What's the best way to remove old, peeling film? I want to get the Formy's redone, but, the tint shop wants $150 just to take off the old stuff! I'm most concerned with damaging the R/Def grid on the hatch. Any and all comments, suggestions, insights, and tips would be most appreciated.

 

I removed the beat up tint on my car and it's not a fun job. The way I did it for the side windows was I used I heat gun on the low setting and carefully heated it. You have to be careful not to melt the tint or the more common problem I had, over heating/burning my hands. The heat gun helps so you can pull the tint without it ripping so much, seems to make it more pliable. I also sprayed a little window cleaner on the glass on the back of the pulled away tint thinking it might help loosen the glue. I don't think that helped much. While heating it you have to pull the tint away and keep the heat gun close to the tint where it's coming away and just ahead of that. That's why you'll keep burning your hands.

On the rear window again I used the heat gun which really helps alot. A scraper helps to get the tint started and started again when it rips but don't use it to scrap all of it off on any window. The reason is you'll have alot of little pieces which are more of a pain then anything. Once I got all of it off I tested and used lacquer thinnner to help remove the glue left behind. The lacquer thinner seems to have no ill affects on the defogger BUT still use caution as you wouldn't want to rub to forcefully on the defogger lines. Goo Gone may be better but you'll need alot of it. Getting all the glue off the rear windows is almost as hard as taking the tint off. After doing the job I haven't re-tinted the windows on my Camaro b/c if it should rip I never want to have to remove it again. I didn't do the whole car in one day. It's something you'll want to walk away from and take a break. I did one window a day and did the rear over two days. It was frustrating but don't pay $150, you can definitely do it yourself.

 

Thank you very much! Anyone else?

 

I have only done the side windows and I used a razor blade and Goof Off as a vehicle. Just doing the side windows were a pain in the butt, I even had the windows completly out at the time for a manual/power window converison. Althoguh I didn't think of it, I think the heat gun or blow dryer is a good idea. The hard part is getting the sticky gew off. With the defroster in the back plan on a lot of time and patice.

 

when I did my rear hatch, I removed it from the car, (its better than standing on my head trying to keep my arms up in the air.)

Once its off, flip it over on some saw horses or a table or something so you can work on it. Put down some old sheets or rugs or something to keep it from scratching the glass.

I pealed off what I could, and ended up with a bunch of gooie crap from the tint. to remove the stickum I took laquer thinner on a cotton rag and wiped off the goo. There was some window tint left on the window and the thinner removed it too. Did NOT hurt the lines or the black etching around the edge. Matter of fact, I poured the thinner right on the window, let it set and wiped it off. It took some elbow grease at times. when you peal it off, go slow, it seemes like if I went too fast I would leave more goo behind.

Actually its a good time to repair your window defog, if you have some bad lines...

hope that helps

John

 

Speaking of fixing lines on the defrost, anyone know a general price ranger to ge it put on a hatch that didn't originally come with defrost?

 

When I peeled the tint off of my 'vert, I tried thinner, alcohol, ammonia, Windex, and one other thing. Know which one worked best for me? Warm water with liquid Dawn in it. I don't know why, but it did. If I had a heat gun then, that might have helped. It's not fun though.

 

Hey guys and gals I learned this from my 17yr old son that carb cleaner works really well on taking off that gooey stuff and it is a whole lot cheeper than alot of the store bought cleaners.Give it a try i bet there will be a lot of us using it. Good luck.

 

Thanks everyone!

Fade:
Around here the hatch at a boneyard is about $250. You and and a friend can put it on , just be real careful tightening the bolts on the hinges.

BTW, maybe it's 'cuz of the climate I live in, but, I don't think I ever saw a thirdgen w/o a r/def. I didn't even think they made them that way.

 

well i sure as hell dont recommend using a razor blade, the idiot who had my car b4 more had a few stickers on the window and that was hell. they weren't big but usin that razor blade for over an hour sux. i have never used a heat gun but anything sounds better than razor bladin the whole thing, my cousin had to do that with his car one night when a cop pulled him over, he said he was there for like 3 hours cause the cop made him do both sides. he wasn't happy, and not to mention he cut himself like 5 times cause it was dark. anyway dont use a razor blade very much it's a bitch

 

My neighbor who details cars helped me do mine. He helped me the old school way...with a razor blade. You have to be very careful....I didnt have to worry since my defroster didnt work already. He said dont worry about all the small pieces and glue. I just need to go to a local hardware store and pick up this stuff....I think it is called AFTA...something to that extent. He said all you need is the AFTA and a steel wool pad and the rest will come off no problem. I trust him due to the fact that his '89 T-bird turbo coupe was a stereo show car. He gave me this stuff that did the same as zaino did....for free. I guess I am kind of lucky to have a neighbor that is good with cars...even though he is a FORD guy.

James