$200 to remove tint from back window?

They quite frankly don't want to deal with breaking a part on a 25 year old car. That's the bottom line.
Yep. And 25 yr old non-exotic cars usually don’t pay $200 to have tint removed. When they do, they are probably at wits end and are looking for a miracle.
 
They quite frankly don't want to deal with breaking a part on a 25 year old car. That's the bottom line.
No, the bottom line is the likelihood of rear defroster damage. I didn't tell them what the car was as it was irrelevant.
 
Yep. And 25 yr old non-exotic cars usually don’t pay $200 to have tint removed.
I'm willing to pay to "fix" this. Of course if I can get a new back window + tint it for a similar price to them trying to remove the tint or removing it but damaging the defroster, I'll pay more. In fact, I have to have a rear defroster (my requirement/choice). In some parts of the country, I'm sure people wouldn't care if the rear defroster worked or not.
 
No, the bottom line is the likelihood of rear defroster damage. I didn't tell them what the car was as it was irrelevant.
No it wasn't irrelevant. If you didn't tell them-you should have.
 
No it wasn't irrelevant. If you didn't tell them-you should have.
Seems to me they're the ones more knowledgeable on the topic and they would have asked if it were relevant. Conversation basically went like this:

Me: Hi, I want to see about having the bubbling tint on my rear window removed and re-done. Can you guys do that ?
Them: Yes, we can, but there's a big risk of damaging the rear defroster wires. We require you to sign a waiver that if we do damage it, we won't repair it.
Me: I understand. They can't be fixed if it happened ? ("No"). What do I do if they're damaged?
Them: You have to replace the window.

I've seen techniques on YouTube of soaking it with ammonia, leaving it out in the sun/heat for hours, etc. Not sure if that's what they'd do and it can still tear a wire if it's not 100% or if they just do it the manual, hard way of scraping.
 
Seems to me they're the ones more knowledgeable on the topic and they would have asked if it were relevant. Conversation basically went like this:

Me: Hi, I want to see about having the bubbling tint on my rear window removed and re-done. Can you guys do that ?
Them: Yes, we can, but there's a big risk of damaging the rear defroster wires. We require you to sign a waiver that if we do damage it, we won't repair it.
Me: I understand. They can't be fixed if it happened ? ("No"). What do I do if they're damaged?
Them: You have to replace the window.

I've seen techniques on YouTube of soaking it with ammonia, leaving it out in the sun/heat for hours, etc. Not sure if that's what they'd do and it can still tear a wire if it's not 100% or if they just do it the manual, hard way of scraping.

Yea-but the issue is being liable or afraid of damaging/replacing a 25 year old part would weigh on my decision if I was to do it. Anyway-at the price quoted whether they knew how old the car was or not they clearly didn't want to bother with it.
 
Yea-but the issue is being liable or afraid of damaging/replacing a 25 year old part would weigh on my decision if I was to do it. Anyway-at the price quoted whether they knew how old the car was or not they clearly didn't want to bother with it.
Not sure if you're mixing up someone else's comments with mine. They would require me to sign a waiver saying if they damaged the defroster, "tough". If I don't accept that, they don't take the job. We didn't even make it to discussing price either.

Anyway, I can get a rear window for $280-380 and it's probably the route I'll go.... Then another $100 to tint it.
 
Is that genuine gold tint? That last time I had a car tinted professionally was a year ago for $175.
Depends on location. Ceramic on my Caliber was $250. The metallic tint on my 300 was $250+$125 ($25 for side windows, $75 for rear) to remove the previous 5% that came on it. I actually liked the metallic better.
 
My tint guy removed the DARK Tint on my former 2003 Marauder. What he did was placed car in hot sun.
Sprayed water on tint.
Placed newspapers over the wet tint. Sprayed newspaper again and kept it wet. Sun beating down on HOT DAMP Tint, he lifted an edge then peeled off. For rear window, he was careful to peel parallel to the wires. The wires were intact and stilled worked.
 
Seem like a lot depends on how old the tint is. Mine is bubbling and so must be pretty old so the adhesion between the inner and out layers had deteriorated.
 
Mine is a 2014 and it looks to have had its tint installed professionally. I removed the front windows myself with a clothes steamer. The car I guess is 8 years old, which I don’t consider old, and the rear window tint is bubbled and even torn in a couple of places. I’ve not seen tint degrade this quickly.
 
My tint guy removed the DARK Tint on my former 2003 Marauder. What he did was placed car in hot sun.
Sprayed water on tint.
Placed newspapers over the wet tint. Sprayed newspaper again and kept it wet. Sun beating down on HOT DAMP Tint, he lifted an edge then peeled off. For rear window, he was careful to peel parallel to the wires. The wires were intact and stilled worked.
Black trash bags tend to work better as the liquid doesn't evaporate, but it's the same theory.

But yes, if the tint has reached the bubbling stage, there's precious little you can do. Steaming it off usually doesn't work as the glue has hardened and the plastic itself has degraded to the point that it just comes off in tiny pieces.

It really is a pain in the rear and I'm glad I don't do that kind of work anymore.
 
Depends on location. Ceramic on my Caliber was $250. The metallic tint on my 300 was $250+$125 ($25 for side windows, $75 for rear) to remove the previous 5% that came on it. I actually liked the metallic better.
That's really cheap for ceramic. Around here, $200-250 seems to be the going rate for regular tint for a 4-door vehicle. I had my wife's windows tinted at a new shop - the guy opened his own shop after leaving a well-known, reputable tint shop and uses 3M tint. I paid $189 but this was a "grand opening" special price. Our son went to him later but got ceramic and paid more than 2x that. I talked to the guy about putting ceramic tint on my windshield only and it was $200+ just for that.

Isn't window tinting a lot less expensive in the south, like FL, TX, etc, simply because it's so much more common, so much more competition, etc ? I want to say I've seen advertisements like $99 or $149 for doing a car.
 
That's really cheap for ceramic. Around here, $200-250 seems to be the going rate for regular tint for a 4-door vehicle. I had my wife's windows tinted at a new shop - the guy opened his own shop after leaving a well-known, reputable tint shop and uses 3M tint. I paid $189 but this was a "grand opening" special price. Our son went to him later but got ceramic and paid more than 2x that. I talked to the guy about putting ceramic tint on my windshield only and it was $200+ just for that.

Isn't window tinting a lot less expensive in the south, like FL, TX, etc, simply because it's so much more common, so much more competition, etc ? I want to say I've seen advertisements like $99 or $149 for doing a car.
I think so. The prices I’ve seen in Houston for Crystalline and other higher end films is at least 1/3 less than CA.
 
Got it removed over the weekend and took maybe 4 hours. Used paint remover (with a respirator) on the dotted area on the edges. All defroster lines intact.

IMG_5829.JPG
 
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