Anyone ever remove tint from their car? The rear window tint on my wife's (new-ish) 1995 Honda Civic has gotten so hazy that she can't even see through it anymore. When I took it to a tint dealer they quoted $150 to remove the tint and another $150 to install a new one.

For a fleeting moment, I thought about tossing a brick through the back windshield in the middle of the night and placing a claim with insurance. But I realized how DISHONEST that would be and thought better.

I read on the internet about a method involving ammonia, plastic wrap, a hot day and elbow grease. Anyone have any experience or ideas that fall between elbow grease and a brick?

 

Give Vince at Omega a call. Tell him the situation and get a i-clubber's quote for removing the tine and replacing it.

-Gagan

 

best image in san mateo usually charges 20 a window to remove and 30 or 40 to put new tint on there located on south railroad in san mateo sorry i dont have a number, and the prices im talking about were last summer so im not 100 percent sure if thats still the case but i dont see why they would change hope this helps
- Nick

 

Don't do it yourself. It's a pain. Trust me, I learned some years ago from experience. And that was on a Toyota truck. What more a car with a larger rear window.

 

Yup, let the pros do it especially if you have rear defrosters...But I agree, the $150 you were quoted was a bit over the top. Then again, it's probably a real pain to take those out that's why they charge so much.

 

most shop will charge anywhere from $65- $85hr. since your car isnt a hatchback (easier to access) someone has to kneel in the back seat w/ razor blade in hand for at least a few hrs. and at the same time smelling all these chemicals.

-vincent

 

Yes, I did it myself on my 97 civic (now sold) and reapplied new tint. I got it off clean but it took a few hours to do.

Here's what you need to do:
- Take a razor blade and score up the tint, ie cut it up into 1-2" strips that you plane to remove one at a time later. The more the better. For the rear window, so NOT cut on the defroster lines or you will render them useless.
- Spray Windex on the tint and let it sit for an hour. Windex has ammonia, which eats away at the adhesive used to hold the tint on. Since you cut lines into your tint, you opened ways for the ammonia to get between the tint and glass where the glue is.
- Better yet, after spraying on the ammonia, get big plastic garbage bags and cut roughly to the shape of the window. Tape this over the inside of the window (where the tint is) and spray water in addition to the ammonia onto the tint. Seal up the plastic onto the window and leave your car in the sun for an hour or two. This will cause the water to steam the tint and the ammonia to eat the glue and the cuts to allow both through.
- If you have a steamer (most modern clothing irons do) pull off the plastic and get a razor blade to pull up the end of a strip of tint. Use the steamer to steam the section that you are pulling. Because the glue is partially eaten away and the steam re-moisturized the glue, the strips should pretty much just come away.
- if they don't come easy, spray windex as you peel on the seam between tint and window and SLOWLY pull away.
- clean window with windex to scrub off any glue residue
- clean window with just soap and water to get rid of the windex
- apply new tint as directed

 

i got charged 100 bucks to remove my tint and that was the back three windows and a strip on the windshield.

 

well, if you say so, then it MUST be waaaay more expensive to remove than apply!

Damn!

-Gagan