My stripes have been on the hood for about 8 years now and the MINI is stored outside in the weather almost 365. On top of that I don't spend much time/effort at all working on and maintaining the exterior. I know, shameful. I've removed vinyl in the past so I'm not unfamiliar with the process but I think this qualifies as "problem" vinyl. It's not just oxidized and cracked... The stripes are now more like a cross between vinyl and glue. I've tried heat and that loosens up the adhesive but the vinyl either disintegrates into very small flakes or more like a powder that mushes up into the adhesive. Because of this I figured an adhesive remover might soak right through but the vinyl apparently still retains just enough of its integrity to keep this from working. Liberal use of heat combined with careful use of a plastic putty knife yields about 8 square inches of progress per hour. (I'm not exaggerating -- where's that pulling my hair out smilie when I need it?) Any suggestions?
I'd send a PM to octaneguy Richard & ask him. He is the guru of such things... If you don't get it right there is a trip to the paint booth in your MINI's future.
Yeah, I contacted Richard and he gave me pointers, but my OEM stripes were only 2 years old and they came right off with the adhesive staying on the vinyl, but I didn't have any cracks in the vinyl either. You need something to soften the adhesive. WD40 won't hurt the paint, but Richard may have a better suggestion for your case.
There is a tool you can put on a variable speed drill that will remove them in pretty short order, it kinda looks like a paddle wheel and its sole purpose is stripe removal, I have seen them used and it really doesn't do much damage that a pad and polish wont take care of.
I did it the hard way like you, but I'd like to know the answer for when I do this again in 7 or 8 years..
Answer is............. A Heat gun, Goof off or WD 40 plus alot of Time and Patience. **WARNING ** DO NOT USE Lacquer Thinner or Acetone if you do not know what you are doing or if have not used it on a painted car before. If you know what you are doing or have worked in a paint / bodyshop before you should know how to use Lacquer Thinner or Acetone to remove glue.
Thanks everyone!!! The best outdoor vinyl that's rated for 5 years, really only looks good for a few years. Combine that with neglect....yes sorry to be so blunt...but a car that lives outside and isn't maintained is going to suffer deterioration in everything especially the vinyl. The worst cases I've had for vinyl removal are exactly what you are describing. There is no way to "peel" it off as it will disintegrate. Most of anything that you try will likely require lots of patience as the key here is to safely remove the pieces without harming the paint. If I were presented with this project, I would first inform the owner that there are no guarantees. Secondly I would have a good supply of sharp Lil'Chizlers like these on my site. ShowCarSupplies.com Shopping Cart - Lil' Chizler (4pk) Next I would want a paint safe solvent. I have a biodegradable adhesive tape remover that's worked well for me. I don't have the bottle or name of it in front of me, but when I get back to my shop, I will post it. Basically you want to apply it, and let it soak, then use the Lil'Chizlers to scrape off the pieces. They won't scratch the paint. Don't use plastic razor blades, they are not the same. The tool that was mentioned to remove pinstripes is basically a larger rubber disc that is spun with a drill. I wouldn't recommend this. A pinstripe is very different from what we are dealing with. You might end up with paint damage if you attempt to hit this hard. I'm sure if you took it to a body shop, they would just take some 1500 and sand it off, then probably compound and buff it back. That too might work, but best left to a professional should something go wrong. Patience is going to be the key if you don't want to spend money and don't want to do permanent damage. To anyone else wondering about their aging stripes? Wax them often and replace them after a few years to prevent this from happening to you! Richard
I guess I am screwed somewhere down the road. After the last accident I had the stripes put back on and then had the clear bra put on. The stripes under the clear bra look FANTASTIC. Guess I better hope my stripe guy knows how to cut and paste stripes.
Although putting the stripes under the clear bra looks better, from a practical stand point, replacing stripes is much cheaper than replacing clear bra, so it makes sense to put them on top of the clear bra and replace as needed. For you, cutting and pasting is fine as long as you don't plan to change the stripes any time in the future, lol. Richard
If it doesn't work out for you when your stripe guy does his cut and paste... Well then.... Get yourself a new pair of shoes and just insist it's all part of your plan to promote the "new" look you got going.....
No worries, I know exactly what I'm guilty of. I also know there's always a neglect tax to pay down the road but try as I might I can't seem to catch the detailing bug. On top of that when I decided it was time to pull the stripes I delayed because I wanted to have a replacement set ready to go on as the old set came off. Unfortunately I haven't found any new stripes I actually like...and I'm a couple years into that search so far..... Time to pull the old stripes and try the "clean" look for a while. Thanks for the help.
I actually got a set of those flying checker stripes from him a couple years ago, like these: Once I had them in hand I changed my mind, wasn't sure I wanted to use them, but now I think about it if I line them up a little differently I might be happy with them. Need to think about that...thanks for the reminder, I forgot I had 'em.
I just removed my 8 yr old stripes myself and all I had to do was heat them up a bit and peel them off. They did leave some residue, but a little goop off took it right off. Now I am dealing with a bit of paint fade. The paint under the stripes is just a bit darker than the rest......
1 - Biodegradable adhesive tape remover you say? 2 - I've read recommendations for using some adhesive removers that include heating prior to application. No heat needed with this stuff?
It depends on whether heat will help or not. It sounds like that your paint has been heating up and cooling down for the past 8 years, possibly to the point that the adhesive isn't going to be soft anymore with heat. Just an assumption that a solvent based cleaner would be more useful. Found the product, not sure if it's biodegradable now..might be another one of their products I'm confusing it with. Anyhow, it's called Motsenbockers Lift Off Tape & Stain Remover. Bought it at Ace Hardware a few years back. The advice with WD-40 is also good...I would try that before the Motsenbockers but you will still need to scrape it once it's been softened. What I've found is that with heat, sometimes it's easier to remove residue when it's cold or slightly hard than if it's soft and mushy due to heat. Just one of those things you will have to experiment with for what is best. Richard
I just realized I neglected to update my story of neglect. Time to remedy that. First off, here's a pic from when they were fairly new. Shows the additional challenge as they weren't contiguous stripes but a bunch of individual, unconnected checks. I said in post #1 I tried "liberal use of heat," but I've since learned that I erred a bit too much on the side of caution to that point and used too little heat. I read about heat guns blistering paint and, though I figured I should be able to be careful enough to avoid causing that kind of damage, I took advice from someone else who said the safe bet is a blow drier. It would produce enough heat to work on the adhesive without being able to get hot enough to damage paint. He was half right, it didn't phase my paint. On the other hand, the stripe adhesive was nearly as unphased. Given the age of my stripes and the fight they seemed to be putting up I figured the answer might be an actual heat gun. From what I've read the reason for concern with a real heat gun is there's no way to know when you've reached that point when the paint is almost too hot and you need to back off, the first sign of trouble is actual damage. This is what I was worried about. On the other hand, the adhesive seemed to laugh at adhesive removers so I decided if the stripes wouldn't budge with the heat from a heat gun the hood would likely be best off repainted anyway. So I decided to order a real heat gun and take my chances. Even if I damaged the paint I would learn something in the process. I also ordered some of Richard's Lil' Chizlers and gathered a small selection of adhesive removers, etc. Real heat made the difference. I set the gun on the low temp setting and heated the stripes a little at a time, testing as they heated, cautiously hunting for a sweet spot where the stripes would budge and crossing my fingers I'd find it short of paint damage. It worked, and though I still have no way of knowing how close I was to cooking the paint I think I probably had plenty of room. As I said above, the stripes had no integrity at all after so much time, exposure and neglect, so they wouldn't peel. The Lil' Chizlers scraped them off nicely. Heat the stripe, test scrape, heat some more, test again, etc, until the degraded stripe/adhesive mush began to smear/move easily. Once the stripes were gone the rest of the adhesive came away with liberal use of WD-40. I actually thought I had some stubborn adhesive that wouldn't budge after a while but eventually realized it was a bit of damage to the clear coat which, since it perfectly matched the shape of the checks (as outlined by the crisp, clear line of paint fade), must have been caused prior to the application of heat.....though I can't imagine why vinyl stripe adhesive would damage paint... Oh well, there's damage (and paint fade that looks like the checks are still there in original, unfaded Indi Blue), but the damage wasn't caused by the heat. If you have a similar problem, buy a heat gun. Make sure it has either an adjustable heat setting or at least a high/low switch. Set it on low and go very slowly, exercising caution, until you find the butter zone. You should be fine (your mileage may vary).
I was reminded today that after I finally managed to remove my stripes I then mentioned (above) some damage to my paint not caused by the heat gun but I didn't attempt to explain the damage. I think the most likely conclusion drawn by someone reading this without other context might be that the paint was scratched or scraped by the Lil' Chizlers, and I'd like to address that. After the stripes were gone I went about chemically removing the remaining adhesive. WD-40 worked best for me but at one point I decided even that was failing me because no matter how much I used there appeared to be adhesive refusing to dissolve. The light finally came on and I realized what I thought was stubborn adhesive was actually the texture of damaged clear coat. I couldn't understand why vinyl adhesive would cause such damage but there it was. A few weeks later, while considering what to do about both that minor damage and the newly evident paint fade, I remembered I'd had the stripes applied at a local body shop as soon as they finished repairing some accident damage and freshly painting the hood (among other things). At that point it had been only a couple days since they'd applied the clear coat and I remember asking the guy whether the paint needed to cure for a while before putting on the new stripes. He told me it wouldn't be an issue but I'm convinced that's what caused the problem. Back to the Chizlers. Though I did see a bit of very fine abrasion here and there I don't think it was caused by the Chizlers themselves scratching the paint. I think it was caused by dust, etc, embedded in the adhesive/stripe mush and being pushed along the paint while scraping with the Chizlers. A fine point but still worth making, IMO. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to get rid of fine micro-scratches like that.