Stripe removal and replacement

 Those damaged stripes have to go!

One thnig that has bugged me for a while has been the misalignment of the stripes and the fact that they are damaged / perished in parts.

I decided that I would remove the old stripes and then install some new ones.

As can be seen, if you stand back the stripes look ok. But on closer inspection, they are damaged in a number of places.

Well, the removal process did not go so well or as simply as I thought. I managed to remove the main part of the sripes with a heat gung but they perished as I pulled them off.

What was left behind is the main issue. According to a car painter friend, it looks like when they repainted the car with acrylic they did not let the paint dry and set properly and installed the stripes. This then sucked some of the adhesive into the paint and left a nasty tell tail glue behind. Add to that, a good 30 + years of California and Texas sun baked the glue into the paint also. This is what was left when I removed the stripes.

After a heap of trial and error... I found a process that worked that did not effect the paint on the car. That is, leave the car out in the warm sun for a number of hours, then start with pure eucalyptus oil to get the soft parts off. The eucalytus softened parts that I was able to then scrape off with my finger nail.

I then used an adhesive remover that was a bit stronger called Zof. This worked well to soften some of the glue, then again I used my nail to remove the soften parts. Then finally I found a product called Goo Off from the local hardware store. With some careful and persistent rubbing this removed the remained. But this time I did not use my nail as the goo off softened the paint a but and my nail could then scratch the paint.

This is the final result.

Upon close inpspection, the lines can be seen due to the hot sun fading the paint around the old stripes. The next step is to cut back the paint using a cutting compound to remove the rub marks and install the new stripes.

Needless to say, my right pointer finger is worn out. I ended up getting some thick dish washing gloves and cut the finger off the top of the glove and used that on my finger like a old fashioned rubber thimble. This saved my finger from the chemicales but still have a few blisters from all the rubbing over many hours.

I picked up some locally made stripes in Mildura about 12 months ago but they had been sitting in a warm shed for a number of years so I ater found out that they are not useable.

I purchased a new set of repro stripes from Griffs in Ballarat and will install the new ones at the right height once the cut and polish is done.

Stay tuned.