Defroster Lines and Removing Tint

July 14, 2004

Some people say that they could not remove old tint, or "tint from hell", without losing the defrosters. Is this because they give up and scrape it with a razor? Or can the defrosters come off with normal scrubbing? I'm wondering because I have to remove some old mirror tint off of an old crappy corolla and it looks like it may be a challange, lots of scrubbing. :thumb I usually steam redos but I'm not sure if that will work this time or not. If I don't use a razor, will I have problems losing the defrosters? What is the best way to make sure they work in the first place?

July 14, 2004

There are only 2 types of cars that I have had problems with the defroster lines coming off while removing tint. Older Hondas and Corvettes. The defroster lines become very brittle with age on those particular cars.

Never had any other problems with any other make of vehicle.

I think that most DIY's give up and blade it. :thumb

July 14, 2004

Thank God we haven't had a horrible tint removal job for awhile now but I still have the back glass from the car that we started on. We gave the customer an option of paying $250 to have us spend the time to remove the old film, $50 to scrape off all the old film and defrost lines or go get the back glass replaced and we won't charge you anything for attempting to remove the film.

I had one of my guys spend about 1-1.5 hours steaming off the bubbled film and he was only able to get off the top layer and still did not get the bottom layer to expose the adhesive. We do not use razor blades to remove film on back glass with defrost lines because if you accidentally knick any part of the line, you will break contact and that line will no longer work. After looking at how much time he spent on the tint removal, I called the customer to give him his options. He ended up buying a new glass and that was definitely a wise decision.

Usually if the film is not bubbled up, you shouldn't have any problems removing the film to expose the adhesive. Good luck. :thumb

July 14, 2004

I forgot to mention. If the mirror tint is a dry adhesive film, you will have a "BIG" problem removing it. :thumb

July 14, 2004

I take my Time but no guranty!! :thumb

hoosierwindowtek · July 14, 2004

There are only 2 types of cars that I have had problems with the defroster lines coming off while removing tint. Older Hondas and Corvettes.

I've experienced this with several old Hondas, but also Nissan Maximas, and a BMW :thumb

July 14, 2004

Toyota Camry has given a dealer in Guam absolute nightmares... I believe they have had multiple instances of defrost coming off with film removal. Isolated at best, Toyota is now looking into their glass supplier.

I personally witnessed it occur on a Ford Thunderbird around 1987.

No others since then unles they were physically removed during film scraping... :lol6

July 14, 2004

I better tell the customer up front that I cannot promise the defrosters will work properly and explain the difficulties with the film. I'd rather my customer has reasonable expectations instead of coming back dissapointed. :lol6

What is the problem with dry adhesive films? I am not familiar with different types of adhesive.

July 14, 2004

Only an idiot would install a dry adhesive film, meant for flat glass, to an automobile's windows. :lol6

Crewdog...

Dry adhesives are the only water activated adhesives for window film, requiring water to cause them to chemically react with the glass to form a bond. Detact Pressure Sensitive (DPS) is thought of as a dry adhesive, but it is PS adhesive with an alcohol-based detactifier coated to the release liner. Once the liner is removed it remains with the PS adhesive until the installer's application solution washes the detactifier away (used primarily by 3M and I believe FTI aka Sungard may still use it).

Easy to tell the difference between DPS and dry, chemical (water-activated)... wet the adhesive of a small sample of film and squeegee the water from the adhesive... DPS will now be tacky like PS and dry adhesive will not display any tacky nature. Dry adhesives are chemically formulated to react with glass. :spit