I'm thinking of removing my Mini's stripes but I don't want to pay that much, my friend suggested that I get a hair dryer and peel them off slowly but I remember a thread where a guy removed his stripes and ripped of the clear coat . I was also considering having the dealership doing it or one of the local auto body shops. Does anyone have a solution to removing the stripes pain free and for little or no money?

 

Uh... I just grabbed mine from the corner and pulled, they came off in about 10 seconds . Used goo gone to remove the extra sticky crap...

 

Really, the easiest way is to just get a hair dryer to loosen the adhesive and start pulling. If that doesn't make them peel easily, then get some 3M Adhesive Remover and go at them with that. I would not pay to have them removed.

 

Here is what I posted a few weeks ago on another site.


So here is my conclusion. Removing old stripes sucks.

I have never seen adhesive baked on to a car this bad before. Finally resorted to : Heat with hair dryer - Goo_Gone Extreme - Plastic putty knife. That got off the top sticky layer. What was under that was NOT coming off with any chemical I tried, and I tried them all. I had a rubber squeegy that came with my black out kit next to me and thought "What the heck". What do you know, it worked like a big eraser. I rubbed it pretty hard and for a long time with the back side of the squeegy, and it took off 85% of the baked on stuff. I then rubbed and rubbed and rubbed the rest with polishing compound, and that got off the rest. There are fine scratches, and over all I'm NOT happy with the results, but at least the adhesive is gone.

Now the other bad part it the paint is darker where the stripes were. I figured this would happen, but was hoping it would not be as bad as it is. So now I have to decide if I want to get the hood re-sprayed and put the stripes on that started this whole mess(center stripes), or leave the hood alone and put regular stripe back on the cover the problem. Any one know a good painter!?!

Well that concludes my stripe removal experience. It sucked, took a LONG time, and I will probably smell like Goo_Gone for weeks to come. I have read other posts of people removing their stripes with no problems, they are the lucky ones.

 

how long were they on the car before you all tried to remove them?

 

Yeah I think I've come to the conclusion that stripes are meant to be on for no longer than 2 years at a time. The bad experiences are usually stripes that have been on for awhile.

 

GOO GONE IS NOT A GOOD IDEA....

This can actually destroy the clear coat as it is citric acid...

To get the stripes up, simply use a hair dryer and SLOWLY peal them back heating the glue to get it soft as you go. It is easy and takes about 10 min...

Please leave the acids in the closet......

 

They where on for a few years I'm sure. It's an '04. I just bought the car and was told that it had the hood replaced at 1500 miles because of an accident.
What I figure is the stripes where put on too soon after paint, but I don't know that for sure. I heard somewhere that you where supposed to wait awhile after paint before you install stripes. I'm sure who ever did it did not wait.
Live and learn.

 

Everyone I asked and talked to said it was fine as long as it was properly waxed afterwards. Including several detailing guru's. My hood looks exactly the same as it did before .