I have began the tedious task of removing all of the decal residue from my new to me Transit Connect. I bought the van from the owner of a small auto repair shop who used the van for local roadside assistance. As such, it was covered in vinyl graphics. One of his employees, who delivered the van on the back of a rollback, removed the decals but did not do anything about the residue that was left behind.
It looked like this before the van was in my possession:
It looked like this when I got it:
After a few hours with Goo Gone, plastic razor blades, quick detailer, a clay bar and patience:
I got all of the residue off but there is a very faint ghost image in the paint:
I darkened the photo slightly to show the outline. You can barely see the outline of the AAA logo in normal light but it is noticeable.
Can this ghosting be removed by polishing the paint? The van had decals on every side (even the roof at the top of the windshield) and I'd like to get rid of the ghosting. I feel that due to the large surface area, it would be pretty spendy to have a detail shop take care of it. Would an idiot like myself be able to polish this out without too much difficulty?
Anybody have success with removing the ghosting in paint by polishing? The van is "Crystal White" so its very close to a pure white color. I don't think it has any pearl in it. It should be easy(ish), right?
If you can spend the money pick up one of the new fancy orbital buffers. Makes it it much idiot proof. I've been eyeing the one from Griot's garage but it's possible that the harbour freight one would get you through this job.
I suspect what you are seeing is a combination of uv damage to the clear coat combined with micro scratches that comes from normal washing and use that didn't happen under the vinyl.
Both of which a good polish should be able to completely eliminate and if not drastically reduce.
I've been wondering about what I'm going to find if I remove these. Hopefully the green won't be as affected.
Yes and no. You can generally match the degree of scratched-ness with a good multi stage buffing. The differences in color will fade away through time, but may never go completely away depending on time/color of the paint.
Hmmm. That gives me some hope. I don't know how long all of those decals were on there but I do know that the van lived outside. The Florida sun takes no prisoners. I was hoping that there would be no shadows once I got all of the residue off. At first I thought I had pulled it off due to the crappy lighting in my garage. But the closer I looked, the more I saw 
.
Sigh
"Perfect is the enemy of good."
You can't really know until you polish it to get rid of the reflectivity difference. You can kind of guess at it on a properly cloudy day with the car a bit dusty. If you can't see them in bad light then you have a pretty good shot at getting rid of them by polishing to even up the texture of everything.
I use the horrible freight buffer (the random orbital porter cable ripoff version) and it works just ducky. The horrible freight pads are meh, but its a universal system of attachment so you can get some better ones.
For a 3 times a year tool, its perfect.
The goo-gone will definitely leave a “haze” in my limited experience. Do a small practice spot by hand with 2 or 3 stage compound then wax(?)
I've come to the conclusion that goo gone itself doesn't leave hazing, but it does soften the surface enough that paper towels or the like screw up the clear. If you use lots of good gone and very minimal pressure with a cloth you reduce hazing a lot.
The last time I bought it I bought a gallon.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
I've come to the conclusion that goo gone itself doesn't leave hazing, but it does soften the surface enough that paper towels or the like screw up the clear. If you use lots of good gone and very minimal pressure with a cloth you reduce hazing a lot.
The last time I bought it I bought a gallon.
First thing that popped into my mind when I thought of a gallon of Goo Gone!
In reply to SaltyDog :
I tend to use solvents outside, but we've all got our ways of dealing with the world I suppose.
I had this when I removed N numbers and racing letters from a glider's tail. Goo is gone but the base fiberglass-gelcoat is cleaner, whiter where the letter used to be. Not as sun faded. I tried rubbing compound with an electric buffer and good wax to no avail, ended up wet sanding with soapy water and 1200 grit.
Probably different with car finishes, but base coat clear is similar to gelcoat?
Dan
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Good Plan.
I always make sure the students open the outside doors to the shop, clean up with soapy water and take all the used rags to the dumpster.
And I only buy the tiny cans to prevent a big spill.
Strong smelling stuff!
