Any of you guys tried removing really old decals from a car? My FX16 has stickers on it from when it ran SCCA. It has the PO's number and some other sponsor stuff on it that I'd like to take off. But it's been on there a long time. I got some of it off with my finger nail, but it's slow going. I tried "Goo Gone" that my wife has in the house, but had little success. I think they're made of a thin vinyl. Some of them almost feel like dried electrical tape, but they're not (that stuff would come off much easier...).
get an old Subway card or something (more flexible than a credit card, but still rigid-ish), use a towel to rub the goo gone into the edges. let it sit for a bit and prepare to sacrifice your card and finger nails. as you peel up edges, don't just pull the material off, use that raised edge as a way to get more goo gone behind the sticker.
once you get going, you'll find that it's easier to separate the sticker from it's own adhesive and then clean the leftover adhesive off of the paint. so you're scraping -through- the adhesive layer and not trying to take everything off the paint at once.
it just takes time and patience. i've removed square yards worth of bumper stickers and pinstripes etc. with this method. it sucks, but it doesn't hurt the paint. also, be sure to fully wash off the goo gone when you're done.
once done, a good clay bar job can hide the color difference pretty well.
Rustoleum spray on decal and adhesion remover works decent. Find a junk credit card or something similar to get the edge up and spray away.
I use plastic razor blades for this kind of stuff. You should be able to find them near the detailing stuff in your favorite autoparts store.
3M adhesive remover in a spray can.
I've been able to just spray it over the top, let it sit, it will soak throught the sticker to the backing and dissolve it.
Then a bit more on the left over adhesive and it comes right off.
YMMV
wbjones
SuperDork
6/21/11 3:07 p.m.
this
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/decaleraserwheel.php
I've worked in a sign store for the last 10 years. If you can't get it off with a heatgun and plastic scraper, go for the eraser wheel but be aware they are consumable so you will probably need more than one if you have a lot of vinyl to remove. If thst doesn't work, just repaint it. It's easier!
I've never had much luck with adhesive solvents.
Heat always seems to work. Heat guns are the greatest thing ever. If you don't have one, a kettle of boiling water can do the same job. It only took about 10 pots of boiling water to de-sticker my retired rally car 10 years ago. Just watch your feet. I've also just gone after things with a quick pass of a propane torch and never damaged the paint, but YMMV.
A friend has a set of these scrapers from Snap On and they work pretty well. Kinda pricey, but you can resharpen them as necessary. They got the pinstripes off my Miata. Very handy.
WD40
in my experience, goo gone is pretty much crap.
Goo Gone works....but very slowly. We had the Jag parked under a tree that bleeds sap for a week, it took me about 3hrs to de-sap the thing. Thanks to nervousdog for the tip on plastic razor blades, I didn't know they existed..and anticipate having a new favorite after I've tried them.
