Removing trolley strips and sicaflex tip

[savage1987]

Before JC forums had that nasty incident and heaps of stuff was lost (including the thread on my VN) I was having a hard time getting some sicaflex off my driver's door. It was left over when I removed the trolley strips from all the doors. A long thick bead of black sicaflex was left all down my front door.

I tried a few different things then settled to CAREFULLY cutting it off with a razor blade. In the end this just left me with a really shallow long thick bead of black sicaflex. No help at all.

People had cautioned me against using thinners on the acrylic paint, so I steered clear of this option. Until tuesday, when I got really sick of those black scars. I grabbed a rag and a spray bottle filled with thinners (this particular one was 'gunwash'), dampened the rag and started rubbing.

The sicaflex just wiped straight off. I couldn't believe I hadn't tried this earlier. Maybe I took off the outside tiny layer of paint (rag was SLIGHTLY white) but I don't care. The doors are white now, I wiped off all the sicaflex and gave it a quick polish with some Oxipol and another rag. Washed the car (needed it) and that was it!

So, the moral of the story is: you can use thinners on acrylic paints, just be careful and make sure you wash off any excess. It won't suddenly dissolve all your paint and leave you with bare metal, as I had been led to believe.

Hopefully this clears some doubts, although anyone in a panel shop will no doubt know this already
Sam

[h0Ld3n`VN]

yes dont use thinner =D from experience coz it was gona get painted anyway nothing worked soo yea goodluck finding a way to take it off without wrecking the paint.. but i think sum1 on here has done it, he has a white vn berlina with vyss rims

[slo_firo]

you can get them off fine with out wreching the paint - it just takes a steady hand to scrape them off and prepsol will melt the remainder or the sealer with a bit of elbow grease and it wont harm your paint at all

[Morton]

What about acetone? Has anybody had any experience using that?

edit: that's a stupid question. I have a completely mangled door and a spare door strip standing in my garage. I'll experiment on that later ^^ lol

[cit51]

Ha,

Acetone is the main component of nail polish remover. I used it to clean the paint of the rims of my crown. No paint left!!

[savage1987]

cit51 - how's that VP of yours going over there in Brunei? Hope it's coming together OK for you!

[savage1987]

I have heard some people's paint responds differently to the thinners, but mine was ok. The doors look a million times better without the black sicaflex all over them now, and they are still painted white even after thinners so I'm happy.

[slo_firo]

depends on the kinda of thinner - some have alot more bite than oters, all purpose thinner tends to be a bit nicer - and it your quick it generally will be ok as it needs to soak in, it you take to long however it will melt your paint!!

prepsol is the best - it just needs a bit more elbow grease

[tonza]

Wheni do this at work i normally use thinners on white cars only. i was told that its ok to use on white painted cars? but yes, drench a rag in prepsol and rub at it, will come off easy. if not, maybe try a caramel wheel (rubber erasing wheel) on an air drill. has worked for me. hope it helps buddy

[1991_Vn2nV]

Do not use a caramel wheel on VN/VP's as they use acrylic paint.

Caramel wheel creates heat, heat weakens acrylic paint. Heat HARDENS 2pack paint as used in later models, making caramel wheels ideal for VS etc.

[savage1987]

Yeah but buffing with a cutting compound creates heat on acrylic too, it still works as long as you don't heat up the one spot for too long. If you're careful you'll probably be OK.

[1991_Vn2nV]

Nothing to the extent of a caramel wheel though.

[savage1987]

Fair enough. Stick with some kind of mild thinners then. And have a painter handy just in case anything goes wrong