Removing tint.

J

joyriiide1113

New member
Over the past few years I have almost become an expert @ selecting good tint shops and mobile guys. Buddy from work picked up a really NICE G35 coupe. Bought it with 20'' DPE's, Aero Kit, Exhaust, ect.



Unfortunately it has a 5% Llumar tint. He really does not like the darkness and wants it removed and replaced with some Huper Optik or Pinnacle. A lot of the good guys I know charge a lot to remove it. Especially the back window. One even quoted 120 just for the removal and it would need a whole day to bake before removing.



I'm not an expert, but I have removed tint glue and residue before with some prepsol and all went great. How hard or easy is doing the back window with the defrosters? Can it be done. I'm expecting to spend 2-3 hours learning and removing it with him.



Any tips?
 
I was actually just told by a pro tinter how to remove tint without damaging anything or leaving glue behind.



Take a black garbage bag and cut it slightly larger then the window (rough shape but enough to cover all the tint/glass. Spray a lil soapy water (just need a lil soap as this helps the trash bag stick - maybe a capful or so).



Start with a small side window on the G i would do the rear quarter window. Spray the water glue solution on and press teh bag against the glass. I guess get it to seal against all the glass. You have now made a min greenhouse of sorts.



Next he said let it sit in the son for a few minutes (15-20) and check it. The tint should remove easily and leav no glue behind. If it still sticks, let it bake longer.



He said start with small glass first until you get the hang of it and timing right before doing the rear glass.



I haven't tried it yet but this is what he told me to do when I said I needed to have another car done which is already tinted.
 
I've used the garbage bag technique and it works great.



One little tip though -- when you go to remove the tint, do not remove the entire garbage bag. Start with one corner, peel back the garbage bag a little and then slowly peel the tint back until you get to the point where the garbage bag is still stuck to the window. Work it back and forth -- garbage bag, tint, garbage bag, tint -- peeling around 2-3 inches at a time.



If you peel the entire garbage bag off all at once, the window will dry out and the tint will glue itself back. By peeling a little at a time, you keep the window as wet as possible.



Once you've removed the tint completely (it will come off in one piece if you are careful), you can remove the residual glue with windex (amonnia-based glass cleaner seems to work best at dissolving the glue)
 
I'd heard tospray ammonia then put the plastic bag on, I like the sound of soap better. I've also heard a Magic Eraser works well for any residue.
 
I always just peel it off, spray some windex on there, and use a straight razor blade to coax the glue off. No need to make things more complicated than they are.
 
Don't use razor, at least not on glass with defroster lines, unless you want to risk damage (many will voice their confidence that you will be fine because they were fine but then again many have damaged them, so suit yourself).



Black garbage bag didn't work for me, not even under mid summer Southern California sun. I went to Home Depot and got one of those wallpaper steamers that have two flat pieces. I ended up using 3" x 5" one. Put it against film and let steam do its work starting from corner. Once it loosened corner I started peeling from there steaming as I peeled. Just make sure you grab not just top film at the corner but also all layers underneath it. It worked like a charm. If there is any glue residue left I used citrus based remover. Much more pleasant than heated up ammonia.
 
absolutimpreza said:
I only use razors on the side windows and such.
Click to expand...

I use it just to start the corner peel. For everything else I don't use it as it is not needed and less it is in the hand less chance there is something will be cut that shouldn't be.
 
I used the black trash bag with ammonia too. Afterwards I had about half the rear glass covered with the residual adhesive. The magic eraser worked great. The adhesive eats it up quickly. I used two erasers. The place that tinted the second time asked if the Mach had ever had tint.
 
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