Taking a helicopter over international waters to get to a tower protruding high above the Atlantic Ocean might sound like a scene from a spy movie, but it’s a true story for one company owner in North Carolina.

Robert Harman runs a Tint World franchise in Wilmington, North Carolina. The work his company did recently, about 34 miles off the city’s coastline at Frying Pan Shoals Tower, was unique. Originally built in the 60’s as a Coast Guard-operated lighthouse, today the structure provides maritime safety education and serves as an observation station for various marine science studies, according to its website.

The Frying Pan Shoals Tower is located more than 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Photo by Eliot Scarpetti, used with permission.

Forming a Plan

Harman says he first formed a relationship with FPTower Inc., the organization that owns and operates the structure, in 2022.

“[A little more than a year ago] they called me and told me the interior of the tower was so hot they couldn’t run the HVAC system without taking power from other essentials in the tower,” Harman says. “They said it got to 105 degrees Fahrenheit in there, and they wanted to tint the tower’s windows to help cool it down.”

In searching for a tint that would bring the temperature down to a livable number, Harman selected XPEL Dark Neutral 15% window film.

Robert Harman says he chose a particularly dark tint for this project because the customer’s biggest priority was heat rejection. Pictured here is Zach Jones. Photo by Eliot Scarpetti, used with permission.

“The client was most interested in the maximum amount of sun protection and didn’t have any concerns about it being too dark,” he says.

The film is designed to absorb light without being as reflective as traditional metalized films, says Lindsay Parks, the XPEL North America sales manager for architectural film. She says that’s a good feature for projects like the Frying Pan Shoals Tower, where the client doesn’t want the film to be reflective from the outside.

Another feature, Parks adds, is that this film can help reduce bird strikes.

“This project was focused on heat rejection, but delivering a little bit less of that exterior reflectivity will help minimize, not prevent, the amount of [bird strike] issues,” she says.

Sizing it Up

After selecting the film, Harman flew to the tower on a helicopter several times to measure the windows.

“The owners told me there were about 55 windows, but I didn’t realize they’d be as big as they were,” he said. “My attitude toward the project went from ‘Yeah, we’ve got this,’ to ‘We’ve still got this, but it’s going to be a challenge.’”

On the day of the job, Harman, plus one of his full-time flat glass installers, Zach Jones, and a videographer, Eliot Scarpetti, packed their tools and supplies into helicopters and headed out to sea. They had planned their haul to avoid weighing down the helicopters, Harman says.

The Frying Pan Shoals Tower can only be accessed by boat or helicopter, so the Tint World Crew flew to and from the job. Photo by Eliot Scarpetti, used with permission.

“We pre-cut the film so we didn’t have to bring whole rolls with us,” he says. “We cut 65 pieces, so we’d have extra in case we made any mistakes.”

Harman says the job had two main challenges, aside from transportation. One was the heat.

“It wasn’t like we could stand in shady areas to cool down,” he says. “Thankfully, the tower had plenty of water stocked.”

Navigating the space was another.

“We could walk right up to some of the windows, but we had to climb on top of things or shimmy around furniture for others,” he says.

Nearing the End

He and his employees had to stick to a strict 24-hour time window, or risk being stuck on the tower for another day.

“The helicopters had a set schedule, and missing that would be a lot worse than missing a bus,” Harman says.

Harman, Jones and Scarpetti worked on the tower from 4 p.m. one day to 2 p.m. the next, witnessing both the sunset and sunrise over the Atlantic. Photo by Eliot Scarpetti, used with permission.

He, Jones and Scarpetti finished the job in 22 hours. They worked from 4 p.m. one day to 2 p.m. the next, with occasional breaks for a nap or snack.

Relieved the job was over, Harman was also proud of his team’s work. Plus, the crew only had to use four of the extra pieces of film they had brought.

“Honestly, they were good enough as it was, but we wanted to make sure the install was as close to perfect as possible,” he says.

Harman says that the temperature in the tower has now dropped from 105 degrees to the mid-80s . He calls the job a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience and thinks it has brought the company up a notch in the eyes of its current and potential customers.

“We did that,” he says. “No one can ever take that [achievement] from us.”