NEED HELP WITH REMOVING STICKER ADHESIVE

JC Daniel

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I am in the process of painting a friends wrecker, The doors had a lot of names and logo's on them which were all stickers. I have all the stickers off but the adhesive will not budge with laquer thinner, Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Is it sticky? Sometimes lettering will leave ghost impressions that you think is residue.
 
I had ghosting of a large previous sticker under the black paint of my then 10 year old el camino when I got it.
It read- Be reasonable do it my way. Friends asked how I did that. Not me.
Color sanded & buffed the paint, it came back.
 
I wasn't comfortable using an eraser wheel... a lot of effort for minimal removal. Then I would still have to follow up with an adhesive remover.
I've tried GooGone, Turtle Wax Sticker Remover and another water based remover, but nothing works better than 3M Adhesive Remover although
it doesn't come in a red can anymore.
 

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I had ghosting of a large previous sticker under the black paint of my then 10 year old el camino when I got it.
It read- Be reasonable do it my way. Friends asked how I did that. Not me.
Color sanded & buffed the paint, it came back.
I've read that others have had the same problem and only solution was to strip to bare metal.
 
I wasn't comfortable using an eraser wheel... a lot of effort for minimal removal. Then I would still have to follow up with an adhesive remover.
I've tried GooGone, Turtle Wax Sticker Remover and another water based remover, but nothing works better than 3M Adhesive Remover although
it doesn't come in a red can anymore.

Gotta disagree, An eraser wheel removes all traces of any sort of vinyl and adhesive. Its the only thing most body shops use to remove pinstripes and decals. Anything large use a heat gun. Real lacquer thinner will soften adhesive enough to remove any adhesive with a plastic spreader. Any final traces can be removed with a real solvent based W&G remover like PPG DX330. It's not rocket science.
 
Won't Lacquer thinner soften paint as well... and with 3M adhesive remover, that's all you'll need... you wont need to follow up with a W&G remover. :confused:
 
The ghost letters I mentioned having were NOT my paint job, just thought it was funny what it said.. A later sanding down only into original paint before my own paint job got rid of em.

I only mentioned trying toluene or xylene first before trying eraser wheel as a cheaper method. Heat gun can help also, but as Chris said, an eraser is the tool that will get it done. I won't use if I don't have to, but when time is wasted with other methods OR your method is gouging paint a wheel will get you to nearly clean paint. I also mentioned other solvents first because I've seen tiny little eraser wheels cost as high as $30, where others were around $5 .Have seen a bit of quality difference in eraser wheels just like there are differences in what gets labeled lacquer thinner. Real supply shops many times have better lacquer thinner for cheaper than homestores or house paint stores.
One variable that could cause extra effort is when stickers are applied to overly fresh paint.
 
jl- yes what you said about phrase ghosted was funny lol.
Eraser wheel- yes they come in different quality. My 1st time i removed caddy name plates for the plain look and then used eraser wheel to remove black lettering adhesive. Well in 5 seconds it removed it, the paint & some of bumper filler!
Go easy.
 
I have a eraser wheel ordered to try and remove the adhesive lettering, I really appreciate all the input and help you guys provide!
 
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