Removing Old Decals can be a Royal PITA , AKA … Having Fun with Vinyl!
Heat is the key to softening the vinyl and lessening the adhesive bond!
Here is our procedure for removing tape that has been adhered to various surfaces like wheels, bodywork, and signs
1. Heating up the surface is critical
Warming the surface softens the tape and lessens the adhesive's grip. Cold tape gets stiff and brittle and very hard to remove (it will usually just break off in frustratingly tiny bits). So, warm up the substrate that the tape is adhered to. We have found it best to set the vehicle in the sun on a warm day and let mother nature warm the surface up. It may take a few hours to get warm. You may have to do one side of the vehicle at a time (the wheels in the shade will not warm up, unless it happens to be a hot day).
NOTE: A heat gun works very well on plastic like motorcycle bodywork. It works OK on thin metal like car bodywork. But, it does NOT work very well on wheels because there is so much mass with the thick aluminum, steel, and tires that it is almost impossible to heat up adequately.
Customer Robin Maheu, from Sevierville, TN, contacted us in February 2019 needing to remove some old rimstripes. When we told him about using mother nature to heat things up, February in TN made that impossible, so he added his own twist to heating things up: “I recently asked for advice on how to remove your tape. You were kind enough to suggest pushing it into the sun, to warm up the rim/wheel. I took the route of heating up my garage with intense heat from a forced air kerosene heater. With a an infrared heat sensing gun, I got the wheels up 75°. Tape came off nice and easy. Thanks for helping me see the obvious."
Here is a page on the website that is slanted towards Decal Removal on Motorcycle Plastic Bodywork: http://www.tapeworks.com/Installation%20and%20Removal/Decal%20Removal.html
2. Once warm, pick at an edge to get it started
We prefer to use a fingernail as it is better than a credit card and tends not to scratch. If you need a sharper object to get it started, carefully use a razor blade or an exacto knife to snag the tape, and then slowly and carefully pull up enough to grab onto. Be careful not to scratch the paint! You have to Go Slow. Pull too hard or fast and the tape will break.
3. After you get all the tape removed, there may be a LOT of adhesive residue remaining!
Remove the residue with an adhesive remover. We prefer using a citrus based adhesive remover (like GoofOff or GooGone), and Denatured Alcohol also works pretty well. The trick to using these products is to SATURATE the adhesive residue and allow some time so it can break down the adhesive. We like to use the paper Rags in a Box found at Home Depot, and cut them up into smaller squares. Then we saturate one square with adhesive remover and wipe it on the residue. You will probably have to wipe the residue multiple times until it has completely soaked into the adhesive and has had time to work. The adhesive will soak it up and turn dull. When it stays shiny it is saturated. A plastic scraper like a bondo spatula or a credit card work quite well to scrape off the loose gooey mess. Then take a clean rag square and wipe away the loosened residue. Repeat as required until gone.
NOTE: This step is usually the most time consuming part.
4. Once all residue is gone, thoroughly clean with Window Cleaner
Adhesive removers like Goof-Off or Goo Gone leave a very oily film. Window cleaner works well to remove any residue from the adhesive remover. We recommend doing this two times.
5. Then thoroughly clean again with Rubbing Alcohol or Denatured Alcohol
This will remove any soapy residue from the window cleaner. We recommend doing this two times.
6. You should now have a squeaky clean surface that is ready for installing new decals.
Cheers!