Removing EU plate from front bumper

[atolius]

Hi guys
My car arrived with EU plate attached in the front. Plate is held to bumper with double sided tape. i wanted to hear from you if i am better off using some chemicals like adhesive remover ?? and spraying on the back of plate before i try to yank the plate off the bumper. obviuosly i dont want to damage the bumper or the paint.

Any suggestions here ? Also to remove any residue that may be left from sticky tape is there any paint-safe product you would recommend? 3M adhesive remover will do the work?

Thanks in advance

[TTG]

Mine was a b-itch to remove..... Plate came out easy but the residue remained. I used WD40 and tons of patience.

[quality_sound]

That's because that's not what WD-40 is for. It's a water displacer (hence WD in the name), and that's it. It's not a lubricant, or cleaner, or whatever else it gets used for.

First, grab some floss and use a back and forth motion to essentially saw the tape on half. You won't damage the paint doing this. How hard the rest of the residue is to remove will depend on what exact tape they used and if they used an adhesion promoter. It will require polishing afterwards but unless you have one of the nifty rubber wheels body shops have, using your fingers to rub the tape off is the most effective method. As soon as you spray ANYTHING resembling an adhesive remover on the tape it's going to turn into a goopy mess that's a royal bitch to remove. If you're really good and have some balls, a VERY sharp safety razor will get almost all of the tape off and then you can use an adhesive remover. I do NOT recommned this method unless you're willing to accept that you might dig into your paint. If you do it enough it gets to be quite easy and very fast but there is a steeeeeeep learning curve.

[TTG]

Originally Posted by quality_sound

That's because that's not what WD-40 is for. It's a water displacer (hence WD in the name), and that's it. It's not a lubricant, or cleaner, or whatever else it gets used for.

First, grab some floss and use a back and forth motion to essentially saw the tape on half. You won't damage the paint doing this. How hard the rest of the residue is to remove will depend on what exact tape they used and if they used an adhesion promoter. It will require polishing afterwards but unless you have one of the nifty rubber wheels body shops have, using your fingers to rub the tape off is the most effective method. As soon as you spray ANYTHING resembling an adhesive remover on the tape it's going to turn into a goopy mess that's a royal bitch to remove. If you're really good and have some balls, a VERY sharp safety razor will get almost all of the tape off and then you can use an adhesive remover. I do NOT recommned this method unless you're willing to accept that you might dig into your paint. If you do it enough it gets to be quite easy and very fast but there is a steeeeeeep learning curve.

I am sorry but I would rather use my nails, WD40, patience & etc before going anywhere near my paint with a razor blade. The plate was on my car for almost 3 months and the type behind it was all dried up and nasty from get go. Out of the 6 strips that BMW used, 4 of them came out with no problems after soaking w/ WD40..... the rest required patience....

Needless to say car was completely detailed afterwords and a clear bra was applied shortly after.

P21S TAW or bug and tar remover are some other options to consider as well.

[atolius]

Originally Posted by TTG

I am sorry but I would rather use my nails, WD40, patience & etc before going anywhere near my paint with a razor blade. The plate was on my car for almost 3 months and the type behind it was all dried up and nasty from get go. Out of the 6 strips that BMW used, 4 of them came out with no problems after soaking w/ WD40..... the rest required patience....

Needless to say car was completely detailed afterwords and a clear bra was applied shortly after.

P21S TAW or bug and tar remover are some other options to consider as well.

Thanks guys for your input. Yday i took my chance and removed the EU plate. Plate itself came out fairly easy but there was a nasty dirt line as well as patches of strip left on the bumper. Used non-abrasive "goo-gone" i bought from lowe's in order to soften dried strips and than used my fingernail to scrape it off. it took me around 20mins or so to clean off everything. Result is very satisfactory. Now i need to get my hands on those ugly reflectors

[quality_sound]

Originally Posted by TTG

I am sorry but I would rather use my nails, WD40, patience & etc before going anywhere near my paint with a razor blade. The plate was on my car for almost 3 months and the type behind it was all dried up and nasty from get go. Out of the 6 strips that BMW used, 4 of them came out with no problems after soaking w/ WD40..... the rest required patience....

Needless to say car was completely detailed afterwords and a clear bra was applied shortly after.

P21S TAW or bug and tar remover are some other options to consider as well.

That's why I said it wasn't recommended and requires a lot of experience to do.