Bodywork Fail

[hav24wheel]

Lol. That sucks. I used some oops be gone to take some of the vinyl top glue off my top, but that too was taking paint off. So I sanded it all off. The old paint is not very forgiving. But it does sound like a new coat is in your future.

[1987cp]

I tried the gentle-heat-and-plastic-scraper routine on some vinyl striping, only to find that: 1) I had a tendency to burn the paint, 2) the 28-year-old vinyl didn't like coming off in one piece, and 3) even once the vinyl was off, it left behind both residue and a little groove in the paint from where it once was. I'm thinking the procedure must be lots easier on a newer car where the striping and paint are all in much nicer condition ... either way, I'm planning to try one of those 3M "vinyl erasers" next time I mess with that particular effort.




Oh, BTW: metallic paints are evil!

[Forcus]

Yes I thought it was going to be much simpler than what it was. I'm glad I stopped at the one little piece (to try it out) as the damage would have been much worse. The heat gun sort of worked but I didn't want to bend / break the piece so I ended up sawing the adhesive with a windshield remover string. That worked but left some adhesive. The only thing I can think of now to try (besides just sticking the piece back on with some new adhesive) is one of those adhesive removers that you chuck in to a drill. Of course, got to order it, no one around here has one.

I'm not too mad though. The left rear quarter appears to have been damaged in transit when new (my grandpa was the original owner and he said he never had an accident) and poorly repaired. It had a red accent stripe put on and they taped off the stripe and the bottom chrome trim and painted around it. The color is very close but the orange peel is very different and the paint is chipping around the lower trim. So sooner or later it will be a slick top with no trim.

[Southern_Pride]

Denatured alcohol for the adhesive. Won't hurt the paint, does require some elbow grease though.

[1987cp]

Oooh. There's a useful tip! Even helps on nasty, ancient, hardened-on adhesive?

[hav24wheel]

Boy them slick tops look nice, but if your havin a hard time with a bit of adhesive, u will have a nighmare with doin a slicktop. Its a lot of work. Have to pull a lot of the interior apart to get the molding off the roof, n pull a bunch of sound insulation out of the pillars, so u don't start the car on fire,when u weld the holes shut. U have to weld them shut, can't just spread filler over them. Than comes the filler and sanding, and sanding, and sanding. Than when u think your done. Sanding, u have to add more filler to a low spot. N sand some more. Lol. I think its worth it when its done though.

[87gtVIC]

The problem here was that he was attempting to save the paint, but the 20+ year old adhesive just does not give up easily so while pulling up the vinyl side moldings up came the paint and right down to primer and or sealer. It just cant be saved though.