Hi gang! Been studying you folks for about 6 months now and have really learned a lot here. I appreciate you all for being so forthright and helpful with your knowledge and experience!
First day out today and scheduled 1 small commercial & 2 residential jobs, signed a vendor agreement with a janitorial service and quoted a fast food joint for removal of 30 year old window tint…an awesome day if I do say so myself!
Anyone have any suggestions or advise on removing really old window tinting? Best solvent to use? best blades?
Many thanks in advance…
Welcome.
Have fresh blades and take a heat gun just in case. Most tint comes off pretty easy but if not the heat gun will help out.
Be sure to get a scratch waiver. Even if you don’t scratch the glass, no telling what it looks like under the tint.
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Welcome MM,
Just used a very slippery solvent. Alot of fresh blades, and you can get a Wagner heat gun at your local walmart for $20. Preheat the film and start removing it while keeping the film warm, is a lot easier good luck! Let us know how it goes
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Great advise, guys! I’m well stocked on the blades and I thought an orange based solvent would work well, but I didn’t think about the heat gun idea… fabulous! Thank you, gentlemen.
Honest advice. Avoid tint removal at all costs. If you have to do it for some reason, charge by the hour not the window.
6 inch ettore scraper makes tint jobs my bitch. Every time! Scraper, soapy water, and elbow grease. And a waiver helps.
Hi Oceanside
Congrats looks like your making a good start.
As a tinter with over 30 years experience who also does scartch removal and having stripped a lot of film.
Here is an approach I use.
Windowfilm is a polyester that won’t soften with heat and using a heat gun will only risk cracking the glass. if you are lucky try and lift one of the corners you might be able to peel the film of as one sheet.
more likely the film will delaminate between the layers.
If you have to scrape it the windowtinters favourite is 6’" Triumph scraper using stainless blades you’ll go through more blades as stainless is softer than carbon steel but it is also less likely to scratch the glass.
Once you get the film off then you will need to strip the remaining adhesive which will be pressure sensitive a simple mix of a 5ml dishwash per litre of water is the only chemical you need. If the adhesive is difficult wet it with the solution and cover for 30min with plastic film this will soften then scrape with triumph scraper.
Good luck.
You guys are awesome! I appreciate all the input. ScratchNZ seems to be best approach… I did a test patch and used this exact process…BAM! The restaurant owner now has a nice, clean 7 inch square patch in the middle of one of his otherwise ugly, delaminating tinted windows. He has 11 panes with this old tinting… I quoted $45.00/pane for remediation/cleaning. We’ll see what happens…
Has anyone tried soaking the tint in 409 and taping a sheet of plastic (trash bag cut open at the seams) and waiting 20 to 30 minutes then just peeling off the tint?
Nope, have you?
I have not, but after having a tough time last time with some old tint I looked up simpler ways to release the film to make it easier to remove and found this solution in more than few searches. Just wondering if anyone has tried this or similar.
I’ve heard of basically the same method with automotive tint. The only difference was we used soapy water. Similar to what we wash windows with…
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Hi Garry
This technique is called black bagging and is generally used by vehicle tinters to remove adhesive from rear windows. This is done to avoid damaging the heater wires.
Again only a mild soap solution is used but then the adhesive is rubbed off with a white scrubber.
All the best
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Thanks for that Scratch. I would imagine film is film in that regard and the same method could be used on house windows successfully?
Yes but isn’t generally necessary. The vehicle tinters leave the car in the
sun and the heat of the sun and moisture soften the adhesive. The only time
I’ve used the technique on residential was with 20 year old safety film
adhesive.
Garry Gold Squeegee
July 21Thanks for that Scratch. I would imagine film is film in that regard and
the same method could be used on house windows successfully?
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ScratchNZ New Member
July 21
Hi Garry This technique is called black bagging and is generally used by
vehicle tinters to remove adhesive from rear windows. This is done to avoid
damaging the heater wires. Again only a mild soap solution is used but then
the adhesive is rubbed off with a white scrubber. All the best
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