How to Remove Bumper Stickers Without Harming the Auto Finish
Whether a relic of a previous year's election or the crumbling, sticky remains of your favorite band from college, bumper stickers often linger past their welcome. After continued exposure to sunlight and the elements, even removable stickers can leave residue on your car. Remove bumper stickers without harm to the auto finish with household remedies. Finish-friendly bumper sticker removal is eco-friendly, so you'll be doing your car and planet a favor.
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Things You'll Need
- Hair dryer
- Extension cord (optional)
- Old credit card or plastic spatula
- Olive oil
- Clean, lint-free cloth
- Spray bottle (optional)
- Dish detergent
- Clean sponge
Instructions
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Heat the bumper sticker with a hair dryer – powered by an extension cord, if necessary – until it begins to bubble up. Gently scrape underneath the sticker with an old credit card or plastic spatula, removing as much of the sticker as you can.
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Thoroughly saturate a lint-free cloth with olive oil. Scrub the surface of the sticker residue with the oil-soaked cloth until the area is completely soaked. Alternatively, fill a spray bottle with olive oil and thoroughly spray the bumper sticker. Let the oil soak in for about five minutes.
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Again scrape the saturated sticker or residue with an old credit card or plastic spatula. If you encounter stubborn residue, re-saturate the residue, let the olive oil sit, and repeat the scraping process until you remove every sticker remnant.
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Wipe away loose residue and excess oil with a sponge soaked in dish detergent and water. Rinse the detergent, oil and residue away with clean water.
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Tips & Warnings
Discarded vinyl bumper stickers are recyclable with other vinyl items.
Use distilled white vinegar in place of olive oil if you are removing a sticker from the bumper rather than a finished and painted surface. You also may use a diluted vinegar solution to clean your car's windows and shine vinyl or leather upholstery.
Avoid using any sort of metal scraper as it can scratch paint. Use an item with a dull plastic edge.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Polka Dot/Getty Images
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Comments
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A very nicely put how-to, removing a sticker from the cars bumper is a not that a big task and if one has experience in doing DIY's it will be no problem for him, for an average Joe however this might turn out to be a risk task as it involves paint and doing it not right might ruin the paint, heating the sticker is a good idea but taking care of not heating it too much is what should be considered. using olive oil does not help always and there are some strong stickers out there that just don't want to come off, some people get frustrated and try using blades on them and that ruins the paint, one can use a steam cleaner to get rid of these stickers, if you own one you can use that if you do not own one and the sticker just doesn't go you can come to us and get it removed while also having a world class car cleaning experience.
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Anonymous
Nov 21, 2011
A very nicely put how-to, removing a sticker from the cars bumper is a not that a big task and if one has experience in doing DIY's it will be no problem for him, for an average Joe however this might turn out to be a risk task as it involves paint and doing it not right might ruin the paint, heating the sticker is a good idea but taking care of not heating it too much is what should be considered. using olive oil does not help always and there are some strong stickers out there that just don't want to come off, some people get frustrated and try using blades on them and that ruins the paint, one can use a steam cleaner to get rid of these stickers, if you own one you can use that if you do not own one and the sticker just doesn't go you can come to us and get it removed while also having a world class car cleaning experience.
