Like many others, it doesn't take long before we start changing our minds and/or start thinking about new ways to customize our MINI...

When I bought my MCS I really liked the 'standard' bonnet stripes that the dealer already had on it. (I bought my MCS the same day I saw it for the first time -- so I didn't custom order.)

But after having the car for a few weeks, I decided that I'd prefer if it didn't have stripes on the bonnet. I 'might' consider adding some down the road, but for now I was wanting to just have a 'clean' bonnet with no stripes. Of course, this "job" would have to be done anyway if I were going to add some new stripes (which many will be doing.)

So, of course, the first thing I did was search NAM for info on how to remove stripes. I found lots of great info (thanks to everyone that had posted in several threads about it) and so off I went to tackle the job myself. After all, how hard could it be to peel off some stickers and clean off the residue?

Well, it turned out to be quite a bit trickier and more time consuming than I had thought. Removing the vinyl was a piece of cake. Getting the residue off was an entirely different story...

The other threads I found basically said "Just get an edge to peel up and then pull the stripe off. Then just use one of the many cleaners to clean up the residue." If there was a more detailed "how-to" posted then I must have missed it with my search -- but either way, I'm sure there's more than one way to do this job and I wanted to create a little 'tutorial' to hopefully help others.

If you're like me, when someone says a DIY task is "easy" I am hoping for something that takes 2 minutes to do and/or something where I truly have all the step-by-step instructions.

Removing the stripes yourself IS easy, but allow me to save you some aggravation (and time!).

Soooo... after a bit of struggle (and more than a couple of aggravating hours) I finally figured out a solid method for getting the job done. On with the tutorial...

* I want to preface this Tutorial by saying I am NOT a paint expert. It's very possible based on my 'technique' (or how you end up applying it; mostly the scraping part) and/or the severity of your stripe residue that you may scratch your paint. I had no problems, and read about others that didn't either, but I just wanted to point that out. As always with anything like this, take your time and be as careful as possible. Any paint pros can feel free to post if they want to comment on that.

What You'll Need To Get The Job Done:



Complete List Of Tools:

- A roll of paper towels
- Some duct tape
- Goo Gone (I bought some for about $4 at my local Wal Mart. Search for it online and you'll find many places that carry it and/or you can order it online.)
- A plastic scraper or thick plastic card (I used an old AAA card I had.) DON'T use a metal object to scrape with.
- (NOT SHOWN) A Hot Day (with the car sitting outside) *OR* a hair dryer.

CRITICAL: As mentioned in another thread, DO NOT USE A HEAT GUN in place of the hair dryer or you run the risk of seriously damaging your clear coat and paint.
[EDITED] In the replies below this post several mentioned using a heat gun with no problems. Read their comments for more info.

My MINI "Before" Beginning The Process:



TASK #1: REMOVING THE STRIPES

Step #1: Unless your car has been sitting outside for a few hours on a hot summer day, you're probably going to need the hair dryer. Plug in the hair dryer, put it on its hottest setting, and then start by heating the 'top' end (closest to windshield) of a stripe. Hold the end of the hair dryer about 4-6 inches from the actual stripe. (Putting it too close may potentially damage the clear coat under the stripe.) Target about the first 3 inches (length) of the stripe and work the hair dryer in a circular motion. Do this for about 20-30 seconds.

Step #2: Try to get your fingernail to pry up one corner of the stripe. It will work on some 'momentum' so keep in mind that once you get a tiny bit to lift up, getting a bigger piece (part of the same piece) will be easier. If it's still really difficult to peel off, repeat Step #1 and heat it up again.

Step #3: Once you get the corner to come up, slowly continue peeling the entire stripe. You'll work in small pieces -- as you get some of it peeled up, get a better hold on it (towards the area to be peeled next) and use that leverage to work your way down until the entire stripe pulls off. I did not have to heat my entire stripe to get it off -- only the end that I needed to start with. If you have trouble during the entire peeling process, you might need to stop throughout and apply the hair dryer to 'soften' up the glue. Then just continue to peel until it's completely off!

It's easy to "break" the stripe when trying to take it off. I broke mine 2-3 times. It's no biggie, though, just peel up a corner of the remaining piece with the same process until you have peeled it off.

Okay, that's the easy part. Now let's move on to the tricky stuff... cleaning that stubborn adhesive residue off.

TASK #2: REMOVING THE ADHESIVE RESIDUE

This isn't the greatest photo... it was taken outside and there's some reflection of some trees on the bonnet and I had some cleaner sprayed all over it (which I'm about to cover) but you can at least see the nice 'track' that's still left on the car after peeling off the stripe:



Step #1: Wash and dry the entire bonnet. Use the appropriate cleaning materials that you'd normally wash your MINI with. (Do some searching if you are unsure of what types of soap/cleaners are okay and which can damage your paint's finish.) It's important to wash the bonnet to remove any possible debris (like small, hard pieces of dirt, or any other particles that might be present) as we want to, hopefully, eliminate the possibility of scratching the paint by pushing these particles into the paint while using a scraping motion to remove the residue. So I recommend it just to be on the safe side.

Step #2: Use the Goo Gone to completely SOAK the entire stripe. It's okay if you get some on the non-residue areas. But make sure you apply PLENTY of the solution to the entire stripe. Once you're sure you've soaked the entire stripe, go ahead and use some paper towels to wipe off as much excess as possible that's not on the stripe itself. Now wait about 10 minutes and let the solution soak.

Step #3: Start at the top of the stripe (end closest to windshield) and use your fingernail to scrape off the first 1/2 inch or so of the residue. I recommend doing this as it's hard to get the scraper (or plastic card) 'started' when there's not much area (without residue) to start from.

Step #4: Angle the scraper or plastic card towards the windshield and you're going to scrape 'down' the stripe. You're going to work your way from the top of the stripe down to the bottom during this entire process. But for now, you're just going to work on about a 6-inch area. Don't worry about the rest of the stripe. Your goal is to remove the first 6 inches for right now. When you do your scraping motion you'll notice that you will scrape off a top "level" and then you'll have to work a bit harder to get the remaining residue to come up. If it becomes very hard to get much residue to scrape off (at any point) then soak the area you are working on with Goo Gone and try scraping again. (You don't need to wait this time.) When you're working on an area, make sure to scrape in ONE DIRECTION and this direction will be down towards the other end of the stripe. The residue will roll-up on itself (think of rolling up some carpet) and it makes it easier to get more residue to come up.

Here's a quick shot of a recommended 'angle' to hold a plastic card or scraper... you can 'lean it back' a bit more than that if you need. You're going to have to have it at a decent angle to get enough pressure to get that stubborn residue to come off:



Remember to spray some more Goo Gone if at any point the residue doesn't want to scrape off. It's easier to get off if you constantly soak the area you are scraping, not to mention it will be harder to scratch the paint if your scraping area is fully soaked.

Step #5: While the area you just scraped is still soaked, take a large wad of several paper towels and WIPE DOWNWARD (along the stripe) starting from above any loose residue. This stuff is very messy and you'll just want to do your best to "mop up" the best you can by wiping in a downward motion (same direction you have been scraping in).

WARNING: Do not use the same area (that you just wiped off some residue with) of the paper towels. If you try to wipe off some residue with a paper towel wad that already has some residue on it, you'll quickly become angry. Trust me. Because this will simply transfer some of the residue back onto the bonnet and make a mess! It really is nasty stuff. So make sure to wipe with a fresh area of paper towel and always do large wipe motions in ONE direction (downward).

ADDITIONAL WARNING: If you let the scraped residue area DRY (before wiping off what you had scraped off) the removed residue turns into stuff that's like gum and it's really hard to get off; you won't be able to make much progress with the paper towels. You can just soak it with Goo Gone and make it easy to wipe off if you ever let it get too dry.

Here's a shot of what it looks like when some scraped up residue gets dry before wiping it off. It really turns into some nasty stuff that just doesn't want to come off when you wipe it (while dry). You'll just mainly push and smear the residue around and not wipe it up when it's dry:



Step #6: Here's a little "trick" I figured out. Sometimes the residue just won't all wipe off when you get a bunch loose and fully soaked. If you let that area dry, here's what you can do to 'pick off' some of the residue pieces that are left... you essentially create a "lint brush" to get some of those stubborn, dry pieces off. Just take a strip of duct tape and press it over the area. Then peel it off. That's it. It's like giving your MINI a bikini wax.

You can also use a strip of duct tape (sticky side) and gently "blot" an area with little dried residue particles (that have already been scraped off.) Think of it like using some tape to remove dog hair from your pants.

Here's a quick shot of the duct tape doing it's job. The photo shows the sticky side up where you can see a lot of residue it picked up:



Step #7: After you scrape off entire sections of residue you'll still typically be left with a tiny amount of residue (look closely). Just soak that area with Goo Gone and use some fresh paper towels in a CIRCULAR MOTION. Like waxing the car. You'll need to do this all over the bonnet to get up the very last little areas of residue.

Just simply repeat all of these steps as you work your way down the entire stripe. If you're having a hard time scraping off some residue, soak with more Goo Gone, wait 2-3 minutes, and then try applying a bit more pressure on the plastic card or scraper. Sometimes it seems like it's just not going to come off, but then you will start making some progress. Be patient and be deliberate. Some areas will be easier than others.

REMINDER: The residue will scrape off a bit easier when it has some momentum with some other residue that you already scraped off. Again, visualize rolling up some carpet. The residue can cling to itself and become a bigger piece building 'momentum' (think snowball rolling down a hill) that can make it easier to scrape the next piece off.

Once you're sure you have completely removed ALL THE RESIDUE (make sure to look really close) wash and RE-WAX your bonnet.

Here's The Completed Job:



That's all there is to it! I hope this might make the job just a little bit easier for some folks.

Enjoy!

-John

3M makes a commercial grade Auto Stripe/Sticker remover.

Looks good - I wouldn't make a blanket statement forbidding the use of a heat gun, though. I've removed several sets of factory stripes using a heat gun (with significantly less trouble than you seemed to have), even though the stripes had been on the cars *much* longer.

The trick to using a heat gun for stripe/decal removal is to not get the gun too close to your work. I always keep one hand right next to the area I'm heating, to act as a gauge. If the spot isn't too hot to keep my hand there, it's not hot enough to damage the paint.

A hairdryer is certainly better than trying to remove the stripes "cold", but it makes it a lot harder than it needs to be, especially when it comes to the residue it leaves behind.

I used a heat gun also on my 2 months old factory stripes. It was really easy like peeling a tape. I do have to use goo gone to remove some residues but very few of those. We have 2 people, one holding the heat gun about 1 foot away from the stripe and the other keep pulling the stripe off. It took about 2 minutes per stripe. I think the heat helps a lot.

Thanks for the heat gun feedback, guys. I edited the main post to mention it.

i pulled mine off a day after i picked it up so it was easy and left no mess. Then installed a clear bra and put on some sport stripes.

i love the stripes on my DS/B cooper s with the black bonnet stripes, it adds character to the mini, but as modding goes, and im trying to get the mini to have a more serious look to it per-say, im thinking about taking them off. i thought there would be a line of some-sort of intensely imbedded dirt that wouldn't be possible to take off, but it doesn't look to bad, i may do it over thanks giving brake when im out of school. thanks for the great how-to! nice to see people put the effort into making them for others

I am partial to the stripeless look

Nicely done.

Now put some stripes on that poor MINI !!

It's funny because I'm actually looking to put more stripes on my MINI. Black pinstriped boot stripes from AC to match the bonnet stripes installed by my dealer. Although I do understand how taking the stripes off can make a MINI look more 'serious', I find them essential. To each their own, right???

Good job on the clean mod!

Really, I just used a hair dryer while my 2 year old watched me peel it off and then cleaned it with WD 40 and it looked perfect. Sorry to hear you had such problems.

Heat makes things better, I'm in south florida, my stripes came right off (in 90+ degree heat). Preheat and you'll have little to no adhesive left.

No need to risk scratching the paint with the credit card!!!

Spray goo-gone, wait 2 minutes, then rub it off with a clean microfiber towel.

Or, less messy and easier on the paint, use your thumb to roll the adhesive up and off.

Also, a last step should state that re-waxing the bonnet is in order. Goo-Gone is pretty mild but is definitely removing any protection you had there in the first place.

As much as I like using Goo Gone, 3M adhesive and wax remover is far far superior and is substantially less work. Its a small gold and black can that I get at Pep Boys. I keep a can in the MINI boot with rags. Stuff works great for chewing gum and splatted bugs. Re-waxing is required after using.

Excellent write-up!

Great point about re-waxing the bonnet! I've edited the tutorial and added that.

I actually tried to use a finger/thumbnail to remove the remaining residue and it wouldn't do it. I'm not sure if my dealer used too much adhesive or too strong or what, but mine wouldn't come off easily.