Crusty old graphics

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:18 pm

Hey everyone, I need some help removing some old vinyl graphics from my car.

So I've searched all over the place for tools, techniques, chemicals etc and none of them cater for graphics over about 5 or 6 years old. The graphics on my car are about 25 years old

So now they are properly baked on and in about a million pieces since they've cracked over time.

I've tried the hairdryer method, and that works to some extent on the more intact pieces but when it comes to the microscopic flakes it does nothing. I've also tried (in small test areas) a paint scraper with the hairdryer, but that leaves residue and shadows of the tiny spots used to colour the graphic. A tiny wire wheel in a dremel worked if I was careful, but one slip and it fudged the paint.

I've heard of a decal eraser wheel that you put in a drill, but supercheap didn't have them when I looked and even ebay has no idea what I'm talking about

tldr: I need to get these cracked old graphics off the sides of my car without hundreds of man hours or huge cost. Oh and by the way, the graphics are big stripes and they go all the way down both sides of the wagon:???:

anyone done this before?

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:07 pm

The problem you may find is that the paint underneath is not as faded as the rest of the car, but it sounds like you have had a test run.

A mate used one of those mobile pin strip vans to remove his Brumby brown on beige stripes. Worked OK(ish). Wasn't there when he did it, no idea of cost.

Goodluck though - you wouldn't be the first person to look at 80s stripe and wonder why?!

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:08 pm

There is a citrus based sticker remover but even that takes ages, best to try to get the rubber wheel me thinks.............good luck, and having done it before on only small stripes I do feel for you.

2coupedup · Post by **2coupedup** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:46 am

have you tried a steamer??? i used a small steam cleaner to remove pinstripes and decal stickers off my mums festiva, worked great, the pealed off easily once softened and no sticky stuff left behind...

cheers

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 1:23 pm

That's interesting about the steam cleaner, haven't heard that one before. I'll give it a try when I can get a steamcleaner from somewhere.

Sven, I have heard the paint could be darker underneath, and I think that might have happened under some parts (it is a repeating pattern and I think it has happened under some spots but not others.)

I was going to phone up some other places and ask if they had decal eraser wheels, but knowing Adelaide (and my luck ) the only place will be right on the other side of town as it usually is

cheers,
sam

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:00 pm

Those crusty old ones are well adhered to the paint and the old caramel wheel can burn your paint - ask me I can take pics of one of my attempts

Wonder if white vinegar soak will do it. Another for commercial grade citrus based cleaner goo that the new age sign writers (vinyl applicators) use - ask a friendly sign shop where you might get some or how much for their apprentice to remove for you

T'subaru · Post by **T'subaru** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 10:36 pm

I'd try a heat gun on them, being careful not to burn the paint. Years ago I worked for a bit in a friends body shop and they used a heat gun for removal and followed up with acrylaclean on the residue.

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 12:58 am

The citrus stuff gets rid of the goop, you just need to get the vinyl off first, get a sharp plastic kitchen spatula, they handle heat from the gun pretty well and won't damage the paint,

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 6:03 pm

Today I managed to get some of the citrus based cleaner/remover, lucky I only got the smallest bottle they had because it did absolutely nothing, not even on the goo where the vinyl was already removed

There is still alot of suggestions yet to try, but if they all come to nothing, in the end I will take a wire brush in the drill to the whole mess. Yes it will take the paint off, but it looks like that won't be an issue since the paint underneath is forever scarred

There's also a lot of filling and bodywork to do around the car (dents, rust spots in the body etc) so when I get the paint to do those, I will get the stripes off and respray where they used to be.

cheers,
sam

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:12 am

Silverbullet wrote:Today I managed to get some of the citrus based cleaner/remover, lucky I only got the smallest bottle they had because it did absolutely nothing, not even on the goo where the vinyl was already removed

There is still alot of suggestions yet to try, but if they all come to nothing, in the end I will take a wire brush in the drill to the whole mess. Yes it will take the paint off, but it looks like that won't be an issue since the paint underneath is forever scarred There's also a lot of filling and bodywork to do around the car (dents, rust spots in the body etc) so when I get the paint to do those, I will get the stripes off and respray where they used to be.

cheers,
sam

I was gonna say, if you are really careful (which ive done before) is to get a window scraper with stanley blade fitted, if you do it in right angle you wont scrape the paint but will scrap the decels.

See why I dont like decels.
Cheers
AP

last celtic warrior · Post by **last celtic warrior** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 9:53 am

My "very clever" (her words) wife, who is sitting beside me right now (while I'm wishing i was sitting on the other side of me), suggested trying eucalyptus oil, and/or "Remove" pads that you'd have to get someone from a hospital to smuggle out for you...

Otherwise, my suggesting would be to try WD-40 and Aerostart together (used to use that combo to resurface perished watch lenses). From experience, it shouldn't rip the paint off, but don't trust me on that.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 3:02 pm

Tell your wife thanks for the interesting idea

Seems like eucalyptus oil would get stickers and vinyl off if they were in one piece, but it might not have enough kick to get these ones off, they are seriously baked on

WD-40 gets the sticky residue off, but only after I can get the vinyl off, maybe aerostart would do something.

AP, I've tried the window scraper idea a while ago, put a few chips in the paint

I might try different angles to see if I can get the stickers off without chipping the paint.

Thanks again for all the ideas, I might have to write down a list of suggestions so I know what to buy when I'm out

*edit* Well I'll be, AP's suggestion of the window scraper was spot on! Figured out the angle (As flat as possible) and the whole lot came off in huge swathes. Just to prove how baked these stickers were, most of it came off in powder form, leaving something like powdered sugar on the ground :???:I got the whole lot off in about an hour, but the odd slip and I did take big chunks out of the paint. Not a problem though, since the decals left big shadows I'm gonna have to sand it all down anyway and give it a coat or two from a spray can.

cheers,
sam

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:16 pm

Well just thought I'd dig up an old thread and show you what's I've done in the last week or so. The shadows from the old decals went right down to the primer, so I've spent the last week with the sanding block and a few grades of wet n dry, back to the primer. Gave me a chance as well to fix up the gaping rust hole in one of the rear arches as well as a few dents from people opening their doors into the car. I'll let the pics do the talking:

Right after decals were scraped off, still lots of plastic on the car

The side I've been working on primer'd

No more stickers! and you would never have known there was a huge hole in the mud guard....until it rusts again in a few years and I'll have to weld it.

Now I just need to find the paint number for the car so I can topcoat it! or maybe just a full body respray

Anyway this was my first attempt at bodywork and I think it turned out pretty well, but I'm not doing the other side by hand, I'm getting a DA orbital sander on the weekend.

Cheers!

Cliff R · Post by **Cliff R** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 1:42 pm

Back on the decal removal thing.
My L series has it Sports Wagon decals all crazed and cracked so I have just bought off e bay 2 x "MOULD GLUE REMOVAL WHEEL ERASER WHEELS WITH ARBOUR"
From a place called Jefferson Paint Supplies in Melbourne.
From my research there are a number of these things around on the internet. There is the Wonder wheel and the Powertec stripa decal remover. All from the US or the UK.
They all seem to use a hardened rubber sort of eraser disk you stick in a drill. Basically, if you had the energy and the superman speed to rub your decals with a good old rubber eraser it should heat the area up and take the decal off. I have tried it and only looked like an idiot.
I will see how these wheels go when they arrive.
All up $23.50 for the 2 with freight.
The other thing I was going to try was some thick belt rubber wad punched into a disk but not with insertion material between it. Havent found any yet though.

Post by **Bantum** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:34 pm

Another idea to try is to get a household iron - put it on steam + use an old 'wet' towel to stop it from melting. The heat should soften it enough to scrape it off.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 4:39 pm

Cliff, I think those wheels work really well if the decal is not very old, or still has some of it's plasticky flex left. The decals on mine however were way past that; Most areas came off as white dust when I scraped it with a razor blade

If your sports wagon stickers are anything like my Dad's "Enduro" stickers they should come off alright.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 6:39 pm

see if you can't get some matching 'BURNish' marks on yer paint like I did - in a rush....

Cliff R · Post by **Cliff R** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 9:48 am

The eraser wheels arrived on friday so I gave them a go yesterday with an electric drill on the L series decals.
I bought the 2 wheels as I didnt know how long each one would last.
I didnt need to worry as all the cars decals on the LH and RH rear quarter panels, rear doors and front guards came off with very little being worn off the wheel.
The wheels really do look like an eraser and are about 100mm in diameter with an arbour fixed in the middle. They come with a drill adaptor too.
Only issues were the decals came off in microscopic pieces (powder) and in the right light it looks like they left an engraved imprint in the paint itself which will not come out. It is not the adhesive that is left as this is all gone with the aid of thinners and polish. It is in the paint itself. The wheel does get pretty warm and you do need to stop from time to time of let it cool down so it is best to do the job in sections but all the decals came off in about 1 hour to a stage of not needing the eraser wheel any more. I was pretty careful and wary of not melting the paint but I think even with my Mongrel/problem paint it would take a hell of a lot of incompetence to stuff anything up. I will have to see what the "fail" factor is by trying the wheel on a piece of scrap car steel/paint to see what it would take to burn the paint. I did note you did not need to run the drill at full speed to make the wheel work either. It was a matter of finding the best speed and go from there.

Before

After - note the "Sports Wagon" imprinted in the paint

After - Imprint of decal still in paint.

The wheels - LH original RH the wheel used

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 2:22 pm

Very interesting! it seems they work as advertised then. But you still ran into the same problem I had which was the decals actually staining the paint underneath. When I sanded mine I remember the stains went right down to the primer. But my stains were alot worse than yours, I can barely see them in those pics.

I'm never putting decals or stickers or graphics on any car of mine

purp · Post by **purp** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:29 pm

I've never *tried* to take the stickers of my "L", but it was giving it a clean a while back with a pressure cleaner (it was left unloved by me for abOut 6 months), and a bunch of the small blue squares along the side came off.

About that citrus stuff someone mentioned in a post years ago - we got some at work to remove stickers. One of the boys managed to leave a rag well soaked in it laying on a computer keyboard. In the morning the letters were missing and the whole keyboard sagged in the middle