KenRudd

I am going to pick up some of the 3M GP Adhesive cleaner. I have a lot of solvents at hand from alcohol to lacquer thinner to MDK & Acetone, but I loathe to use the stronger ones except as a last resort on paint. The statement "Will not dissolve or mar automotive paint that has been properly aged. " makes me confident. I'm hoping that plus some mechanical action via a small cotton/rubber/soft wire wheel will do the job.

Will post results.

Jerry Feather

Ken, I think that the puddling of this cleaner around the stuck-on letters, together with some bit of lifting of them anywhere you can get them to start to loosen, will have you removing them pretty quickly. I don't think you are going to need any wire wheels. After the letters are gone the adhesive remaining will come off easily with the cleaner and a rag.

kombatrok

No, I just hit mine with water and they started peeling off. My paint isn't perfect anyway so I wasn't worried about it, but there was absolutely no damage to the paint at all.

The Fixer

Ken,

You can buy one of these plastic auto body tools at the auto paint store.

Once you soften with Xylene, try one of these first to get most of the letters off and this tool would be used in the tight radii at the ends of the letter recesses.

These tools are great as they don't scratch the paint.

curtisr

I've tried the caramel wheels. While they are amazing at removing things like decals from glass, they will remove paint and finish all too easily.

Mrmerlin

once you get the letters off,
I think the best thing to do will be to fit the plastic letters.

Looking carefully the tape letters will not fit properly into the masked off areas,
you can see where the edges are not straight from the previous mask off job.
But hey try the tape letters first to see how you like them.

dont use a hose with hi pressure to wash the rear bumper with tape letters

hernanca

Ken,

Your letters look like they were glued on - you may have more than the letters to remove, so all the advice here may need to be considered.

I was lucky when I removed mine. All I did was apply heat with a blow dryer (not even a heat gun), then used my fingernails. It peeled off pretty readily. Then I used some citrus cleaner to get any remaining stickiness off the indentation.

If you want the subtle look of just having the indentations (as I did) and you have more than just vinyl letter stickiness on there, try to do the least damage possible to the paint you have on there, and consider that you may need to prepare and apply touch up paint when done.

KenRudd

My goal is to be able to run with no lettering. Plan B if the paint gets chewed up is to add new lettering. Plan C is respray( uggh)
Looks like it may just take time, solvents, minor mechanical help and a few beers.
I'm going to go with least aggressive to most aggressive and will post results.

joejoe

Merlin that is exactly why I went with the raised letters. They really do look good (silver) on guards red, and black on meteor grey. I understand Ken wanting the clean look, as my '81 has no lettering tape and also looks really nice.

Mrmerlin

Joejoe you know you cant just come in here and drop a bit like that without a picture or two,
what do you say?
How about it............
This thread.......

joejoe

Will try and get some tomorrow.

KenRudd

Okay, here is the summary with the results and bad news:

The decals seems to be two layers, a top softer color layer and a much harder adhesive bottom layer.

With no solvents or heat:
The decal would barely chip when attached with a fingernail, except where already peeled.

Solvents:
My trick for holding the solvents in place to allow them to soak was creating a dam of blue tape.

• PB Blaster had no real effect
• Goo Gone had no real effect
• 3M Adhesive remover made it possible to peel off bits of the color layer with much effort.

Heat:
This was the most effective for removing the color layer. I used a heat gun and just got it fairly warm, and the color layer got soft an peeled off in big strips.
No real effect on the adhesive layer though.

So I tried physical methods. What seemed to work best was the plastic bristle Dremel Wheel. The trick was to keep it an a moderate speed, which seemed to be easier to moderate than a low speed, and to be very very gentle. Resist the temptation to apply any force, and keep it moving or the friction heats the paint quickly. This combined with removing the remaining sludge with the 3M adhesive remover was moderately effective.

Unfortunately, several of the bottom layer adhesive spots took big chunks of paint with them, and more annoyingly, and preventable with experience and care, the wheel also removed paint when hitting the edges of the depressed area. I learned this the hard way, and it also meant you could not get the wheel into the tight corners.

Additionally, the paint that had been hidden from daylight was much brighter than the surrounding paint.

Summary: I am going to need to respray or respray and add new letters to get it looking great again.

The Fixer

Ken,

Sorry to read your results.

My post 11, 14, 19 if read would have prevented the failure. But my way would require using new PORSCHE lettering as there would be no way around that.

Post #11 asks that you take the time to tape off the paint into the recesses to the edges of the old vinyl letters with vinyl painters tape used for detail work.

Also straight Xylene has more kick (i feel like a broken record with the xylene) and would have softened it. It is THE ingredient that make goo gone do it's thing but 100%. I used it to remove the 30 year old undercoating on my doors and fenders allowing it to soften the coating for 24 hours. It would soften old adhesive.

The plastic tool in post #19 should have been tried with xylene and used in the corners. It's sharp like a chisel but does not scratch, hasthe perfect tight radius on its corners. it's an awesome tool to use for this.

You Always tape off the paint you don't want screwed up. This would take about an hour but saved re painting

People like myself that actually paint and do this kind of stuff a lot can help in these circumstances

Re painting could have been avoided.

Sorry if i sound like a jerk but this could have been successful.

17prospective buyer

Plastic razor blades and heat. It's a fine line between heat damaging and/or lifting the paint and weakening the old adhesive. With a flat surface i actually am ballsy and use my butane torch and keep moving around the area, then when it gets just about too hot to keep a finger on, i rub with my finger till the adhesive starts balling up and coming off. I keep doing this till it cools down too much to remove adhesive efficiently then rinse and repeat till it's off. Keep in mind this is for debadging newer vehicles. Acetone would for sure dissolve the old adhesive but will soften the paint and make the paint more vulnerable to scratching, risky but the stuff that works the best is always the risky business. Paint scratches just by rubbing against it with clothes... whatever you rub with must be synthetic weave that will not scratch, mind you you can use something that creates scratches if you do a cut and buff afterwards of area. Paint damages as easily as eggs crack, many don't understand this. I know it's tempting but don't use your fingernail, first mistake noobs make. They go through the thoughts of "i won't scratch it!" and "just the one time i'll try". Try a synthetic rag moistened with acetone and just rub rub rub making sure the area is clean.

KenRudd

Actually did read your post and followed them as close as I could with tools available. I wrote the post in the garage as I was getting frustrated, so now that have had time to review, I adjusted the previous post slightly and can flesh out more details so that future users can choose their own path and avoid similar issues:
1. I did tape around the edges of the letters using the painters tape I had. The plastic Dremel wheel ate through that instantly, partly because the solvents weakened it greatly. Thicker vinyl tape may help.
2. I tried the cotton buffing wheel on the dremel first, it seemed the mildest solution. Absolutely no effect except maybe shining up the adhesive. I did not try a brass wheel, and probably won't.
3. I did not try pure Xylene, and maybe I'll get some, but the 3M solvent I did use lists Xylene as its first ingredient, followed by Naptha. And it specifically says it is safe for cured auto finishes.
4. I tried a variety of nylon tools. Not the specific one you mentioned, but I have a variety of other for other body work as well as decal application, running the gamut from fairly soft to basically as hard as wood. They did not make a dent in the adhesive unless you chiseled hard enough to crack and remove the paint.
5. I also have one of the 3M Adhesive Eraser Wheels. It's like a big gummy eraser. That actually worked well where it could reach, but it is very big ( like 5" diameter by 1" thick) so you can barely get the corner of it into the big parts of the letters. However, it also chews through tape on the edges to eat into paint like the Dremel plastic bristles. A 1" x 1/4" version of that for a Dremel may work well. .