Solar Eclipse’s first store was started in 1989 by a gentleman by the name of Benji Lapid. Through out the 1990’s, Solar Eclipse became the Elite window tinting shop of San Diego and also became one of the first import performance shops that catered to the import scene. After a couple of years, Solar Eclipse had opened two other stores though out San Diego that included a larger shop in Mira Mesa. The First Solar Eclipse store in National City was the shop that mainly specialized in window tint, auto accessories and minor customization while the larger Mira Mesa store specialized in everything from window tint to full on drag race cars.
At the end of 1997 Benji decided to pursue his career in manufacturing and sell both the two store that were still open, the National City store and the Mira Mesa store. The Mira Mesa store was sold to an employee but was closed within a year of the change of ownership. The National City store was also sold to a current employee by the name of Damien Abrams who wanted to continue the legacy of the best window tinting store in San Diego and since then has done just that. Solar Eclipse still today is San Diego’s premeir window tinting shop with customers coming as far as Los Angeles to have their cars tinted and also being the auto dealerships choice of window tinting.