Need to remove thirty year old liquid tint

Have some store front windows with the old liquid tint that was put on it thirty years or so ago, first time I've run across this. Anybody got any good tips on what would be the best way to remove it? Hopefully WITHOUT scratching the glass?

A rock.

Seriously, don't use any tools that you are not afraid to permanently part with due to contamination. Those pieces of flow on get into everything.

I think V's right on that one, I've only run across it once, and I tried, and sent him to a glass shop to get new windows

i removed some flow on about 3 weeks ago. use alot of water, cover the area thoroughly, and scrape away with triumph stainless steel blades. i was able to remove and retint 6 slider sized windows in about an hour and a half. the stuff comes off looking like wet hair. i went through about 6 or 7 blades doing them. flipping them about half way through each window. it's not fun but can be done no problem.

i never came across any

dont rub your eyes

Yikes!! This aint gonna be much fun. Sounds like a lot of work.........YUCK!!!

good to see ya around by the way....dont be a stranger

this is what i would have said too.....oh and use some crappy towels at the bottom to soak you the water and what you scrape off......its more messy than hard to remove....good luck

Sweat it with trash bags for at least thirty minutes. Flow coat is moisture sensitive, you should be able to lift it, starting at the bottom, because it's thicker.

pbbbbbbtttttt!!! I've been busy, I've been sick, and mostly sick of being busy!

I had figured it would be really messy. Yupper on using the old crappy towels to soak up crap.


My first thought was to sweat it however it has been in the teens and twenties here lately and the glass is the old thick single pane stuff. Thanks!

Thanks for all the heads up you guys!

The good news is that in N.E. Okla. it' suppose to reach 50 today, I'm not sure if that's the temp or the wind?

I sprayed about 400 sq ft of the stuff with glass cleaner and the stuff was falling off faster than i could scrape it! I charged a couple $ a square and was thru in 30 minutes with a helper cleaning up! Easiest money i ever made!

we did a 9 story building a couples years ago with flow on installed. we went through each night and soaked and bagged 60 or so windows for the next day. just them sitting over night bagged with moisture helped quite a bit. the stuff came off much easier. the job i did a couple weeks ago i didn't have that choice. we didn't know they were done with flow on until we got there. my fault though when i bid the job i didn't even notice. luckily the home owner understood when i told her the price was going up a bit.

you are right, the fastest way to get this liquid tint off is with a cleaner. I ran across this liquid tint quite a lot in the 70s and early 80s. But I used ammonia. It worked really fast to stuff would just fall off the glass almost, but it's rather hard to work with the fumes are pretty bad I used to use a mask with ammonia filters on it works just fine good luck

Soak & scrape, my advice.

what about using easyoff oven cleaner spray on foams up scrape or scrubbie off..................

then scrape it off. You could add a little amonia to the water to cut the time it takes to soak the windows.

It would work and probably start to attack any rubber gasket too. I wouldn't recommend it though, that's a good way to give yourself cancer or something nasty. Minimize chemicals whenever you can, we get dosed hard enough from just living.

Turned out to be a piece of cake! Used a 50/50 solution of ammonia and let it set for a few minutes then the stuff softened and off the window it came with minimum scraping. Yeaaaah!!

HOLY SMOKES glad it worked out easy for ya but JEEZ 50/50 how did you stand there with it bet your nose was clear all day though.

I got a good tip and have used it''Tint it with newspaper and let it sit for about 10 minutes it worked for me..seriously

AMMONIA AND WATER 50/50 WITH PLASTIC OR NEWSPAPER WOULD WORK 2 . COMES RIGHT OFF

LET SIT , YOUL'LL KNOW WHEN IT'S READY . IT'S BEAUTIFUL

I used some of the flow on way back in the day, the easiest way that I had found to remove it was to wet the window first with a 50/50 amonia soap solution then cover it with a news paper and keep it wet for acouple of minutes then will just about fall off once you get a corner pelled up