How To Remove Black Bumper Strips**UPDATED**use this one

[benjamino]

Well,
After looking at the black strips on the side of my car for too long, and seeing numerous threads from guys wanting to remove those hideous strips,
i thought id give it a go myself.
The results were pretty pleasing, and besides a few lines and scratches on the paint, the black strips were gone.
But just to let you know YOUR PAINT WILL NOT BE PREFECT FROM WHERE THE STRIPS ONCE WERE.
Im only supplying this from my own personal exprience, and id prefer to have some small paint marks(from fishing line) than look at black strips.

So, you will need.
*Some 20lb fishing line..poundage is up to you, but youll need some tough stuff.
*Wax and grease remover(prepsol,etc)-several Cans
*Cut polish
*huge muscles
*Hairdryer-heat gun, etc.

Firstly
1.Get yourself a carton, cause its guna be a long ass job.

2.Make sure the area around the first strip you prepare to take off is generally clean.

3. Start on the black strip under the indicator, wedge your fishing line under the black strip, and slowly start to cut through the sikaflex, as you would per the debadging thread.

4.You might notice the fishing line cutting into the black strip, this will happen, and the best way to keep cutting through the sikaflex is to get the fishing line as close to the paint as possible.
**DO NOT PULL THE STRIP, THIS WILL CAUSE THE SIKAFLEX TO TOTALLY RIP OFF HUGE SECTIONS OF PAINT.**PATIENCE WILL SEE YOU WITH NO PAINT LOSS

5.When you think you cant cut anymore, because the fishing line keeps breaking, and your too tired, break off some more line, because patience is the key.


6. Once youve cut the first part off, it should look something like this.


7.Get your cut polish, and clean the area of dirt and grime etc, cut polish i found was best for this, and youll be left with that dreaded black stuff.

8.Use you hairdryer to heat up the sikaflex, not too much, just enough to make it loose.

9. Now with your wax n grease remover, you need to slowly but surely buff away layers of the sikaflex.
Spray, buff, spray, buff.
The more people you have, the better..
**ALTERNATIVELY, you could use a caramel wheel, but i had trouble finding one, so wax n grease remover was the only alternative.

10. After much buffing(a solid hour, maybe) you should be looking at this


11. Repeat this step with following strips.
*Note that in the following picture there is a faint line there the fishing line cuts away a small layer of paint.
This is not noticeable from a short distance, and only upon very close inspection will it become noticeable.
Cut polish will remove the dirt,but you will be left with small scratches in the paint.
This will happen, and is such, a consequence of doing this yourself.
But i think its worth the effort.



The finished product

[VRV6BT1]

I got a caramel wheel off ebay for 9 dollars.
Took like 10-15 mins to strip both sides.

[VRV6BT1]

I got a caramel wheel off ebay for 9 dollars.
Took like 10-15 mins to strip both sides.

Search for pin stripe or adhesive removal tool on the bay.

[Static89]

Thanx for this write up mate, your a legend

[jas98]

i like the look of it but with my VS im gonna leave them on as im sick of people hitting the car with there doors in car parks and the black strips are the only thing between there door and my car paint lol

[social]

....I followed this thread and am dissappointed to say that it didnt work out for me, small aprts of paint came off with the strips on my vn. Maybe there was an easier way.

[nicko]

no easier way vn manual other than ripping them off and respraying. These strips were never meant too come off

[social]

no easier way vn manual other than ripping them off and respraying. These strips were never meant too come off

Tis a pitty..was like all hyped up this morn to get em off and **** hit the fan lol so i decided time to paint it, guna try this roller technique, u get wat u pay for but i cn always sand it back if i want uno if it dusnt turn out good, but hope that works out, cars all exterior stripped and going to start sanding tomos.

[greenacc]

You could try running some petrol olong the top of the strip and letting it soak in. this will soften the sikaflex. might take a few goes, and just do one door at a time so your car doesn't become a bonfire. Reason i think this will work is cos the only bit of my strip that is starting to peel off is straight under the petrol filler... so it seems like all those times i filled it and the petrol splashed out and dribbled down the side has debonded the strip. No smoking while you do this ey !! Not sure what the petrol will do to the paint either.

[danja]

Is there enough gap around the edges to slide a piece of paper between the strip and the door? If you could do that, then mask off all the surround, give it a bit of a light sanding, then spray it you'd have colour coded strips which wouldn't look too bad, wouldn't bugger any of the paintwork and protect you from parking lot retards!

[5ivespeed]

is this the same for a vr? coz the strips look different

[benjamino]

....I followed this thread and am dissappointed to say that it didnt work out for me, small aprts of paint came off with the strips on my vn. Maybe there was an easier way.

its a dam shame to hear that mate, sorry it didnt work out for you.
i guess a bit of luck comes into these things..
my paints a little scratched aswell, but itl do for now..

[Chirpstr]

Did it to my VR and it stuffed up as well. Took the paint right off. Followed everything you said, and on the other side I tried everything possibly else but still didn't work. Maybe dodgey caramel wheel? I just thought I'd make the job easier by taking them off before the respray. Lucky that it's getting fresh paint soon.

[Leigh_G]

Theyre all the same basically, I used a similar method on my VN back in the day.. and those strips are WIDE. The trick I found is to weaken the sikaflex as much as possible before even trying to rip it off the paint.. so put all your tools away for a few hours. I used kero, applied it to the strip as neatly as I could, slowly but surely the sikaflex started to soften up, and after a few hours of that it peeled off a lot easier, albeit leaving a fair bit behind on the paint. no dramas then though, as you can dab a kero soaked rag onto each black blob and let it do it's thing again.

.. took me absolutely yonks but came up perfect. You would never know it had them in the first place. As someone stated earlier, PATIENCE is the key with these POS strips

[benjamino]

yehhh i tried not to pull the strips at all, just cuttin with fishn wire,,
slowly but surely..
but hmmmm, shiit to hear how ppl are ****n up their paint lol
maybe i should take this thread down haha

[003KWK]

I did mine a while back in a very similar way, and it was fine. Although I've had a full respray since then so I can't take pics.

I guess it's just luck of the draw with how well they've bonded to the paint.

[Static89]

if your patient it will happen eventually, becouse my cars off the road im doing mine every now n then do a bit get bored then go back n do some more later, n its coming off

[Zeussy]

i did this mod on my vt yonks ago, but all i did was where the door edge is, the little groove in the door skin, got a flat blade screwy (with out touching the paint work) and sat it on the edge of the plastic strip, just pulled it out til i could grab it and ripped it straight off, gentle so as not to bend the door skin, and used a caramel wheel to get the ureathane off, but you have to do it lightly or u will burn the clear coat like i did in a little spot to start with, other that the little spot where i started buffing came up looking sweet.. buff the doors beautiful..

[Meerkatmichael]

10 points, nice job

[chirpyVX]

just did mine on my vx found using 30lb berkley fire line will pretty much cut straight through without heat or water only probs i found was where they pushed the moulds on til they touched the paint i started to cut the moulds first , as i dont care bout them i snapped them where i got stuck then pushed the line down the center so i could cut the top and bottom sepratly cutting on the outward stroke so u cut the the sikaflex first hope that helps

[willkill41]

Whats the best cut polish to use?

Kitten Cream Cut & Polish No. 2????

[illusionalvr]

can i suggest someone tries eucalyptus oil?

that stuff works wonders.

[RK5TAR]

Ive spent all afternoon removing my strips.

The method I found easiest was a stanley knife and pulling the strip away from the body as I cut the stretched out (from pulling) sticky crap.

The fishing line worked to start off but left too many marks in the paint work in the sticky spots. One lot of strips had 3 lines of sticky under them and the fishing line was useless on them.

I have yet to finish cleaning up the doors. I ialso found underneath the little piece of strip under the side indicator was like it was sealed on there with rubber as I still havent got all of it off yet and it too had to be cut off the panel.

Have attached pics of the first side.

[RK5TAR]

I have removed all the strips and polished the car. In the end a stanley knife and careful hand was most efficient at removing the strips. Loads of wax & grease remover. Eucalyptus oil did nothing at all. I came across some strips that were like rubber underneath and very hard to get off. I got a hairdryer and warmed the rubber up then sprayed the hell out of it with wax remover to get the solvent into it. This made life a bit easier. But it was still tedious work but worth it in the end.

[2khamisj]

Ah stanley! Lol surgeons hands clearly.... Most caramel wheels are available at auto paint stores and things, gotta use a very low rpm setting so the paint doesnt burn