How to remove painted-over vinyl?

[Trigger Jack]

I get that vinyl is pretty easy to remove. Heat gun/hair dryer, some kind of straight edge....

Or just fingernails and a lot of time.

The problem with my car is that i have vinyls on the side that look like they have been painted over with some kind of house paint. I think. I thought it was spray paint, but looking at how thick it is, and the overspray.... I think someone took house paint, and used a paint sprayer to apply it to the car. WTF

Anyway... do you think a heat gun would soften it up enough that I could still peel the vinyl underneath it, and get it all in one shot; or will I need to strip the paint down, then remove the vinyl?

I've tried using a razor blade, and while I can get under the vinyl, the vinyl immediately breaks, and I can only remove a few millimeters of it at a time.

I swear, this car is a work of art....

 

[NewClipse96]

I would try to heatgun an see what happens it should work but if not the only thing i can think of is just being easy with the blade an take your time itll suck that way but might be the best

 

[Trigger Jack]

I would try to heatgun an see what happens it should work but if not the only thing i can think of is just being easy with the blade an take your time itll suck that way but might be the best

Looks like "considerable amount of time" would be more accurate. The heatgun does do a good job of softening up the paint. But everywhere there is a crack in the paint (which there are hundreds), the heatgun breaks through the vinyl. So I can only strip away an inch, and then the vinyl breaks, and i have to start over again.

If I heat it enough to get the vinyl and paint at the same time, it softens the paint of the car, and i've already pulled some of that up. Not totally concerned, the car is due for a new paint job, once I put on the new bumpers, etc....

But still.

I think i need to admit that this is a bit beyond me. I admit I have few virtues of great merit, and patience is not one of them. Maybe I'll post something on CL, offering to pay someone to remove the vinyls.....

 

[Trigger Jack]

Small update. Decided to try using some mineral spirits I had laying around the house.

Two things from this:

1. It turns out that there is no vinyl under the paint over most of the side of the car. There's vinyl in some areas only.
2. Mineral spirits are not strong enough, but I'm thinking it's a latex paint.

After a can of the spirits, waiting, and scrubbing, I was able to remove paint down to the body color, in a few spots. No vinyl to be found. But when hit with the heat gun, the color separates from a film. Which peels like a vinyl sticker.

This would explain the difficulty I've been having, at least....

 

[ktgurl87]

Well... if you honestly don't care too much about your paint, then you could try some of that aircraft stripper stuff the auto parts stores sell. I would spray it over where the "some spots of vinyl" are though. It bubbles up paint, then you can either wipe it away or scrape it away. Wear gloves, it's pretty unfriendly stuff. If you don't want to go that route, then all you really can do is get a chair, a razor blade, and just slowly work your way around it with the blade. Don't try to peel it up, just push the blade underneath it.

 

[Trigger Jack]

Well... if you honestly don't care too much about your paint, then you could try some of that aircraft stripper stuff the auto parts stores sell. I would spray it over where the "some spots of vinyl" are though. It bubbles up paint, then you can either wipe it away or scrape it away. Wear gloves, it's pretty unfriendly stuff. If you don't want to go that route, then all you really can do is get a chair, a razor blade, and just slowly work your way around it with the blade. Don't try to peel it up, just push the blade underneath it.

I gave the stripper a try. It did a far better job of removing the paint, but it still ended up getting smeared all over the place. My girlfriend worked on one side of the car, while I tried sanding down my botched job from the day before.

It's a good thing I didn't care about the paint, because the factory paint is a mess, the car is a mess, etc. But I've got the new bumpers installed, and spray painted the car flat black, and it will just have to do until it can be properly addressed.