Window tint removal

Rather than struggling to peel your old tint off by hand, risking damage to heater lines, and then battle the residue afterwards, give this a try... We'll be using steam to soften the glue and 95% to 100% of it should come off with the tint, as opposed to staying on the glass.

Required
Iron that has a steam button
Towel
Eucalyptus oil
Cleanish rag
Tweezers

First up, turn your iron on, make sure it's full of water, and crank the heat up to max.

For windows that wind up and down, tuck a towel between the glass and inner seal to catch any water from the steam. Then wind the window down about an inch or so. For fixed windows, just place a towel below the glass if possible.

Start each window by finding the easiest corner to get to. On windows that go up and down, I usually find it's the rear most upper corner. On fixed quarter windows, I find it easiest to start at the round corner.

Get your iron, place it about an inch or two from the place you want to start on the inside of the door, and start pumping that steam button. Usually only have to press it once every second or two, and the steam will be flowing onto the job. Do this for about 20 seconds or so.

This will soften the glue and allow you to use your fingernail or tweezers to lift an edge of the tint.

Be aware that some tints are multi-layered, and it's MUCH easier to get off if you get all the layers in one go. Most tints I have removed have a clear inner layer that is easy to miss. I find using tweezers to scrape the edge of tint gives me the best chance of capturing all the layers.



Once you have an edge started, get the iron again and steam the next couple inches of tint that you are about to peel off. Steam it for a good 30 seconds - the hotter it is, the easier it is to get off and the glue will go with the tint, not stay on the glass. Then peel the two or so inches you just steamed. I find that going slowly stops the tint 'jumping' as it peels off, and this is desirable because when the tint 'jumps' ) ie all of a sudden a few inches come off at once), it leaves glue behind. Slow and steady and the glue goes with the tint.

Only do a couple inches at a time and then start steaming the next bit. If you don't, you are peeling non-heated tint that will tear away and leave glue behind. Don't forget to keep an eye on your iron's water level and refill it when required!



If you find the tint starts to tear, try working the tint off in a circular fashion finishing at the tear. In my example, I was removing tint from the top left side to the bottom right, but a tear at the bottom meant that I changed my strategy and worked from the top right to the bottom left. This let me remove the tint around the tear without it separating from the main sheet.



Just go slow and the tint comes off with hardly any glue left behind.

Here I have tucked a towel into the weather seal for a moving window. On moving windows, I start the top rear corner and work my way down at an angle. The angle helps remove the tint when the tint disappears below the weather seal.



If lots of glue is being left on the glass, you need to spend more time with the steam to heat it up and try to peel away less each time.

Once the tint has been removed, use some eucalyptus oil on a rag and rub away any glue that has been left behind. It may take a few seconds for the oil to soak in, but keep moving around to new parts of the rag, moisten with the eucalyptus oil, and it all comes off pretty fast.

This method is so easy, I removed the tint from my Mk II Escort for this example in hardly any time at all. Obviously some tints are more difficult than others, but this method has worked for me well.

Hope it helps someone.