I've just bought a secondhand car and it has a tatty old plastic sticker on the outside of the rear window. It's turned brittle and cannot be peeled off. I've tried hot water to soften it but no luck (presume the hair dryer trick wouldn't work here either) and I don't want to use a blade for fear of scratching the glass. Any more ideas?
Thanks
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Found one thread using the search box that once covered this.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=i&t=62...1
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Two possible ideas: try a soak in something like white spirit to soften the ?plastic; try an adhesive tape with really strong tack (Duct tape). Failing that, if the thing is really brittle it may chip off with a sharp edge on a hard plastic such as curtain rail.
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Marc,
Best I have ever found is WD40 - seems to melt the stickers and then wipe them off.
Matt35.
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i would use a window scraper ,the type with a stanley type blade.slightly wet the glass then keep the blade as horizontal as possible.shouldnt scratch the gass,ive been using one for removing bird deposits on my window cleaning round for years without a problem.not so good if the stickers on the inside on the heater elements tho.....bunny
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I'd agree with the WD40 - with an addition for nasty sticky goo left over from peeling stickers off that leave the glue behind - cover the offending item with a kitchen paper towel and soak that in WD40 and leave overnight - works a treat.
Martin
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Thanks for all the tips - tomorrow I am going to try the WD40 method and failing that the razor blade and lighter fluid
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Marc,
If the WD40 don't work - do not do anything rash with the razor blade or lighter fuel - it is really not THAT serious!
Matt35.
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I used a pressure washer on the glass, it took the sticker off, but took about 5 minutes, it also left lots of sticky bits that needed rinsing off.
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Cellulose thinners on a rag that will shift the glue pronto.
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I've found the hair dryer trick very useful for this - try it before you get the solvents out.
Baz
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Cellulose thinners might also do something to the bodywork?
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Can you get STICKER-OFF!? by Hardline in UK? It's US made and is dynamite for this kind of job.>> Cellulose thinners might also do something to the bodywork?
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You could try tar & glue remover, the vinyl singwriting trade and the valeting trade use it in bulk, but you can buy the same stuff from Simoniz, in a blue bottle similar to the red one that T-cut comes in. A Stanley blade used at a very shallow angle to the glass should get rid of the worst of the sticker, the solvent will eradicate all traces of goo. I got a 3-year-old sun-bleached dealer sticker off the back window of my Mondeo like this, you'd never know it had been there now.
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This might sound odd, but... bear with me.
A mate of mine traded in a Saxo a couple of years back. (Why he bought it, when he has size 13 feet, is beyond me, but...)
Dealer asked him straight away when the rear end shunt was. When asked how he knew that it had been in one, before his ownership, the dealer said that the Total (?) sticker that Citroën puts on the back window of cars was missing. This normally only happens when the window's been smashed, and that only happens after a shunt.
Sure enough, there was broken glass under the boot carpet. Basically, a missing dealer sticker (or plates that don't match front and back) is a classic sign of a car that's been shunted, so think very carefully about whether or not you want to get rid of it.
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This isn't a dealer sticker - it's one advertising motorcycles or something and it was already partly removed. I spent an hour today removing it with WD40 and my fingernails so no need for blowtorches, pliers etc this time!
The Total sticker on Citroens relates to Total petrol - similar to the Elf ones you get on Renaults. The fact that it's missing wouldn't *always* mean it's necessarily been shunted though. The rear screen could have been replaced due to vandalism or a break in
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The newer Total stickers often wear off quickly, my 2000 Saxo, 1999 Xsara and the 2002 Picasso all had Total stickers that disintegrate. The older colour ones, (pre 1998 I think) seem to stay in their original condition much longer.
You can drive a Saxo with size 14 feet, I drove one for 10 months no problems. Well, no problems in the feet department, clutch, brakes, gearbox and burgalry were problems though.
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