How to Remove Tint
I live in Louisiana and inspection stickers are a must. I recently bought a 1992 Camaro that needed to be inspected before I could drive it and what do you know? They told me at the inspection station that the window tint was the wrong color. Not that it was too dark but the wrong color. The man told me that any color besides brown or black was illegal and my tint was purple. This makes the second car that I have bought that needed the tint removed to pass inspection. The first car I bought that needed the tint removed, needed removing because it was too dark.
Anyway, I did a whole lot of research before taking the tint off of the first car and found many different ways to do it. I found anything from using a lot of different chemicals to plain heat. I didn’t want to use the chemicals because of the mask and rubber gloves I would have to use. I also didn’t want the car to stink when I got done. I wanted to remove it the non-toxic and odorless way.
I finally decided to use a steamer that I had for steaming wedding gowns. It worked wonderfully. Just have the windows rolled all the way up, start at a corner, and heat the side of the glass that the tint is on. The heat from the steamer got the glass and tint hot enough to remove the tint and glue at the same time. The tint and glue peeled off of the glass like it was never even there. After removing the tint with the steamer, it was done. I didn’t have to do anything else.
On this car, I didn’t have access to a steamer because the one I had quit and I haven’t bought another one yet. A friend of mine told me that a hairdryer could be used to remove tint. I decided to see if a hair dryer really would get hot enough. It got hot enough to get the tint off but it left a lot of the glue. It was a mess. Getting the glue off of the glass was a major pain. I sure wish I hadn’t listened to that advice and went out and bought another steamer before I started this task. I will never, ever try to remove window tint again without a steamer.
So for future reference: If you ever need to remove window tint and don’t want a big mess, use a steamer. I’m sure that any household steamer will work. It just has to be hot enough.
