I want to remove the decals that came on the body of my truck. I thought it had been discussed but I couldn’t find it in the archives.
I’m thinking heat gun mildly applied followed by Goo-gone. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
My thoughts…
Heat gun would be good to loosen up the adhesives. An x-acto knife and a pair of tweezers will help with the fine work–getting that initial lift, etc. But be VERY careful for your paint.
I would question the use of goo-gone, would be slightly worried about negative effects on paint–keep in mind, the area under the decals is likely to have little if any wax on it. I’d check your local auto care store body section to see if they have an adhesive remover that’s safer for paint/wax. Rubbing alcohol might work as well, but again, not sure of adverse effects on paint/wax.
Once you’ve got the decals and all the adhesive removed, I would thouroughly HAND wash the car using a good car wash soap, let it dry and apply a new coat of a high-quality wax–I would recommend Mequiar’s Gold Class. Even if there was wax under the decals, whatever you use to remove the adhesive will also likely remove the wax in that area, so it’s pretty important to get new on there.
Been there…done that
I’ve had to remove company stickers, huge ones from both trucks and trailers. A heat gun gets to hot, borrow the hair dryer and apply mild heat. Even the most stubborn stickers will come off but you need to work slowly. Go to the auto paint store and pick up a spray can of 3M adheasive remover for the leftover glue. It’s made for just what you want to do. If you can’t find that kerosene works just fine but Don’t use both the dryer and the kerosene at the same time!
Light heat gun…
…and finger nails…
Then tar remover, wd-40, or auto polish cleaner…
not sure about Goof-Off on paint…
Goof off or Ooops will remove paint
tried that too.
heat gun
then use a thinner to remover adhesive left over. Wax after is good idea too. I work on refinishing cars so have experience on this. Would not use any gas or such. We use auto paint reducer but its kind of expensive.
Thanks everyone.
goof off and oops not only remove
paint but they also eat away and plastic… I bought some to get some of my son’s graffiti off of a slide at the school, I’m sure glad I tested it on a piece of plastic first!
I’ve used Clean Strip, Paint Clean Up which is safe on plastic to remove decals from my paddles with an exacto knife but I’d try the hairdryer first.
Lisa
I haven’t read any other replies…but I
would use WD40. I used Goo B Gone or whatever it’s called and it left a little bit of damage to the surface paint. WD40 has never let me down. (It is a disolvent (sp?) agent isn’t it?) All the decals I took off with the WD40 came off nicely.
Not A Good Exprience
I did that on my Jeep and it did not turn out well. It was red and had lived in Florida and California. The red paint was faded, and the area under the decals was less faded, and showed.
If I had kept the truck, I would have replaced the decals with new ones, but that poor old Jeep was about dead then anyway…
Mine is new and I don’t even see
the TRD decals anymore. Unfortunately , the truck will now forever be known as “Turd”.