A byootaful Life

Those are the three things I spent my afternoon with. Random I know, but put them together and you get a recipe for removing the tint off my car windows, which I have to do in order to pass its safety certificate so I can sell the damn thing before I leave for Canada. The tint had bubbled in places, which is apparently a defect because it restricts view and in order for my safety certificate to be issued, I had to remove the tint (along with fixing a couple other small things). It’s funny because we bought the car in that condition and the previous owners had no problem passing a safety cert, so obviously they must have known something (or someone) I don’t.

Anyway, it started off slow and painful, but as the time ticked on I became a little more cluey as to how to do it right – hold the hair dryer on the outside of the window and blow hot air on the tint, then use the scraper to gently scrape the tint off. The heat melts the glue a little and makes scraping easier, meaning the tint comes off in large strips rather than small flakes that get everywhere. What is a scraper, you ask? Well, I didn’t know what one was until my friend offered me hers to clean the stove top of our old house and although it’s a scary looking thing, it’s friggin’ awesome! It doesn’t scratch the surface at all, but easily scrapes baked on mess and other stuck-on things (like a dodgy tint job!) off glass or other surfaces.

It sort of looks like this:

I know, it’s a tiny photo but you get the idea. It’s a bit scary to use one because I felt I was scratching the crap out of my glass, but nope – perfect! It did leave a little glue behind, but a bit of scrubbing with a cleaner managed to get the glue bits up easily. I’ve done half the car and need to do the other half tomorrow – luckily the back window wasn’t tinted, so I didn’t have to mess around with that – apparently it’s the hardest window to do due to the demister lines.

I’ll have to get some photos of my car pre- and post-tint removal because I am very proud of my work. Sure, I could have paid someone $100+ to do it for me, but at this point we are trying to save every cent, so it’s something I could do myself.

It’s not fun, but it’s sort of satisfying, pulling the tint off.