scrabsandy

Hi Guys....heh I have a shot at getting my dream car, a 2004 Yellow Lightening RX8. Some idiot put red pin stripes on it. On all four sides...it is small, but I don't like it at all. I was wondering if anyone ever took pinstripes off of their car and if it damages the paint or should I keep looking????? Help.....I'm looking for this car minus the pin stripe.

Waiting in Cleveland

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

if they're vynal (sp?) its easy... just a hair dryer and some time. If they were painted on, ur screwed.

06carbon8

yeah vinyl stripes are easy to remove. if they are vinyl andf you peel them off, you might have to use goo gone or some other kind of bug and tar remover to get some glue residue off but it doesnt hurt the car. good luck, hopefully they're only vinyl.

j67345

Man, I wouldn't put goo gone on my car....even if the bottle says it won't do anything to my paint/finish

champi0n

iTrader: (1)

warm soapy water and some elbow grease.

rddragoness

Rubbing alcohol.... I watched a friend de-stripe his 8 2 weeks ago...NP.

Cody Red

just ask if they were painted or if they are just vinyl. majority of the time it's vinyl and it's not hard at all to remove.

g/l

LY is the best!!

StewC625

If vinyl: Hair dryer to warm it up, then your fingernail to get under the edge and just start peeling. Any residue can be removed with some WD-40 sprayed on a microfiber cloth. You'll need to wash the WD-40 off the car afterwards, but WD-40 won't strip your wax like GooGone will.

If paint ... um, learn to like red.

Seriously what tool would pinstripe an RX-8 - ANY color, and any color pinstripe. That is "so JC Whitney".

ken-x8

GooGone is naphtha. I'd expect it to strip more than wax.

Ken

StewC625

My Lightning Yellow RX-8 got white enamel spraypaint overspray all over it the second week I had it - douchebag next door was spray-painting a chair in his driveway and there was a stiff breeze blowing my direction.

I called a body shop and they recommended aerosol GooGone - spray it on, let it sit for a minute or 3 and then wipe it off the paint. Problem solved in one application and no damage to my finish. Just had to re-wax the car.

FYI, another Naptha product that works like a charm is Ronsonol lighter fluid - the liquid stuff you put in a Zippo lighter. It's a cocktail of aromatic hydrocarbons dominated by naptha and also works great on removing stickum, road tar and other nastyness.

voodootrip

when i detailed i used laquer thinner. always worked the best and never damaged the paint at all. just need to polish then wax it afterwards. granted don't "pour it on the car" and once the rag you're using is saturated switch it. clay bars work good also as long as it is moderate.

lone_wolf025

I had pinstripes on my car. I found that a cheap plastic card worked to start an edge to peel or scrape off the stubborn areas. I didn't think of a hairdryer but it would be easier to soften up the glue. Depending on how long the stripes have been in, you may need to clay it to get rid of the impressions they leave behind.

CarAndDriver

Pinstripes on an 8 = crime.

t.c.

Would these same methods work for removing a dealership logo?

raizen82

^i'm guessing the dealership logo is small like what i had. just put some elbow grease on it and a wet soft towel/cloth. i also used hot water. mine had "stokes mazda-isuzu, N. Carolina" logo above the 'mazda' silver letters.

scrabsandy's pinstripe would be alot more of a PITA to remove.

ken-x8

Dealer logo on mine was a plastic piece held on with some kind of double sticky foam tape. I just lifted one corner and pulled up gently. A spritz with quick detailer and a wipe with a microfiber cleaned up the residue.

My wife's '94 Camry was a factory order. When it arrived at the stealership, some moron stuck a stripe on it. They peeled it off, and we never saw a trace of residue or paint damage afterwards. Of course, that was fresh.

Some time ago I had a BMW with a stick-on metal foil dealer logo. I think the car was about two years old before I decided to peel it off. It came off with no problem.

So there's hope. It's not like the old days, when they'd drill holes and rivet on a pot metal logo.

Ken

ken-x8

Pinstripes on virtually any new car is a crime. They use a stripe that costs maybe $5 at K-Mart, and it becomes a dealer-added item with a price of $150 or so. Mini version of Polyglycoat and other ripoffs.

I remember a bunch of dealers in Fairfax County having to sign a consent order agreeing to not force that kind of fraud on their customers.

Ken

Razz1

Rubbing Alchol is good as mentioned, however 3M makes a specific product.

It's called 3M adhesive remover. I would use that.

Sorry don't know the ingredients.

The 3M stuff will say alot of elbow work.

StewC625

3M adhesive remover and goo gon are basically the same product in my experience. Either work great.

Zephyrzone

Make sure it's warm, or preferably, hot outside. If you do it in the cold the stripe will come off in little sections and it will take days- even if you use a hair dryer. I had to remove a gold stripe from my last car (Acura CL-S). It took no time at all in the summer- it was impossible in the winter.

Another thing to be concerned about is the different in the paint you may see. The paint on my Acura weathered more than what was underneath the pint stripe so after the stripe was removed you could see a slightly darker paint color all around the car. It was MUCH better then seeing the stripe but it was still there. Since it's an 04, you could possibly have the same issue.

The dealer I bought my car from currently has only one 8 on the lot. It's in the showroom. White auto GT 08 with appearance package, rotary accents, spoiler, nav, tire kit. Just about everything the dealer could possibly put on the car. Sticker price is $36k!!!! Oh yeah, and it has a BLACK pint strip running around it. Ug.