How to: Remove tint from your car

[xCalliba]

After seeing numerous posts about people wanting to know how to remove tint from thier car, i thought id post up a quick how-to to give people the gist of it. Ive had 7 years of window tinting under my belt, at a couple of different well-known tint shops. I havent done it for 2 years now, so there may be a few newer and/or easier techniques for tint removal out there now that im not up with.
PLEASE NOTE: These are the basic processes of how we removed tint in the couple of tint shops i worked in. I dont take any responsibility for you using this little guide for your own use. Do so at your own peril.

Tools Needed:
- Scraper blades (stainless steel)
- Fine grade steel wool
- Glue remover (tardis, cloudy ammonia etc) Note: if you dont have or cant get glue remover of sorts, soapy water will work. though a strong glue remover will make things very easier.
- Squirter bottle (for your glue remover or soapy water)

Additional tools recommended:
- Steamer (if you have access to one, can be very handy), if not a heat gun
- Small squeegee
- A good glass friendly scouring pad
- Extra spray bottle with clean water (preferably pump-up job)

Process:
I use to like starting with the doors first, as they are the least time consuming and you can get them done and out of the way while u dick about with the rear window.
So starting with the doors, i recommend that you take your door trims off first. As 99% of tint jobs sit behind the seal of the door trim between the window, you will want access to this 'hidden' area for a decent job (and to make things easier for the tinting process should you tint them again). Also, if you are using glue remover, it will save your door trims for getting stained or wrecked from any anti-friendly chemicals that may be in the glue remover.
Once the door trims are out of harms way, wind your window down a few inches from the top. If you have access to a steamer, using this (in most cases) will make things very easy for you.
If you are using a steamer, when you have your steamer hot n ready to go start applying some hot steam to the top corner of the window from the inside, heating up a small area for 10-15 seconds. Buy now you should be able to pick at a corner and start to peel. If not, use your scraper blade to try and separate the film from the glass, try to keep the film in one piece if you can. When you have a grip on a corner, start to slowly peel the film away from the glass, heating the inside of the glass with your steamer, just in front of where the film is peeling away from the glass (heating the side thats still tinted). As you start getting more and more film peeled away from the glass, you will have to sweep back and forth along the peel line with your steamer, keeping heat into the glass and film. Dont go too fast though, patience is the key.
Now, all depending on the quality of film that was used, and how long its been on there for, but in a perfect world you should be able to peel the whole tint off in one piece, taking the glue with it. Sometimes the film will peel off in little sections and keep tearing apart, sometimes the film will peel off and just leave the glue. So you just have to be lucky sometimes. Repeat for the other doors.
If your using a heat gun, it can sometimes help removing the glue with the film. Wind your window down a few inches from the top, and simply heat up a small area on the outside of the glass (try to start in the top corner) and peel the film away from the heated area. heat another section and repeat. The glass can hold a fair amount of heat, so much that it can be too hot to even touch. But i wouldnt just sit the heat gun in the same spot for 1minute on max heat So dont worry too much about popping your glass, just keep touching the glass too feel how hot it is. When your hand jerks away and goes "goddam thats hot!", then dont pour any more heat onto that area. Keep doing this until you have pulled the film off. NOTE: if using this process is not taking the glue with it, sometimes its easier to just rip the tint off, and scrape the glue off with out the heat gun. Repeat for the other doors.
If your just possessing your scraper, then start with the window down a few inches from the top. If you can pick at a corner with your finger nail or scraper blade, try to get a grip on the tint and slowly peel it off the glass. If you cant get a hold of a corner, use your scraper blade to try and separate the film from the glass at the top edge of the window, enough to get a grip with your fingers. When peeling the film off, try to do so in one piece. Means less mess around you, and gives you more to grip on when peeling it off. In some cases, if you peel the film off slow enough, it can take the glue with it. Meaning less work for you, though if this is the case, it will be a slow and tedious process. Repeat for the other doors.
When the tint has been stripped, if your lucky enough to have it taken the glue with it, then simply skip this and go to the final clean. Otherwise, grab your glue remover (if using it) and give the inside of the windows a good squirt with the glue remover. The more you use, the softer the glue will be and easier to remove. Depending on the glue remover, it may take 1 minute to dissolve the glue satisfactorily, it may take 5 minutes with more than one spraying. Reading the back of the glue remover for instructions is a good bet. If your using just soapy water, spray the window and you can start scraping. Once the window has been drowned in glue remover or soapy water, using a nice fresh scraper blade, start from the top of the window, and use your scraper blade just like a plow, using a smidgen of force against the glass so the glue wont go underneath your blade. When you have got this right, you should be able to plow the glue from one side to the other, using only one scrape from top to bottom. Obviously you wont get all the way down to the bottom as your window is down a few inches, so just scrape down to where you can reach. When you have scraped the top section off, wind the window all the way up then (spray again if needed) scrape from the above the glue downwards, moving from one side to the other until all the glue is gone.
Now for the rear window, this can be the most time consuming window to remove tint from. Because of its size, but mainly because it has demister strips (usually). If your rear window doesn't have demister strips, you can use your scraper blade on it to remove the glue.
Basically, the tint will be removed using the same technique as the doors. If you have a steamer, try to get a corner going and use the same technique as you did with the doors. If its not peeling off the way you would like, you can use your steamer to try and 'melt' the glue, or blow the film apart from the glass. Probably hard to picture what i mean with out diagrams..
Using the same method as the doors, a heat gun can also be used in place of a steamer to try and 'melt' the glue back onto the film as you take it off. Other wise, without a steamer or heat gun, you can try to get a corner going with your finger nail or scraper blade (careful not to use your scraper blade over a demister line, as it will render that whole line useless), and if you peel slowly enough, you might be very lucky as to get the glue to peel off with the film.
If the glue isnt coming off with the film with any of these methods, unless the steamer or heat gun is helping keep the tint in one piece, then its just as quick to rip the film off and just deal with the glue.
Removing the glue off the back window is probably the worst part of this process. So bring your patience with you, and elbow grease. Try to drag a mate or the missus over to help as 2 people will get it done twice as quick. . If you are worried about staining or damaging your parcel shelf or getting liquids into your speakers or sound gear in the boot, i suggest taking the time to cover things up, or even take the parcel shelf out if your no stranger to doing so. Once your satisfied things out of harms way, if your using glue remover, drown as much as your can on the back window. Note, even though you may have covered up the parcel shelf, the glue remover MAY stain the panels that go from the roof down to the parcel shelf. So be careful not to just spray it around willy nilly. The more you use the better, but controlling where you spray it is recommended.
Once the glue is dissolved satisfactorily enough, or if your just using soapy water, grab you fine steel wool, and start scrubbin! Elbow grease and persistence are your only allies here. Dont be too scared about scratching the glass with the steel wool (if you got the right stuff), you can throw a fair bit of effort into it. Dont try to murder the glass by trying to push the steel wool through the window, because you have a good chance of actually scuffing/scratching it then. Once you get going, you will find out how much effort is actually only needed to use for removing the glue. Dont be scarred to scrub straight over the demister lines aswell, if anything the steel wool will actually polish your demister lines up!
Once your happy you have removed the glue, i recommend giving the rear window another once over with the steel wool and soapy water. If you have a small squeegee then squeegee the soapy water off the window every now and then so you can look for more glue. Giving the doors a once over wouldnt hurt either.
If you plan on tinting it again, the window really needs to be glue free so the more anal you can get about how clean it is the better. Also, if you are booking your car in to get tinted, it wouldnt hurt to tell the tint shop that it once had tint on it but it has been taken off. It will give the person doing the job a bit more vigilance to look out for any glue. Though, if the tinter is good enough, they should be looking for blemishes regardless of whether you tell them or not.
When your happy with the job, take you coverings off and put your door trims back on.

Its not really hard to remove film, but getting a flawlessly clean window can be. It just comes down to patience, and attention to detail. I used many more/different tools than what i have described here, but these are the basic and (usually) readily available tools you can use. As i said, i havent done it for a few years so im a bit rusty describing it off my head. Any troubles or Q's feel free to bug me

[SMURFTEC.]

bit late to get pics up aye man? hopefully someone else who does this can get pics for you, excellent write up though, perhaps a mod could sticky this?

[Dayvo]

Nice write up . Have been wanting to take mine off for a while but was a bit scared about using a heat gun on the windows.

[xCalliba]

bit late to get pics up aye man? hopefully someone else who does this can get pics for you

i still poke my head into my old workshops from time to time so ill see what i can do

Have been wanting to take mine off for a while but was a bit scared about using a heat gun on the windows.

yeah ur pretty safe using the heat gun man if your carefull about it. even though you heat the outside of the window with the heat gun though, i have seen the felt on a parcel shelf fry cus of too much heat pumped into the window. tho, not all parcel shelfs are tight on the window. and not all people have the "pft i know what im doing" attitude like the kid i was teaching lol lucky he didnt pop the window..

[Adds_05]

good stuff man,ive removed old tint off my old vr and now my ss but have been worried about taking it off the back window due to the demister,ill have to give this a go now. window tint places wanted $70 to take the old stuff off

[LthlThrt]

good stuff man,ive removed old tint off my old vr and now my ss but have been worried about taking it off the back window due to the demister,ill have to give this a go now. window tint places wanted $70 to take the old stuff off

they quoted me 100$ lol, looks like im gunna save some dosh when i gop and get my tint done

[lifeguard_aus]

nice write up!- thanks for the post ..do you know what I can do with window tint coming away a little(in centre of rear screen....any glue or technique you can use

[xCalliba]

nice write up!- thanks for the post ..do you know what I can do with window tint coming away a little(in centre of rear screen....any glue or technique you can use

well im assuming its been on there for some time now, as no doubt you would have chased warranty otherwise... but if its right next to a demister line, you can try to get a very sharp blade, make a very tiny insertion along the demister line, and try to push the air out of the bubble towards the demister line. otherwise, you could make a very small cut at the edge of the bubble (not the center) and push the air out towards the cut. however, if it has been on there a while, theres every good chance you will still notice it. though, by pushing the air out you can sometimes get that 'whiteness' look out of it a little.
try to find a hard, flat, yet flexible device to push it out with. most people use credits cards... if you do though, wrap a thin cloth around it as the card will scratch the tint. we used teflon gold cards.. though im not sure where u wud get them from? wooden icy pole sticks are a good device for smaller things such as hair, dust etc. you could try one of them, just be sure to start at the edge and work your way in like a plow, doing little bits at a time. oh, and try not to use your finger to push it out, fingers can make it worse
as for glue, ive never tried glue as generally you cant get a glue that will be truly transparent, not to mention it would be very difficult to get it underneath the film without making a mess of things. its really hard to say without looking at it tho mate, but there isnt a heap you can do with film thats starting to come away (if its been on there a long time). overtime, the adhesive just goes crap and will refuse to stick back down in most cases. good luck tho

[undar8ed1]

If you don`t have a heat gun I`m pretty sure a hair dryer will work.

[xCalliba]

If you don`t have a heat gun I`m pretty sure a hair dryer will work.

i doubt a hair dryer will get hot enough... worth a shot tho

[Dayvo]

I pulled the tint off my windows yesterday. I was lucky , i just loosened the corner with a knife and then just peeled it off. It all came off in one piece so i will be able to use it as a template when i re tint them . Took about 5 minutes for each window then used some methylated spirits to get the glue off . All up it took about an hour . I left the back window as the tint was ok .

[xCalliba]

I pulled the tint off my windows yesterday. I was lucky , i just loosened the corner with a knife and then just peeled it off. It all came off in one piece so i will be able to use it as a template when i re tint them . Took about 5 minutes for each window then used some methylated spirits to get the glue off . All up it took about an hour . I left the back window as the tint was ok .

good thinkin keeping a template, very handy if you are gunna re-tint it yourself! how'd the metho go? ive actually never tried metho on glue..

[Dayvo]

good thinkin keeping a template, very handy if you are gunna re-tint it yourself! how'd the metho go? ive actually never tried metho on glue..

The metho worked a treat, the glue just seemed to melt off . The trick is to soak a cloth in metho and give the window a good rub , Also wind the window down about 100mm and make sure you remove the glue from the tops of the windows before you pull all the tint off. If you don't and wind the window fully up the window sticks to the top of the window channel and pulls it out of the frame when you wind it down , The same goes for the bottom edge .

[xCalliba]

Since I have just started window tinting full time again, I will hopefully be able to get some pics up to help this guide along. So ill make my camera handy next time im removing some tint!