Ok, so I know this is the 3rd "stripes" thread in here, but my question is a bit different.

I have an 03 MCS with the factory black stripes with the ugly white boarder. With as chipped up as these things are, I assume they've been on for awhile, if not since new. I'm looking at replacing these with the viper stripes. My questions are...

1) How difficult is the removal process, and are there any tips or tricks?
2) I will be detailing the car in the very near future, should I apply wax before installing the new stripes? Or, should I wax after?
3) How big of a pain is it to install myself?
4) Are there different types (i.e. "sticker-type", "decal-type", etc.)? And is one style better than the other?

I'm really hoping going with this style stripe really cleans up the look of the car!

Thanks in advance!

 

1) I used a hair dryer to aid in the removal. They came up AOK, but I have a bit of a ghost stripe as the paint under the area where the stripe was is darker than the rest of the hood.
2) Wash with Dawn / Water, clay bar, and dry. The clay bar is important.
3) Not hard at all. A few drops of liquid detergent in a small sprayer of water for lube and squeegy the decal. Use a plastic squeegy that has an edge covered with a piece of chamois. It will help to keep from scratching the decal if it has no backing. But, if the stripes have a white rice paper backing there is a trick to removing the backing w/o messing up the decal.
- After you work out the bubbles, let the decal sit and dry to surface for 15 minutes. This allows the decals adheasive to bond to your cars surface. Then respray the rice paper backing with the water/soap solution and let sit for 1 minute. That rice paper backing will peel right off effortlessly and not disturb the decal.

Tip 2 - use a hair dryer for any difficult angles on the cars surface when applying the decal.

I have only used the peel and stick types with rice paper backing - applied wet method.

 

I have a 05, changed out the stripes in 09 and also had the ghost stripes (ie, under the stripes the paint was a bit darker). If you are not planning on re-striping the same area, I would recommend removal before ordering new stripes to make sure you can live with any differences in the paint.

Removal is very easy, just use a heat gun or hairdryer.

Washing with a dish detergent strips off the old waxes. Claying will get you a nice even finish for applying new stripes. I would let the new stripes sit for a few days before putting on a new layer of wax.

Good luck and be sure to post pictures after the new stripes are on (but not any pics of your naked MINI--that is just wrong).

 

GREAT! Thanks for all the info, that was exactly what I was looking for!

Gray Raven - Did you do these on your Dark Silver? That's what I've got and I'm wondering how "bad" the ghosting is going to be. Is there anything that can be done to help blend it better?

I imagine it's something that will get better over time, and most people probably don't even notice it. Problem is, I will, I notice everything! I think I'll pull my stripes off this weekend and see how bad it is.

 

My husband, who rarely notices such things, noticed it right away on my Cool Blue MC. One thing to consider is that I bought my car used and it had lived most of the four years before I bought it in Miami so I am guess it saw quite a bit of sun. Where your car has lived probably would play a role in the amount of fade as well as the base color. In any case, I would take off the old stripes before ordering new if the new stripes are going in a different location.

 

Well, got the stripes removed today! The good news is that there seems to be very little ghosting. The bad news is, the car looks so much cleaner without them that I may not go with the Viper stripes like I planned. Thoughts?

 

I like - Very good job on that aero grille btw !

Maybe black out the headlight rings ? And a front lip spoiler.

I have heard some say that a body shop can buff out the ghosting, but that never made much sense to me as there are layers of clear coat over that pigmented silver paint. Don't see how that is possible.

 

How do you take off the ghosting? I just removed my stripes not too long ago. Need some advice with the ghosting please.

 

polishing compound & finishing compound to remove oxidation will help a lot.
look in the detailing section.