Ok guys well when i bought my VZ Wagon one of the door moulds was no exsistant and some terrible looking sikaflex glue
was in it's place, the other ones were cracked and broken as well, so i thought i would try my hand at getting them off
so this is how i did it, it might not be the only way, or the best way but yeah. it can work.
NOTE** Seriously, before you start this here's a word of warning
This is a massive job, like I'm talking at least 10 hours or so if you want to do this carefully, if i had the choice i
would have just taken them to a panel shop and got them sprayed, but unfortunately i didn't have that option, once you
start this it's pretty hard to go back...
Here they are...the dreaded door moulds...
Ok, now that's over here's what your going to need
Removing the Strips- Fishing line
- either gloves or some kind of little wooden pole/stick to rap the end of the line around.
- Hair dryer
- hotwater
- patience - and plenty off it
Removing the Sikaflex Glue- Caramel Wheel - If you don't know that this is then it's a rubber wheel you attach to your drill to get the glue off
(see photo below). To purchase one just go to your nearest automotive paint supplier and ask for a "pin stripe removal wheel"
- A drill
- some rags/clothes
- tea tree oil
- a Mask (optional but advised)
- Sunnies or something of the likes to protect your eyes
here's what a Caramel wheel looks like: (I had already started using mine hence the black edge)
REMOVING THE STRIPS
Step one: Give the car a wash or give it a good hosing and leave it in the sun if possible, the glue we're going to be
trying to cut through is mad more malleable by heat and water.
Step two: Next get out your hair dryer and heat the strip until it gets hot, this might take a minute or two.
Step Three: Get a length of fishing line about 20cm - 30cm and slip it behind the strip, if you meet alot of resistance
then i found pooring some hot water over the strip while trying to lift it up a bit to expose the glue will help.
Step four: Use a slow and firm up and down sawing motion to cut through the glue, your not going to get far before you
have to re-heat the strip so just take it slow and try not to get the line cutting into the door mould as opposed to the
glue.
(i was using dental floss here...didn't last long)
Step Five: Once you have met significant resistance then you have to reheat the strip to get the glue slightly melted in
the fishing lines new position, so just leave the line there and use your hair dryer/hot water again before repeating the
cutting process.
Continue the above steps until you've managed to get the whole strip off, i found that after i could get some leverage
and lift the strip up that hot water worked the best on heating the glue as it get weakened by both heat and water. Also
if you work on both ends so that your final cutting is made in the middle of the strip then you might be able to slowly
and carefully (don't damage your paint!) move the strip around to loosen the glue.
OK! So now are door strip(s) are off. GREAT! only problem is we're left with a mess looking something like this:
Looks pretty terrible don't it. Youd should see a line of sikaflex glue on the bottom of the indent/groove with another
on top and a big strip of double sided tape directly on top of that
Well the next step is to give the panel you just did your work on a wash, so
Step six: Give the panel a wash, get all the dust and dirt and any other crap hidden under there off. You might not want
to use your good sponge for this as the sikaflex makes massive black smudges on everything. Once that is done then leave
your car in the sun to dry.
Step seven: Once the car is dry then try and pull off any bits of sikaflex that you can, if an edge is slightly up then
slowly try and lift it off the panel. It will save you heaps of time later.
REMOVING THE SIKAFLEX GLUE
Step one: Get out your caramel wheel and your drill and put them together then plug it in. If you have a hand hold/brace
thing like you can see on my drill then put that on as well.
Step two: too use the caramel properly you want it to be spinning in a reverse direction to the way your going to be
traveling. Here's a full hektic paint drawing i did to show you the way, it's in horizontal plane (looking down towards
the ground) and the black line is the sikaflex and the circle the caramel wheel.
Step Three: Ok, now the we know what were doing it's time to start. If your drill is a two speed, set it to its fastest
speed and then stand parallel to the panel your working on and start the drill spinning. Ok when you do this your most
likely going to freak out and think im a crackhead or something because this thing LOOKS like it will just strip the
paint right off, but you just got to believe me when i say it doesn't. It's actually quite hard to damage your paint
with the wheel as it works by friction to heat the sikaflex so it's mallebale enough for the spinning motion of the wheel
to flick it off. Essentially a Caramel wheel is just a big circle eraser.
Ok, so we're standing parallel to the panel and the wheel is spinning. What you want to do is line the edge of the wheel
up with the sikaflex and apply a firm but not hard(or too soft for that matter) amount of pressure to the strip while
moving the wheel in your chosen direction.
You want to take this slow and do it evenly. So apply a constant amount of pressure and move the wheel in the ONE
direction at a constant speed of about 1cm - 2cm per second. By holding the wheel too long in the one spot you can heat
up the area too much and cause the paint to burn, but if you do what i say then you should be fine.
(Try and hold the wheel a bit straighter than i am!)
ok, that basically how it's done! It's going to take awhile so you have to be prepared to put in the work, if you rush
it then your most likely going to stuff something up, but don't be ultra careful either, otherwise you'll grow old before
you finish this. If your wheel starts to smoke excessively then it's getting too hot, so it's best then to dip it in
some cold water and leave it for awhile, but if the smoke isn't too bad then just keep going. It's best to wear a mask
throughout this as sikaflex is pretty indestructible stuff (as im sure you've found out) and you would hate to get it all
on your lungs...
Step four: Just continue moving your way up and down the strip slowly getting the glue off, don't be worried if it makes
some gross smudges or if you see some multicoloured burn mark like things come up because they come off easily later.
When you make your way up and down the strip the sikaflex will be flying everwhere, including all over the panel, so one
it builds up to much then flick your rag over the panel to get it off.
Step five: Continue what you've been doing basically. Once you have got it all gone then your left with a pretty good
looking panel apart from those nasty smudge marks and burn spots. So what we need to do now is give the panel a wash in
some nice hot soapy water. once that is done and the panel is relatively dry then get out a clean cloth or the likes and
rub hard at the smudge marks, if you rub horizontal and then vertical each part for about 5 seconds most of it should
come off easy.
Step six: Once most of the smudge is gone then get out your tea tree oil, tip some on the rag and then rub at the smudge
more, this should get any left over residue off and get the panel looking great.
Step seven: Now for those burn marks, basically it's just the same as the above step, use the tea tree oil and rub at
them firmly and they should come out.
Step eight: Ok, now for the final touches, give the car a wash again to get rid of anything left over and finish with a
cut and polish. And your done!!
here's some finishing results.
Note* yeah, i've only done two strips so far haha (passenger and driver fronts)
DIY: Removing those pesky door moulds
- A good sign its well aged
