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-   -   DIY - Removing Sunfilm + what not to do (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/diy-do-yourself/120122-diy-removing-sunfilm-what-not-do-16.html)

The logic was -- since water is used during the film installation it should help if water is used during the removal. It might loosen up the glue at the edges, allowing an easy removal of the film.

However, I think water is only used to nudge the gluey side of the film in the right place. When it dries off, the glue sticks to the glass. That does not mean the glue is water soluble.

A day after having removed my films from 3m i saw scratch marks appear on all my glasses. Its superficial but i havent been able to remove it. I tried dry cloth wet cloth and colin. The marks seem to be that of the putty blade they used. Any advice on how to remove this mess?

Thanks

Did a DIY today to remove 3M films from Brio installed 3 months back. Parked the car in hot sun for couple of hours, had a blade handy along with Colin and clean cloth if in case needed. Everything came out very smoothly, not a hint of glue anywhere. Wiped once using Colin and its as good as new with no scratches whatsoever. Job done in 15 minutes flat.

Laura had Llumar, had taken it to 3M car care near Ramaiah college for removal a week back. It left lots and lots of glue residue, took close to 3 hours to clear the mess along with damage of Rs.500. Are these two brands so different or was it the method to bake in the sun? Was worried mainly due to the rear defogger in Laura.

my sincere thanks to everyone who shared their tips here. Reading this thread emboldened me to try this on my own.
This is what I did.

1) Kept the car out in the sun for about an hour and half.
2) Sprayed Colin on the sun film. Left it for about 2-3 mins.
3) Then with a butter knife + paper cutter knife slowly scraped out the edges till i could peel the film out a little bit, and then slowly pulled it while simultaneously spraying Colin on the pane where the film was clearing up.
4) The film came out.
Do this patiently and slowly. But while peeling make sure the motion is continuous.

Best wishes to anyone trying it.

Thanks again to everyone. Appreciate it truly :-)

Bad news, got the sun film removed from my car. Unfortunately, one glass has lot of scratches on it. How do I get it removed?

Edit: The sun film was of Garware brand. I guess 3M is always better when it comes to sun film.

I had a word with the owner of a car accessory shop, when I went there to remove sun films from a friend's car.

He told from his experience that cheaper brands like Garware and Llumar leave a lot of gum residue, whereas more expensive brands like 3M come off easily leaving almost no gum residue.

Baking in the sun also helps to a certain extent. When I removed the sunfilms in my car, I noticed a difference in the amount of gum residue on the glass when the car was baked, as compared to when the car was not baked.

Rohan

Did the DIY film removal from Swift and Getz on the May 26,27th weekend. Getz sun film removal was easier than Swift though both were 3M films. The ones on the Swift seemed thinner and ripped more. Used water in a spray bottle only for cleanup/ loosening up the film - nothing else was required and there was very little residue left behind at the end. Didnt need the bake car in sun routine either.

Bangalore Traffic Police FB update....

Today is last day for removal of dark film/materials from your vehicle.Kindly remove it.From tomorrow we will enforce this rule.

Waited till the last day to see if any more extension. Checked the TOI and found nope expect cops will crack down. So went the DIY way. Removal of the sunfilm is quick its the cleaning of the residue which gives you a workout and time consuming.
What i found usefull was using a roguh towel on the glass after spraying glass cleaner on it. The Residue glue rubbed off easily.
Then use a softcloth for the finish.
All would notice the car does look odd now.
Car: 2009 Ford Fiesta
Sunfilm - Generic Brand given by Metro Ford.
Removal of film - 30min
Cleaning up - 90min
Total 120mis (2hrs)

Hi All,

After lots of thinking I removed the films last week (I am in Mumbai & travel early morning & late evening, so haven't seen any Traffic Police stopping or tearing the films), but thought of going with the rule & tried doing myself (App a year ago I did it on my Zen to try new ones).

In 3 glasses the film came off easily, but what ever I tried there was not at all smooth moment, as the films when applied force came off -- say 5 inches smoothly & suddenly it was stuck and had to apply little more pressure to again get 5 more inches. So after removal I had glue & with lines showing where the film got stuck.

I tried rubbing with a wet cloth and my hands were at a good enough pain after completing the quarter glass. So decided to use the Scotch Bright and applied lot of water using a cloth (How a car rubbing guy does while rubbing the paint) and was successful in removing the glue in much lesser time. The entire process lasted till 6.30 PM and at the end I was happy to see the clean glasses.

Next day morning when I sat in the car and started driving I saw the real effect, there were lots of scratches on my glasses:deadhorse. And now I do not know if there is a good way to remove them.

Long back I tried buffing my windshield by some 3M compound (By Prof) for removing wiper scratches and it worked well. Ultimately I replaced with new one after a year due to a stone hitting on it.
So thinking of something like this. Any ideas please.

Scotch Brite on car glasses???? :Shockked:

Sorry for the reaction.. But sounds to me like killing my dearest own pet..!!

Car rubbing guy does it because he necessarily needs to remove the paint and do it over again..

I don't know if there is a practical way to get rid of them, since scratches necessarily mean damage, and unlike body panels, you cannot paint them to repair the damage. Try the 3M product as you mentioned, but if that does not yield good enough results, you can try to live with them if they are not hindering. Otherwise, replacement is the only option, although I guess that would be a considerable cost.. :eek:

I think I mentioned before: does it scratch your drinking tumblers when you do the washing up? I don't think so, and I think that car glass is at least as hard.

But still, I'd be nervous, and start at the edge of back side glass, not in the middle of the windscreen. Just in case.

Hope I never have to find out. Keeping my fingers crossed that my CR70s will go unnoticed and unchallenged.

Today was the last day for Bangalore so took a knife scraped off the film from 1 corner, caught it with my nails and pulled slowly till I got some grip and then RIpped it all off . 12 mins and all films were off, no residue. No more films for me now whatever the judgement

In my understanding, Scotch-Brite is the brand and they have products for different usage. Those for cleaning glass/drinking tumblers are relatively soft and does not create scratches, but those hard ones used for cleaning utensils will most probably scratch glass surface.

CR70 indeed has a good chance to go unnoticed. Don’t do a voluntary removal. If caught, pay the fine and then go with removal process :)

Please donot use soctch brite on glass. I had earlier mentioned this as my Uncle used scotch brite with colin on his fabia to remove gum residue. All the 4 windows had scraches, his poor vision did not notice this. But when I showed him the scraches he had his heart burn. Then I removed rear glass gum residue with NC Thinner soaked in rough cloth. Make sure that thinner should not fall on painted surface and plastic.