Hello all,
I just picked up a new project/DD (00 Montero) and I was worried about the tint being too dark for inspection here in the People's Republik of Taxachusetts. Well I don't know if it's too dark, but it is poorly adhered, and peeling so I just might take it off anyway. Is there an easy way to do it that doesn't leave behind any nasty sticky mess? We started pulling the old tint from my sons project car last year that has turned purple, but it wasn't coming off well, and was leaving behind a sticky mess. Any tips on the proper way?
Chris
Rozz
New Reader
7/5/18 8:59 a.m.
If you can get ahold of a clothes steamer it makes the process pretty straight forward and much quicker.
Get some black garbage bags cut to size to fit over the window from the inside. Liberally spray the tint with Windex or another strong amonia based cleaner. Stick the garbage bags over the wet tint and set it out in the hot sun for a couple hours. Should drastically reduce any left over adhesive from the glassb when you peel the tint off.
Scrape with straight razor. Wipe residue with laquer thinner. Done a dozen cars thos way
Take it to a good tint shop, have it peeled and retinted legal max or whatever you can get away with. A good shop knows the local smokies and knows what you can do legally or skirting the law and will give good advice. I was going to go 30% on the front of the truck and they said it will look stupid since the factory tint is 20% and with a light interior 30% would look really light.
They got me $10/window or something stupid cheap to peel the old tint off my F250, worth every penny. Then retinted it all darker than the sky on a moonless night, including a nice deep 10" sun strip on the windshield. Total out the door was around $200.
Legal? Nope. Awesome? Yep!
Did the same on my WRX wagon, got it all peeled and retinted for around $250, including a sun strip, 20% all the way around. Looked great, kept the car nice and cool. Only thing I don't like about my Viper is no opportunity for tinted windows, since it really doesn't have any.
Sonic
UltraDork
7/5/18 10:24 a.m.
The correct tool to use in this situation is a credit card. Not for scraping, but for swiping. This is a not fun job that is cheap to have someone else do.
8valve
Reader
7/5/18 11:06 a.m.
I did it a few times with saran wrap and ammonia solution. It still required tedious labor with a razor blade even with the soak. I would pay a pro if at all possible.
+1 on the clothing steamer... still a crappy job, but a ~$10 unit from walmart made things go much more quickly when removing some ugly mirror tint from my newly-acquired Miata a couple years ago. Plus, I've even used it to steam some wrinkled clothes since then!
Mighty car mods has a video for this.
Sonic said:
The correct tool to use in this situation is a credit card. Not for scraping, but for swiping. This is a not fun job that is cheap to have someone else do.
Well put. My dude charged $100, and did it in probably 1/4 of the time it would’ve taken me to do it.
Also: The Canexican hath warned me about tint being a cop-magnet for years, and I didn’t listen.
If you think it’s too dark, have the tint guys check it. If it’s too dark, get it the berkeley off. It’s one more reason for the armed tax-collectors to harass you and rifle through your E36 M3.
Ask me how I know :/
