With funds being too low to work on any mechanical upgrades, I decided to start on some cosmetics.
I had some horrible purple tint on my cab that was way too dark, scratched and bubbling, so I decided to remove it. I searched all the threads and it seemed to be a huge PITA, especially the rear window with defrost. I decided to just tear into it and figure it out as I go along.
I pulled the tint off one of the cab's side window pretty easily, but it left 100% of the adhesive behind. I started the $hitty task of removing the glue with a razor by hand. It was really tough going, after an hour and a half, and only getting about 1/3 of the window scraped, I decided to call it a night, it was late, cold, and my fingers were killing me.
When I got up I searched my cupboards for something caustic to help remove the adhesive because I really didn't want to spend all day finishing this. I found some Easy-Off fume free, the newer stuff without lye, I remembered someone mentioning to use it in one of the many threads I read, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
I sprayed a small test spot and around a minute later I scraped, it lifted off the adhesive like butter, I was stoked! On the plus side it cleaned the black rubber window seals like new, and also cleaned the plastic trim around the windows with no ill effects.
the rear window was a little tougher to do due to the defroster. I opened the tailgate, and opened the rear window. you WILL need to support the rear window, it is super floppy when extended and feels like it will easily break. I supported mine with 2 chairs and an old cat bed I had laying around. The tint came off mostly in one piece, and if you use a a razor to start an edge to peel, you have to be extrememly careful so you don't nick any of the defrost lines. I sprayed half the window and instead of using a razor, I scraped it with a credit card, it doesn't work quite as well as a razor, but you won't have to worry about damaging any of the defrost lines. I ended up having to do it twice to remove most of the adhesive, then rubbing off the remaining glue with a rag and then cleaning with window cleaner, it worked beautifully. On the plus side, the defrost lines were black, and now they are a nice copper color again, I checked how it worked this morning and I swear it defrosts quicker than it used to
All in all, not too bad a job, just a little messy, and now my rubber window seals are clean like new, plastic trim is under window is cleaned, my defrost seems to works faster, and I can see way better at night, which is good for me since I have a long narrow driveway I have to back out of with inches to spare on each side.
here is what I used
side cab window
adhesive slid off like butter
adhesive
rear glass supported
removing adhesive half at a time
finished
now I can see out my back window
before
after
it was frosty this morning so I checked the defrost operation, worked great
I had some horrible purple tint on my cab that was way too dark, scratched and bubbling, so I decided to remove it. I searched all the threads and it seemed to be a huge PITA, especially the rear window with defrost. I decided to just tear into it and figure it out as I go along.
I pulled the tint off one of the cab's side window pretty easily, but it left 100% of the adhesive behind. I started the $hitty task of removing the glue with a razor by hand. It was really tough going, after an hour and a half, and only getting about 1/3 of the window scraped, I decided to call it a night, it was late, cold, and my fingers were killing me.
When I got up I searched my cupboards for something caustic to help remove the adhesive because I really didn't want to spend all day finishing this. I found some Easy-Off fume free, the newer stuff without lye, I remembered someone mentioning to use it in one of the many threads I read, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
I sprayed a small test spot and around a minute later I scraped, it lifted off the adhesive like butter, I was stoked! On the plus side it cleaned the black rubber window seals like new, and also cleaned the plastic trim around the windows with no ill effects.
the rear window was a little tougher to do due to the defroster. I opened the tailgate, and opened the rear window. you WILL need to support the rear window, it is super floppy when extended and feels like it will easily break. I supported mine with 2 chairs and an old cat bed I had laying around. The tint came off mostly in one piece, and if you use a a razor to start an edge to peel, you have to be extrememly careful so you don't nick any of the defrost lines. I sprayed half the window and instead of using a razor, I scraped it with a credit card, it doesn't work quite as well as a razor, but you won't have to worry about damaging any of the defrost lines. I ended up having to do it twice to remove most of the adhesive, then rubbing off the remaining glue with a rag and then cleaning with window cleaner, it worked beautifully. On the plus side, the defrost lines were black, and now they are a nice copper color again, I checked how it worked this morning and I swear it defrosts quicker than it used to
All in all, not too bad a job, just a little messy, and now my rubber window seals are clean like new, plastic trim is under window is cleaned, my defrost seems to works faster, and I can see way better at night, which is good for me since I have a long narrow driveway I have to back out of with inches to spare on each side.
here is what I used
side cab window
adhesive slid off like butter
adhesive
rear glass supported
removing adhesive half at a time
finished
now I can see out my back window
before
after
it was frosty this morning so I checked the defrost operation, worked great