So we just picked up a 94 accord last night and everything is great except the windows. The side and rear window have this factory/dealer light tint that has now become wavy to look through and has a few large bubbles in it. The previous owner said she replaced it once before because of that but it was on the car when she got it 14 years ago.
Can I just find an edge and rip it off? Is there a chance that I could tear off my rear de-fog?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
In reply to PaulY:
I had to remove non-legal tint on my forester. I found the bottom edge and peeled upwards, so the film wasn't pulling the long ways on the defog.
I then used rubbing alcohol to remove all of the left over glue. It took two hours or so to get all of it off. I used alcohol so I wouldn't damage any of the electronics or destroy any of the plastic if I dripped it all over. Acetone would have taken 10 minutes, but collateral damage might have been high.
I did the same as Brett. It was a miserable job.
My E30 has aftermarket tint on the front door windows. At the moment, I have my fingers crossed it won't cause me any issues with PA inspection.
Out of curiosity, I asked the tint shop near me about removal. IIRC, they quoted $100 for both.
Find local kid that needs $20 bucks.
RossD wrote:Find local kid that needs $20 bucks.
Dude. I don't like paying professionals to work on my cars. You expect me to pay some snot-nosed kid?
I've used Windex and Ammonia to remove the adhesive - it came off off super easy.
Removing tint is easy. It just takes ammonia-based glass cleaner and razor blades.
Removing it without destroying the rear defroster is much trickier business.
I talked to the guy who tinted my Legacy about this. Just spray an ammonia based cleaner (like Windex) on, put saran wrap on to let it soak into the tint film for a while, and then remove the film. Clean with more ammonia based cleaner.
PeterAK wrote:I talked to the guy who tinted my Legacy about this. Just spray an ammonia based cleaner (like Windex) on, put saran wrap on to let it soak into the tint film for a while, and then remove the film. Clean with more ammonia based cleaner.
I used this method on my RX-7 to remove the 15+ year old tint. I used Simple Green and black trash bags cut open at the seams. It works amazingly well if you can remove the glass and let it sit in the sun for about an hour. Just soak down the glass, layer on the black plastic and let the sun go to work. The Simple Green + heat softens the adhesive and lets the tint peel off quite easily.
Side windows:
Tools:
- hair dryer
- razor blade
- windex
- paper towel
Procedure:
1. Heat up a corner with the hair dryer.
2. use the razor blade to get under the tint.
3. Peel enough with razor blade to get a hold on the tint.
4. Pull tint taut.
5. Heat glue at connection of tint and window.
6. Pull more of the tint loose.
7. Repeat 5+6 until all the tint has come off in 1 clean sheet.
8. spray with Windex
9. Remove residue with razor blade. Wipe blade clean on paper towel.
10. spray with Windex
11. wipe clean with paper towel.
Rear windshield is more tricky, thanks to the defroster.
For the rear window on my SVX, I sprayed it liberally with straight ammonia. coated with a pressed a pre-cut black plastic bag against the wet ammonia, shut all the windows and parked in the hot sun for an hour. Then opened the doors, windows, held my breath and scraped with a plastic putty knife. No damage was done to my defroster.
Before you spray lay newspaper all over the rear deck, seat to soak up the ammonia.
