I want to get my car re-tinted this weekend, but I want to remove the tint myself. I don't want some tint place messing up my rear window defroster. My neighbor had his old tint removed off his TII and they tore some of the defrosting strands making it not work correctly. I would rather try it myself, and if I mess it up, hey, its my fault. So if anyone had any advise/tips/tricks into taking it off safely it would be appreciated.



Thanks...



Brent

Use ammonia and plastic bags to keep the area saturated. Do this in the shade.



cut plastic bag on the outside of the window to get the size.



spray ammonia on over the area you want to remove (lift the edges of the tint from the window)



place the bag on over the ammonia and make an ammonia sandwich



protect the edges from overspray with paper towels



leave it on for 30 min and the tint should be soft



peel it off carefully and stop periodically and allow more to soak between the glass and the tint



This takes a while, stinks and works.



hope it helps.

try to peel the tint off using a heat gun or by just grabbing

the edges and pulling it off.



then take window cleaner and wet down the window good, saturate it,

use some 000 fine steel wool and the glue should come right off

put some paper down to catch the drippings.



You can get the steel wool from home depot or a hardware store, its

cheap.



I never did the amonia sandwhich like army is describing, but I have

done the steel wool thing quite a number of time with great success.

My tinter also told me to use the ammonia method, but it sounds like Rob's idea is much less to worry about - just a little elbow grease! Take your pick of methods!

But I would stay away from the steel wool if you have factory tint/coated windows underneath, like the back half of most SUV's.

The ammonia method sucks major ass, waste of time and a huge mess.



Like rob said, heat always works, and believe it or not WD-40 will loosen a number of adhesives, some on a soft rag w/ a little elbow grease will get the job done without incident, just don't use it in conjunction w/ the heat gun...duh!

Just be very careful of the defrost strips, they tend to get brittle over time and if you accidentally cut even a hairline crack in one of them then they're done. Don't let anyone tell you that you can easily fix it with the cheapo filler gel stuff, that crap definitely doesn't work. Just some experience info- At the dealership I work at we had a 99 Corvette come in as a trade in and it needed reconned. During the recon a few of the defrost strips were cut while someone was trying to scrape a parking pass sticker off the back window with a razor blade. We couldn't fix it, and an entire rear window assembly had to be purchased, which was insanely expensive. Then again, I guess it depends how important rear defrost is to you. That "ammonia sandwhich" idea sounds like it would work fine, just be very careful about those strips, they're more fragile than you think.

this works the best, from my own experience

i used single edge razor blades, like the scrapers that's used to remove inspection stickers.

Easy to scratch glass that way, and as some one else said, terrible for window defrost component.

razors + defrost strips = bad

I should have mentioned you can use some window cleaner with

amonia in it already, like windex.



I used steel wool on windows all the time, it doesnt scratch and

it gets the windows incredibly clean, perfect if you have some

overspray on them too. 00-000 fine works good, you can even

get 0000 fine.

Sweet!



My defrost strips were a big concern and it looks like I'll be able to do it without tearing the strips in pieces. Can't wait to get started now...I've been wanting this aftermarket getto tint to be gone ever since I've had the car and been a little sketch on taking it off...looks like its not all that hard...



Thanks for all the help guys...

damn, this guy always takes the words right outta my mouth.



hey rob, how long you been detailing ?

19 years or so?

well considering the fact that the rear defroster didn't work anyway, it didn't matter. besides, from what i could tell, it didn't hurt the strips anyway.

Mine does, and I intend to keep it that way...Using a blade on the defrosting strips with seperate them from the glass..



I started yesterday on my door windows the way Rob said, and it works like a charm!



With my hatch, I'm gonna do it both ways (Robs and Army's) just to be sure I dont mess the strips up..

ahhh.. i have about 5 years myself.

on windows with no defroster you can just wet them down good

with window cleaner then use a good razorblade, shouldnt take you

more then 5 minutes or so for a door window