How to remove old vinyl bumper stickers from car body?

Can anyone advise how to remove old vinyl stickers from a car's bodywork without damaging the paintwork? I tried peeling them off, but there is no way!

Many thanks,

Al

Reply to
AL_n
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AIUI they remove the vinyl wrap from cars using a heat gun.. try a hair dryer.

Reply to
dennis

"dennis@home" wrote in news:jkl2j5$r1f$1 @news.albasani.net:

Thanks. I've heard that advice, and it may be the only way.

I wonder if anyone knows a method that is less of a risk to the paintwork.

Al

Reply to
AL_n

If you own a car whose paintwork can be damaged by your hair dryer, I suggest you either buy yourself another car or another hair dryer.

michael adams

...

Reply to
michael adams

;-)

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

It worked for me with our van - just take it slowly and once you have a corner lifted direct the heat between the sticker and the paintwork. I'm not sure how resistant modern paints are to sun fading - it was fine with the van (2008) but on an older vehicle you might end up with obvious outlines of where the stickers used to be...

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules Richardson

Hair dryer and be prepared to use a colour restorer such as T-cut on all the paintwork.

Even if it's not faded in the sunlight, the exposed paint will probably have traffic film ground in and oxidation of the surface. It's not too bad on a car when you compare it with the same job on a coach or bus.

Then polish it to make it easier next time.

Reply to
John Williamson

In article , michael adams writes

The difficulty is that a hairdrier really doesn't have the oomph and a heatgun could easily be too aggressive. Too little heat and any poorly bonded paintwork will lift, too much and you have effected the perfect heat based paint strip.

My choice would be a heatgun on low, not too close, with much wafting and pulling the sticker with minimum possible force, only pull when it is clear it wants to come off.

Reply to
fred

Hot air gun. Then peel them off.

Reply to
Huge

They use this test with hairdressing students to show the effect of heat damage to hair.

As you may not have a heat gun use a hair dryer, try this, Let the hairdryer heat up then Hold the dryer 1 inch away from your skin and see how long you can keep it there (ouch), now try from afar and slowly bring nearer to your skin and see how the heat increases. This will give you a measure on what `heat` you are applying to the sticker from a certain distance. If you just start heating without knowing you could do some damage.

Reply to
ss

FWIW, I've been peeling vinyl off my race TVR for years with a heat gun and have never damaged the paintwork. You just need to get the vinyl warm, not hot.

Reply to
Huge

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