Removing stickers from windshield and paintwork

Removing stickers from windscreen (not body or paintwork!)

If there isn't another car dealer/accessory shop/garage that wants to use our cars as free advertisement media, it would be too soon. These people get free advertisement by simply sticking their stickers to our car's windscreens - especially the rear one.

Just yesterday the tyre guy did it to my car just because I went to his shop to get my car's wheels aligned. I had been grumpy ever since - till I decided to do something about it today. It turned out quite simple actually and within about 40 mins I had rid my car of two unwanted stickers.

Now these stickers are actually paint-like and get printed onto the glass - and it is rather tough. It will last much better than the car itself! You can remove it using thinner (I guess not the same as turpentine, though both can be used to thin paint, thinner can actually dissolve paint while turpentine cannot) - but a lot of it will be required if thinner is used all by itself. But I removed them and here is how:

Tools:

• Sharp edged knife or any tool that has about half to one inch of sharp edge.
• Thinner - from the local hardware or paint shop. Turpentine (which is basically varnish) or Acetone or Acetic acid (vinegar) will not work!
• Cotton rags/cloth or tissue paper.

Use the knife to gently peel off the major coat of the text or whatever is printed - scraping will work too but peeling is much better. With a steady hand push the edge almost parallel to the surface against the lettering and it will start to peel off. A little will be left behind - which the thinner can easily remove. Once all (or major part) of the stuff is peeled off, scrape it a bit (not too hard - or glass will get scratched) and wipe it with a piece of cloth or tissue soaked with thinner. All the remaining paint will magically disappear.

That's all there is to it. Some patience and a steady hand are all that's needed. Hope you find it helpful!

Warning: Not to be done for stickers put onto the body or paint-work. It will be ruinous! Follow safety precautions - don't cut yourself or inhale the thinner.

Be very careful if you take thinner near your car. If you spill some drops on the painted parts, you had it (especially if it is metallic paint).

Tomy

Yeah, that's why the warning. Anyways you don't need to pour thinner, just soak up a bit of it in cloth/tissue and rub it over...so its safe as long as one is mindful.

Personally, if any person did that to any car of mine, it would be they themselves who do the job of removing the stickers.

Just to add to this write up:

To remove stickers from painted surfaces

If anyone ends up with stickers on the paintwork, first Donts:

1. Dont scrape! You will end up in removing the clearcoat at least!

2. As mentioned by Rohit, Dont use any solvents. Even diesel and the likes are best avoided(please dont ask chemistry based justifications!).

3. Dont use sharp objects. Fingernails are also harmful to modern paint.

4. Do not pull out the sticker with force. 

Now for the procedure:

1. For Vinyl or plastic stickers - It is much easier to remove one. Keep a soap solution or a car shampoo. Use a wooden toothpick, dipped in the solution. Slowly pass it below the sticker and separate as much as you can. Now remove the tooth pick and dip it in the solution again. Pass it back into the separation and widen the gap. If this job is done slowly, it will help the soap solution spread out under the sticker and will lessen the adhesive strength. Just ensure you use lots of soap. After the sticker is removed, use a wax or polish to adda protective layer over the paint.

2. For paper stickers - There will be a thin plastic lamination to a paper sticker. This can be removed with a toothpick. Once this is done, the sticker would have lost its integrity. Soak and soak the sticker with soap solution every two minutes and the sticker will come off its own in some time. Again after drying the area, finish off with wax.

Usually, a frequently waxed car will be less reactive to stickers, and stickers can be easily removed from such cars compared to a car which has not been polished/waxed.

Nice info! I think we should have a place exclusively for such posts - a collection or knowledgebase which is separate and searchable. The "Likes" feature is a step in that direction - now if only we could see what the likes for each member are, or maybe a thread which automatically lists liked posts (readonly).

Thank you. Even I thought of making commonly faced problems and solutions like this one to be easily accessible to all. This will prevent opening of new threads and repetition of info. How about making such threads sticky?

Well, I think (not sure) its been tried before but somehow does not work out ideally. What we need is a separate section itself (separate from forum) where such information is collected - maybe presented in the form of an ebook or something. It will also need categorisation (admin work basically).

Till then even if we have a forum category which says "Most useful threads/posts" or something like that which basically presents a read-only view of only the posts that have been liked - sorted by the no, of likes in descending order, it will be very useful. If someone has a query regarding a particular post/thread in this category, user can click a button which will bring them to the actual forum thread where they can post their query/view.

Thank You Rohit. Nice information.

Even during purchase of my car I insisted the dealer to not to stick their name on the windsheiled (Else pay me for carrying their ad)

Yes, that is something we all should do: Expect to be paid to advertise!