co. residential and commercial jobs. He's a great all-around tinter, and a valuable part of the team.