After 2 years, the silver checkerboard stripes on my wife's Cooper have begun to tarnish a bit and it is time to get a fresh set.

I've been at it for over an hour working with the hairdryer and my "fingernails", and it is a slow and terrible process.

My main problem is that I chew my fingernails so badly that I really don't have fingernails. What is left of them hurt so badly that I can't keep it up much longer.

Might there be any paint-safe tool that I could use to lift the corners. I've got a technique that seems to work to usually pull the whole square up in one piece, but getting each one started is the hard part.

 

Yikes ! I feel for you with all those individual little squares to pull up. I hope you replace it with stripes that have the checkers printed on them.

Do you have one of those plastic squeegees that are used for installing vinyl ? They're safe for your paint and the edge is thin enough you should be able to get it under the corner of each square.

And the key to making it easy is to heat the vinyl long enough to loosen the adhesive underneath.

Good luck !

 

I do have one of those squeegees. . . somewhere. . .

 

I use plastic razor blades, made especially for the removal of vinyl. The other thing is the glue left over on the car. If your car was warm it would be alot easier.

Glue removal can be done very easy with lighter fluid. It will not harm the paint, only make the glue release more easier.

plastic razor blades

 

THose are awesome Twister! I can think if a LOT of uses for them around the house.

I was able to complete the stripe removal this afternoon. It just took 2 hours of patient peeling.

There is definitely a ghost image of the stripes left behind after cleaning all the adhesive off of the paint. I'm not sure if this is sun fading or the difference between paint that has been covered since new and paint that has been out there for 2 years. Hopefully a good detail will get her ready for new stripes.

 

That "ghost" image you're seeing should go away with a PC and some mildly abrasive polish. I recently removed 2-year old stripes from my JB MCSC and after I polished the bonnet, you couldn't tell stripes had ever been there.

Glad you got all that vinyl off. I know that was a huge job, with all those individual little squares. Wow. :impatient

 

i use those plastic blades myself.

try WD40 and that blade. then a quick polish (ScratchX) should do the
trick.

 

I am not looking forward to doing this on my girlfriends mini next spring

I will have some plastic razor blades, though (which are being delievered today actually) and about 16 different types of polish to clean it up.

 

Go get 3M adhesive and wax remover. It is a small gold and black can. It will take that glue off effortlessly!

Heat them up with a hair dryer before peeling.

 

I vote for WD-40 to get the residue off, one it works, and has many more uses.

Also let the WD work in for a few minutes before trying to get it off, spray a towel with it and lay it over the area you have sprayed to let it soften up the gunk.

Mark

 

Andrew, you might want to take a look at when I worked on Clover's MINI and first had to strip off all the vinyl. Even with a decent tool--4.5 hours to remove the two bonnet stripes.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...light=2003+mcs

To get an edge lifted


Oh joy, it won't come off in one piece, look at all that glue residue

 

^^ yuk. who makes those stripes anyway? those are not automotive
grade materials... should probably never be used other than on show cars
that hardly ever see UV.

 

They were chrome stripes that lasted like less than 6 months or something like that. Might want to PM MINIclo for info as I don't want to mention the vendors name.

 

probably the same place ML got hers, huh?

imagine the crap people have to go through then they need to
remove their roof graphic...

 

I'm not sure, but probably. I'm also not sure if you clicked the link to the writeup, but yes, the bigger pain in the **** was removing the faded roof graphic, which although was only on the sunroof, it was also on the rubber seal which meant very very careful extraction with a metal single edge razor blade.

 

^^ yikes...

wat kinda garbage vinyl are they using?

 

Yup it was the same place as mine.

The regular vinyl holds up well...it's the mylar-esque chrome stuff that degrades. The problem is they're the only ones making the chrome stripes. This is why I was considering having the stripes painted on. I know the chrome can be painted on and it will hold up better than the stripes have.

BUT now they are making the chrome with a heavier layer on top. I'm going to try that next. If that doesn't work, then I'm going to get them painted on. I can't deal with crummy-looking stripes, but I need the chrome too!

 

how about you get those aluminum duct tape at AceHardware
and polish them? jk

 

The best thing to remove the adhesive is pb blast. I had a e-350 van 80% covered with vinyl. I used everything from gas to wd40....nothing in comparison to pb

 

hoooray for PB boltbreaker! ive used that for many things and it works great!

 

apparently some people even cook with that stuff...