Removing Decals (How to defeat the “bumper blogger”)

 

We see a lot of cars that are covered in ridiculous stickers.  Why?  Cause often times you can get a great deal on a car like this—generally, the person that considers their vehicle as their primary means of venting their opinion to the world is not a person that takes excellent care of their car.  We also get the occasional customer with a higher end vehicle who wants to get all of the factory marking off of it for one reason or another.

 

Generally, it is much easier to get stickers off of new paint than old, but by applying the proper techniques, you can safely remove stickers and decals from any vehicle.

 

First, let me tackle how to get decals off of glass.  It is very simple—go get some glass cleaner and a razor blade.  Wet the area down with the glass cleaner and use the sharp razor blade to scrape the sticker off the window.  You should keep the razor blade at a 45 degree angle to avoid scratching the glass.  Generally, it is difficult to scratch a window with a razor blade, but it can be done, so you should be reasonable in this application.  Don’t viciously attack the window and you should be fine.

 

Removing stickers from paint isn’t quite as easy.  Especially if the sticker has been on the car for several years or more.  You are going to need the following items (I am going to list a less aggressive and a more aggressive option for each category:

 

Need	Less Aggressive	More Aggressive (Pro)
Heat Source	Hair Dryer	Industrial Heat Gun
Abrasion Mechanism	Terry Cloth Towel	*Sanded down Razor blade
Anti-adhesion chemical	Glass cleaner/tar remover	Lacquer thinner
Post polish	Hand waxing compound	Buffing compound/buffer

 

*We take a razor blade and we sound down the sharp edges and corners with a piece of sandpaper.  You have to be careful to get all of the sharp edges being especially careful to sand down the corners of the razor blade.  What you have left once you have accomplished this is an excellent tool for scraping paint without scratching it.

 

When approaching the decal that you are removing you start by heating up the decal.  If you are using the industrial heat gun, you should be careful not to keep the heat gun to close to the paint.  YOU CAN BURN THE PAINT WITH THE HEAT GUN, so be careful.  The sticker doesn’t have to be that hot.  It should be almost too warm to touch, but you shouldn’t have any trouble or pain when touching the warm-hot decal.  Next you can take your fingernail or a plastic razor blade and begin to peel back the decal.  There is a certain level of heat, and if you get it right, the decal is warm enough that it will come off, but not so warm that it comes off in a million pieces.  You should be able to peel the decal back fairly easily.

 

Peeling away the decal will most likely leave an adhesive residue.  There are a number of ways to get this off.  A less aggressive approach is to take some glass cleaner and a terry cloth towel and try to scrub it off.  If that doesn’t work, you can try tar remover which, often times, works like a charm.  If that doesn’t work, you can do what we do and use some lacquer thinner.  If you choose to go with this option you should be very careful.  Lacquer thinner is made to remove paint!!  Apply the lacquer to a terry cloth or micro-fiber towel (a micro-fiber is less aggressive, a terry cloth towel is more aggressive).  Then rub lightly on the area that has the adhesive.  It should come off fairly easily.  If it doesn’t, you are in for some long hours with a plastic razor blade or “gooch” (this is what we call a retractable razor knife with a sanded down razor blade).

 

You can use the above method to remove almost any adhesion type product from a car.  This is how we remove clear bras, racing stripes, and anything else that is sticking to the vehicle and needs to be removed.  If you are careful, you will be fine.

 

Once you have completely removed the decal, it is a good idea to thoroughly clean and wax the area.  Often times we cut/buff the area where the sticker was in order to remove any minor scratching that may have occurred during the process.