Tough Scratches and Pinstripe Removal

[kirkcrawford]

Hello. I was at the Meguiar's Detail day last Saturday and we worked on some tough scratches in my car and wer partially successfull. I'm looking for any input or someone who thinks they can remove them and the pinstriping on my vehicle. The car is a 2002 Jeep Liberty and it has painted-on enamel pinstriping all over the vehicle.

In a stupid attempt at removal of the pinstriping before I was better informed, I soaked it in paint thinner and then removed some of it by dragging a razor blade accross it. This left scratches in the clear coat.

We tried removing them with scratch x and other products with the orbital polisher, but Mike recommended that I get a proffessional to do the job. It would require probably wet sanding the scratch area and then buffing it out. He mentioned that some sort of rubber wheel could be used on the pinstriping. Where would I find that?

Here is a picture that shows some of the scratches in the razor blade removed pinstriping and some of the pinstriping above it.




If you have ideas or are interested in this job, reply here, or email me.

kirk@kirkanddonna.com

[gbackus]

I sent you a Personal Message, please look at your Inbox

[kirkcrawford]

Bought Stuff

I bought this:

from my local automotive paint shop.
It is designed to remove vinyl pinstripes and associated gum. It has a max RPM of 4000. Website


I plan to soak my painted-on enamel stripes in laquer thinner and then see if this will have any effect.

At least the rubber that this is made of supposedly will not hurt the paint of the car.

What do you guys think?

[gbackus]

Do not "soak" the striping in thinner, it's very dangerous to your paint and should be applied carefully. I would trust that device on your paint either. The idea of rubber spinning on my car is scary.

[placid warrior]

I've used the giant eraser on a jetta, and it worked really well...it takes a little bit of time, but its well worth it, just dont over do it cause u can burn the paint with these too (takes a bit though)

[Rick]

PLASTIC RAZOR BLADES! Thats what you need. I don't believe Meguiar's carries them so check www.gritguard.com. You can use plastic razor blades to remove stuff like this. It also helps if you heat the pin striping up some. I've used them before to remove the glue left behind by body side molding, like on 90's GM trucks. The faux chrome strip turns bad after a couple of years. I just heat the glue up with a heat gun and it comes right off with the plastic razor blade.... the rubber eraser also works, but the plastic razor blade approach seems a bit less violent to the paint.