Time: 1-3 hours


Materials:

• Warm sunny day
• Tarp
• Large plastic garbage bag
• Undiluted Ammonia
• Windex (a glass cleaner)
• Paper towels
• Fine steel wool
• Razor blades
  
  

Tools:

• Slotted Screwdrivers
• Phillips Screwdrivers
  
  

Tips: The difficult thing about removing tint is that most film is constructed of two layers of tinted polyester. When you try to peel the film off the glass, the top layer will usually pull right off leaving the second layer behind. This second layer will not peel off, it will just flake and tear like a price tag. Step 1:


To over come separation between layers you must soften the adhesive so that both layers peel at the same time. This is very important, if you peel the just the top layer, you may as well just use razor blades as there is no way to peel the second layer off without picking at it for a few hours. You MUST try to peel both layers at once.
Step 2:
First, clear the window of any obstructions, like the brake light, speaker covers etc.

Step 3:
Next cut open the garbage bag so that it will be big enough to cover the entire window. Spray some water on the outside of the back window and the lay plastic bag over the glass. Cut away excess plastic so that it is now roughly the same shape as the glass.

Step 4:
Next, lay a tarp over rear deck and seat, spray ammonia liberally on the inside of the back window. (Ammonia is very strong, I suggest you hold your breath during this step) and cover ammonia soaked tint with the plastic bag so that it won't evaporate.

Step 5:
Park the car with rear window facing the sun for about an hour. The film should now be ready to peel.

Step 6:
When you are ready to start peeling, leave the plastic in place so the ammonia wont dry. Get the peeling started with a razor blade in a corner where there are no defroster lines. Try to peel film off in one piece. If the ammonia dries as you peel, the glue will get hard again, so spray a bit of ammonia on the area as you peel.

Step 7:
Once the film is peeled you will need to scrub the adhesive off with ammonia and fine 0000 steel wool.

Mop up scrubbed areas with paper towels before they dry. Finish up with window cleaner and paper towels.

Removing tint from side windows
Soaking is not nessesary here. You may want to use a simple razorblade holder. Cut a notch onto the upper area of the film so that you have a piece to pull. Try to peel the film, it will probably come off in two or three pieces.
Spray the remaining adhesive with soapy water, and scrape the adhesive off with a razor blade, avoiding the edges of the glass until last to keep the blade sharp. You may need to use a few blades as they dull quickly. Finish up with window cleaner and paper towels. Inspect for missed glue (its clear and hard to see)



Another way to strip using steam



If you have access to a Jiffy steamer or similar steam machine, you can make quick work of stripping. Apply the steam to a small spot for a few moments and use a blade or the spout of the steamer to peel the area just steamed, when you have enough to hold, just peel slowly as you steam just ahead of the area you are peeling.

This will bring both layers of tint off and sometimes the adhesive too, without presoaking for an hour.

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Customers


If you dont know how to correctly strip off old tint, its probably best if you dont try.....It will only cost you more.

I had a guy come in about a week ago. He asked for an estimate to strip and retint his 2dr civic. I gave him the price for both. This much for the car and this much/hr to strip. He makes an appt. for me to tint the car, but said he wanted to save some money so he was going to strip it himself. I told him how to do it, but I also told him that if he tries and messes up i.e., doesnt get it all off, just pulls the film and leaves glue, kills his defrosters, scratches the glass, it was only going to cost him more. He said "well it doesnt look that hard" and left. A couple days later he brings it in for me to tint. This guy ruined every piece of glass in his car. On the B/W he killed the defosters, and left glue and tint throughout the matrix. On the 1/4's he scratched the frit all to hell (black boarder around glass for the noobs), and on the doors scratched the shiot out of them as well. After all that I STILL had to charge him to finish the job.

In the end this guy didnt save a dime. Instead he ruined all his glass, and probably a whole Saturday doing so. When he picked it up I asked how he did all the damage (I knew he didnt do what I had told him). The guy told me this....."Na man, the way you told me didnt work for shiot. I just took a 4" scraper blade from Home Depot and put that in some Vise Grips. That worked sooo much better" I couldnt believe my ears!!!

So you see what I mean everyone? Even if it costs just a little more to have the job done right, wouldnt you rather do that than what this guy did? Not to mention, youre going to make the whole job much easier for the tinter! Which in turn will more than likely get you a better job in the end.


A good question about stripping

From SUZIE:
hi, so glad i found your website. i'm one of the fools trying to remove really old, really bubbled, baked on tint from my hatchback window with defroster lines. i've unfortunately already picked and pulled at most of it before i decided to search for help. i have all the stuff need to follow your instructions but i'm a little confused about the plastic bag part. do i need two bags? one for the outside and one to cover the tinted inside once i've sprayed the ammonia? please help so i can finally see out my back window.
thanks.

The reply
No, you just need one bag, the bag is to cover the ammonia that is sprayed onto the film (on the inside) so that the ammonia wont evaporate. The bag is first laid onto the outside just to cut it to shape. Unfortunately once the film has been partially stripped this method wont work well. You should still soak it, but dont expect to be able to peel it off (because there is no longer a continuous piece of film).

I suggest soaking it as normal, then expose only a small area at a time to pick at the film, then peel back the garbage back a little more and work that area. At this point you are looking at about 3 hours of sweaty hard frustrating work. If you can afford it, have a shop strip the rear window for you, it shouldnt cost more that 50$ an it will save you a lot of aggrivation.



Removing residential film

Your best bet for removing film from residential glass is to soak them in soapy water instead of ammonia, using the garbage bag method described above. Let them soak for an hour or so, then you will need to use a wide razor scraping tool (about 4" wide razor blade scrapers are available at the hardware store) to remove the film and adhesive.

Concentrate on removing all of the film, then spray the window with more soapy water and use a new blade to remove the left over adhesive. Windex will also work well instead of dish soapy water. Straight ammonia should not be used as there would be so much, it would be hard to breath in the area.