[asethi]

Another DIY Success! I just managed to cleanly remove the sunfilms on my Swift. Mine was Garware sunfilm.
I did it the way accessory guys are doing it, after getting to know the procedure from a friend who got it removed from an accessory shop. Whole procedure took almost couple of hours. Below is the step-by-step procedure:

1. Using a paper cutter, try to peel off a corner of the sunfilm and just manage to get hold of it with your hand. Pull it along one edge first by rolling up/down the window so that it doesn't get torn, and then slowly pull it off the glass. Mine just came off quite smoothly without tearing off or any other panga!
2. Now the film is off, but the glue layer is still left on the glass. To remove this, make some shampoo solution in a mug of water and apply it over the glass. Leave for 2 mins, and then start rubbing the edge of the cutter blade all over the glass till the glue gets off the glass and becomes sort of bits of white sticky stuff all over.
3. Take a damp cloth and clean the glass while applying some pressure to get leftover glue off.
4. Now clean the glass with a glass cleaner like colin, and the glass in shining again!!

[PAVAN KADAM]

I did this myself on my Safari Dicor, All it took was 2 hours on a scorching hot Sunday.

1) A putty blade at hand
2) Pull one corner of the film on the glass, since i had LLumar, it made the job easier, all the tints came of very neatly
3) After those 1 hour of pulling carefully, lot of glue still stuck on the glasses. Cleaned it with 1 litre of Petrol,
4) Spray shampoo water on the glass to get rid of petrol smell
5) Wipe off the shampoo with putty blade, every bit of the glue comes off, take care not to damage your glass
6) Spray Colin and complete your work.

[dadu]

Originally Posted by hyper-VTEC

Didn't get IPA anywhere. I tried 4 chemists in my area. Bought a new big bottle of Mr. Muscle. Let's see if that works. Would WD-40 be of any help here?

I am a member of their Fan club and WD-40 can be used to remove left over adhesive, see their FAQ.

I've heard that people use WD-40 as a cleaner/remover. What can it be used on?
WD-40 removes sap, tar, adhesives, labels and tape from surfaces without damaging existing paint. It's an effective cleaner for tools, equipment, and vehicles. Use it to remove splattered bugs from the front of cars. WD-40 will even help remove gum from carpet. Just spray, wait, and wipe with a clean cloth.

- Helps remove window tint

WD-40 Use # 1434 -- removes stickers - YouTube

[shishir_bn]

After seeing 7 pages, thought of doing a DIY on my truck. But didn't had colin in my home. Moreover didn't keep the vehicle in the sun. Just took a shampoo mixed it with water and got hold of the tint corner and started pulling it by applying some shampoo solution. 20 mins flat. All tints are out. It is full clear now.

[nozzlering]

Guys. No need to take so much worries. No need of any chemical. Just use plain water. Unless you had used some glue to stick the film, no need to worry. If any glue is left over, clean with normal glass cleaner. And one more thing which is required, is, CARE.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by dinu2506

Jaggu, is it not risky when using a putty blade on the rear that has a defogger. Thats where I'm stuck

As i mentioned with caution, do NOT use putty blade on deffoger. A scrotchbite peice would be a better option.

Originally Posted by bejoy

For guys having trouble removing the residual gums, I suggest using Petrol/Kerosene. Use a cotton cloth to dab a few drops of Kerosene to the gummed area and leave it for a few seconds. Use a clean cloth to wipe the gum off. Trust me, it is comes off so easily. Colin or other acetone based cleaners take a long time and effort to remove the gum. Though final cleaning after removing the gum can be done by colin.

Yes ^ this is also a good option but best i have seen till now is Mr Muscle.

Yesterday removed film from an Innova and my theory of 3M being better holds good. Absolutely NO glue residue, just peeled it off dry and without any heating also. For cleaning sake lightly sprayed colin and wiped the glass with a cotton cloth. Thats all.

[Milestone]

Last weekend did it myself, I didn’t find it that hard to remove, except for the rear quarter-glass. The car was in sun for sometime, which helped in removing the sunfilm easily, and used nail polish remover to clean off the glue on the glass. The entire process took somewhere close to 1.5 hours, and at the end was satisfied with the efforts.

[hyper-VTEC]

At last i was also able to remove all glue from my glasses. Mr. Muscle, scotchbrite and lots of elbow grease did the trick.

Remember to spray Mr. Muscle and wait for 5 minutes before you start to rub off the glue. Also wash the scotchbrite under running water after completing every glass, to increase the effectiveness. The glue gets stuck on scotchbrite, and reduces its effectiveness.

[motomaverick]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Yesterday removed film from an Innova and my theory of 3M being better holds good. Absolutely NO glue residue, just peeled it off dry and without any heating also. For cleaning sake lightly sprayed colin and wiped the glass with a cotton cloth. Thats all.

Totally agree, saw with my own eyes this weekend at a auto accessories shop, one car with non-3M tint had left a lot of gum on the glass which had to be removed painstakingly, while the 2nd car with 3M tints (saw 3m watermarks) came off easily without leaving much residue, what was left was cleaned easily with a wet cloth.

[vivekrvcse]

Is there a chance that we can leave the driver side window with tints and remove the other glasses? I wish the Hon Court allows this - serves their purpose

[cityvic]

Successfully removed the Garware Tints off my City i-VTEC.

Process
1.Took a Paper Cutter Knife and slid out a corner.
2.Pulled out the film in one piece.
3.A Layer of Glue was left on the Glass.
4.Sprayed some Colin & Mr Muscle on the Glass and used the Blade to loosen all the glue.
5.Took a wet cloth and wiped all the gum off the glass.
6.Sprayed Colin and cleant the glass with newspaper.

PS: Dont Forget to Cover your Power Window Switches with a Towel/Cloth

[mayankk]

Really set the ball rolling, eh?


What iteration are we on?
The method ought to be perfect by now.
What, the 6th matrix now?

Just want to say that some films will be much easier than others.
I'd suggest to people who are contemplating doing a DIY, don't do it because you could save money, time etc.
Much easier and going by some cases here, cheaper too, to go to a shop.

Do it only if you like working on your car, and are very clear that everything is fixable.
Remember, there's also quite a bit of hard work involved here too, unless you get lucky.

[n_aditya]

I got the sun films off of my M800 yesterday.

Went down to the parking area with old newspapers and other necessities like a blade and Krud Kutter, a degreaser which i had imported a while back.

I did not use the newspapers since the M-800 has no defogger so no chance of damaging anything.

Just used the blade to peel off the film in one area and pulled the film off. There was a lot of gummy residue on the glass and the degreaser helped in removing it off without any effort. Did this on the driver side and RHS windows but since the product is expensive i switched to CIF, a kitchen cleaning solution/degreaser (white bottle with blue cap) which looks like mosquito repellant or white canvas shoe polish (remember school days? )

Applied CIF on the windows, waited for a bit and rubbed a sponge on the glass to remove the sticky residues. Used a damp cloth to rinse the glass and finished it off with a microfiber towel. Worked like a charm. The glass looks spotless. I kinda like the clean-n-clear look, maybe because it looks different

My esteem still has the films on it. Will need to be careful on the rear windshield so i dont damage the defogger.

[bejoy]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

Applied CIF on the windows, waited for a bit and rubbed a sponge on the glass to remove the sticky residues.

Keep in mind that CIF is an abrasive cleaner. Double check the instructions whether you can use on glass. Not that it is going to do much damage to the glass, but I have seen that using it on plastic or paint would remove its sheen.

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Keep in mind that CIF is an abrasive cleaner. Double check the instructions whether you can use on glass. Not that it is going to do much damage to the glass, but I have seen that using it on plastic or paint would remove its sheen.

Not just that , it may spill and enter below the glass where your power window components are.
You don't want to corrode all of this with harsh abrasive cleaners.
Just my 2 cents.