The previous owner of my new '87 firebird attempted to put tint on himself and did a horrible job. He realized this and removed 25% of the tint from the rear window with a razor blade. Don't know if the rear defrosters still work but I won't be driving much in winter anyway. I'd like to finish the job and remove the rest of the tint but am unsure if a hair dryer will crack the glass? There hasn't been a sunny day in over a week and I am unable to get hold of a steamer so I was wondering if this will work. I am anxious because I can't see out the rear view mirror and it's just plain ugly. I also will have to remove one of the passenger windows. Any ideas?

Here is a write up I did for the tech article area, but it seems to be down. A hair dryer will work, but it will take FOREVER. A heat gun would be better.

Materials: A large black trash bag Straight Ammonia A bottle of Simple Green (baby shampoo and water in a sprayer is fine) An S.O.S pad (yes, the kind you clean your dishes with it will not scratch glass) A clean, unused razor blade Spray the straight ammonia on the back glass, making sure it is completely covered. Then put the trash bag on against the glass and park the car with the back glass in the sun for at least 1 hour with the windows closed. For the best results, try to let it sit for about 4 hours with more ammonia every hour. You will have less glue to remove. Do not go in the car after you spray the ammonia. After the hour is up, open both doors and the rear hatch. IF YOU GO IN THE CAR BEFORE YOU AIR IT OUT, YOU CAN POTENTIALLY COLLAPSE YOUR LUNGS!! I CAN NOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!! Peel everything off the rear window. Try to get as much of the film as you can. Pull slowly and evenly across the film. You will be able to get bigger pieces and get more glue at the same time. Carefully use the razor blade to get any small pieces that did not peel off. Do not use it near any of the defroster lines. If you hit them with the blade, you will cut it and that line will no longer work. Wash the SOS pad until you do not see any of the blue cleaning agent. Wet the back window where you see the glue with the Simple Green, or soap, and gently scrub it with the SOS pad. This will not damage the defroster lines or scratch the glass. In fact, it will polish the defroster lines. The glue will sometimes ball up on the S.O.S. pad. Just wash it in running water or get a new pad. It may take about 2 or 3 pads to get all of the glue due to the glue gumming up the pad. Keep doing this until you get all of the glue off of the window. Then use any window cleaner to remove the streaks and you are done.


You can use a razor blade and soapy water (or simple green) to remove the tint on any other window without defroster lines. There are other tips, but this should help you. After you are done cleaning the other windows, use a news paper and soapy water to clean them.

Matt

Well I ended up using an electric kettle. The adhesive didn't entirely come off with the tint but I still got the job done. I used magnets to do the scrubbing which worked out really well. I'll post some pictures in the photo forum.

Electric kettle? Can you expand on this for me? I tried the amonia & black garbage back but the bag simply would not stay against the glass. I even tried taping it in place with no luck. I got fed up with it and the crappy looking tint is still on the rear window. There has got to be another way.

Never mind! I seen your other post on this.

Needs to be really wet to stick to the window. It is a pain, but the easiest way I got it to work. I have had some I used a steamer on, but it took a lot more effort.

Matt

I found the steam from the kettle made it a lot easier to peel but most of the adhesive did stay on. I forgot to mention that I was using windex to remove the adhesive which worked pretty good if I let it soak in for a couple minutes. It took me almost 4 hours but I had the whole day to spare so it didn't bother me. But if you are in a hurry I would suggest trying a different method than the route I chose.