Old and brittle vinyl stripe removal

[BryanH]

Has anyone had any luck removing dried up old vinyl from a painted surface?

My 350Z has a replica Nismo stripe along the side (http://www.pbase.com/bryanh/image/159273207). The blue part has faded, shrunk, and has started to flake off in a couple places recently. I went to remove the whole thing today. Normally removing automotive vinyl, you get a fingernail under a corner to start it and peel back from there. No problem. Maybe clean up a little adhesive residue after.

This blue stripe is so dried up I only get a tiny tiny piece to flake off at a time. After an hour I hadn't even gotten an inch of it off, and I have about 10 feet to do! I'm hoping there's a better way without damaging the finish beneath. If this was on glass it'd be easy... Goof Off and a razor blade.

Any ideas?

53561

[atgonzales]

How about using steam


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[rbss]

3M Stripe Off Wheel (3M Stripe Off Wheel 07498, pinstripe tape removal) ,plastic razor blades and a adhesive remover. You will most likely will have to polish the area after the adhesive has been removed completely.

[The Dude]

+1 on the stripe wheel. Will make easy work of that.

[BryanH]

Interesting. I'm not sure I"m ready to resort to a power tool just yet. I like the steam + plastic razor blade idea. Off to pick up a plastic razor blade tonight. I had no idea such a thing existed!

I definitely plan to correct the paint on the whole car sometime after the vinyl is gone. Prepping the car for sale really, just taking my time 'cause I like the car and it's admirably serving daily driver duty right now. :)

[GSKR]

Pour some boiling water on it,may soften it up a little.

[Crispy]

I used a heat gun (low setting) to heat it up and loosen the glue (could use hair dryer).

Plastic razor blade to get an edge started.

The stripe was much more plyable and came off pretty easy really.

Trick is to heat (low heat or it will melt) small 6"- 10" piece and then peel.

Then move to next section.

This was on a smaller stripe about 6 feet long, about 10 years on car.

Used 3M adhesive remover I think to clean up left over glue.

[MarkD51]

The Rubber wheels work very well, not hard to use, just go slow and take your time. They can be attached to a simple cordless drill. Then follow with a prep solvent, and a fine polish with a DA.

The problem you might find though, no matter what, and it's due to time, is a ghosting shadow and difference in color in the paint that cannot be gotten rid of.

In that case, there's really only one solution, and that is to re-apply another similar graphic-stripe.

[GSKR]

I have a unorthodox way of removal.use a rotary with a wool pad and melt the sticker off,then just clean up the adhesive.Highly un advisable especially on plastic.Done this plenty of times on rv graphic removal.Dont even think about doing it.

[BryanH]

Update:

A plastic razor blade and steam cleaner worked well. A fair amount of adhesive residue was left behind, which was tackled by the razor blade again with Goo Gone and/or 3M Adhesive Remover.

I had a replacement stripe printed using the same plot pattern but a better quality material, so the fade mismatch will be covered up with a fresh stripe.

[Firehouse Mike]

3M wheel for sure...works great! just go slow and watch your heat!

Mike