Help! I can't clean my stripes!
 

The stripes on my car do not have clear over them, they are just vinyl decals I guess. There is this brown shit all over them. I've tried goo gone, wet sanding, clay bar, and cleaners. None of them can get this stuff off. I was going to have it cleared and then all of a sudden this brown shit got all over it.

It looks hideous. I have to get this off.

Man do you have pecan trees or do you work at chemical plant where there is cooling towers? I had a s-10 xtreem and i was between the sap the pecans tree put out and the mist that comes off the cooling towers which contains chlorine. I believe one of these ruined my stripes. I would recomend taking them of and putting some new ones on. Thats if you can remove them because mine came off in little bitty peaces they dry rotted in a sense and made it imposible to remove them in a solid peace.

Well would it rip the clear off of the paint underneath? I would rather have the stripes off, but I dont want them to ruin my paint.

You said the stripes are over your clear. No it will not rip off your clear unless you have been sanding around the stripes maybe not even then. How long have the stripes been on the car? If they have been there for a long time you will see the weathering of the paint. The paint underneath the stripes will look newer

I've had the car for a year and a half and they have been on there before then. The reason I say that is because my parents had their pinstripes removed on their Tahoe and the clear peeled away in a few spots.

Well I took them off and I like the way it looks. The only problem is that there are lines where the edge was of the stripes. Any ideas how to get rid of those?

Do you have a buffer? Do a search on full detail jobs, and this might get rid of your hazing problem. A popular product people use with the porter cable is perfect it-II rubbing compound by 3M. You can go in with the compound, then the swirl mark remover, and finally, a sealant. Go through tropi-care.com to get all this...they have a special this season. It is worth the time and money, esp. if your not happy right now. Stay away from wet sanding unless you have to, esp. since thats an older clear...hope this helps.

mikie

yeah those lines are from dirt and glue residue left by the stripes edge thats if they were not cleared over if they were cleared over its the end of the clear and the only way to fix that is by sanding and relcearing. If not just try to rub some alcohol with a rag on those lines they should go away if they are just glue and dirt residue.

ouch what i would do is try to remove them but if you wanna keep them (which i suggest you do they look sexy) i'd get them painted on. Mine are painted and they are just perfect