I have 10" silver vinyl stripes on my car. If they become damaged or scratched, can they be removed easily and replaced without scaring the clearcoat?

 

also, what is the best way to remove the dealers decal that they always seem to put on even though you say not to

 

Hair dryer and dental floss.

 

A constant stream of warm water works very well in place of the hair dryer too (with the dental floss).

 

Though don't hold the hair dryer while spraying water on yourself!! That is a no-no!!

 

dental floss for decals as in stripes? I don't think that is what he is talking about. To remove the 10" stripes you just need to use a hairdryer. Heat up the vinyl, a small section at a time, and then peel it off of the car. It should come off fairly simple depending on how long they have been on the car. I must warn you though, the hood is gonna be a pain in the hiney. Due to the extra heat from the hood, the vinyl on the hood, after about 6-12 months will only come off in small pieces. You might find that you can remove the vinyl from all of the other parts of the car within 30-60 minutes but it may take just as long for the hood.

Don't worry, as long as you follow the directions you will not damage the paint. Once done using the adhesive remover, was the car very well. What might also help is removing the stripes in the sunlight but don't ever use the adhesive remover in the sun. Once you have removed all of the adhesive your car is ready to have stripes installed again. If you are installing them in a different location (due to stripe size or gap) I recommend you polish that area. You will find that the clearcoat may have faded just slightly where there were no stripes. The small amount of fading easily is removed by polishing.

Hope that helps

Once you have removed the vinyl there will be some adhesive residue. Goo-gone will remove this. So will WD-40, but personally I wouldn't be putting that all over my car. Go to a sign shop and see if they will sell you some adhesive remover such as "Orange Peel". It works awesome and goes a long way.

 

He was asking how to remove the dealer decal, not the stripes. He just asked if it was easy to remove the vinyl.
On the other hand, that was a very detailed post, so thumbs up! I bet it will be very useful for people who are thinking about removing the stripes.

 

Actually the person that started the topic didn't ask anything about decals, he was only asking about the 10" stripes. You were refering to the second post in the thread. I was responding to the original post.

 

Great info...I printed that.

 

Listen to adrenalin! I worked at a sign shop for 5.5 years and did many, many, many vinyl installs and removals on everything from cars to art gallery walls. For residential removal use a hair dryer and the hot summer sun to heat the adhesive to ease the removal process. If you can get your hands on a real heat gun, do, but be careful not to over heat. When you are getting too hot the vinyl will melt and change color. When you are left with excess adhesive defiantly use an orange based adhesive remover. There are many brands available at Wal-Mart and it will not harm your paint. When done with the orange stuff, clean again with rubbing alcohol. For a new install, always clean the surface with alcohol for the best adhesive contact. Or just hire your local sign shop for around $45/hr to do it all for you. Sign dudes take pride in there work. I know I always did.

Good luck!

 

ah, we will need to call you Vinyl Guru Jr.

I didn't want to recommend the heat gun because I saw what happens to a car when someone uses a heatgun improperly. Not a good sight at all.

 

Don't hold the hair dryer too close to the paint for more than 20+ seconds or so though, it will damage the paint.

 

The hairdryer will not damage the paint. A heatgun will though. The hood of a car in the hot sun gets a lot hotter than what a hairdryer can do.

 

A heat gun will only hurt your paint if you leave it on there for an extend period of time. If the vinyl will bubble up and cook well before the paint is at risk. If you see any bubbling, remove heat source immediately. You just have to use common sense.

 

I have found over the years that common sense is not that common. I had a customer come in to ask if there was a better way to remove vinyl. I went out to his car and oh my. He was using a metal scraper trying to take it off. Boy was he upset at himself when he found out a hair dryer was all he needed. The paint on his car was trashed. You would think that common sense would have told him "do not use anything that can damage the paint" but instead his common sense said "dude, grab that sharp piece of metal, it will remove it very fast".

 

So I shouldn't use a grinder to take my stripes off??????????

 

Actually you can.
As long as you use a product called Vinyl eraser. It attaches to a grinder and/or hand drill. It basically strips the vinyl off of the car without damaging paint. You do need to buff the car after because it will leave small scuff marks. Mainly it is used for removing vinyl in a hurry from signs.

Oh man, I hope they don't call me the "Cliff Clavin of vinyl" for that one.

Looks like this.

 

Adrenalin, do you make signs for a living? You seem to know an awful lot about it if you dont work in that field. And that is a compliment not a sarcastic statement

 

Sweet! Yeah, I guess you first must have a brain before you can have common sense. Your right, residential folk should use hair driers.

I like to break out the big gun when ever I can. Heck, I use my leaf blower to clean the dust out of my computer case. Little cans of air are for wimps!

 

That is too funny. I use the reverse flow on my shopvac to clean out the fans in my pc.