These faux air vents came on the car when I bought it. What is the best way to remove them w/o damaging the paint?

 

Assuming those are stick on, I'd use a heat gun on the low setting. After 1-2 minutes of heat, I'd try pulling them off. Any remaining residue can be cleaned up with Goo B Gone.

If they were glued on with some heavy duty glue, I'd still use the heat gun, followed by skinning it with fishing line. Getting any remaining glue off might prove to be difficult w/o messing up the paint.

 

Dental floss. Remove the excess adhesive with brake clean.

 

Yes, these are the stick-on kind. I don't have a heat gun. I'll try the dental floss method then hit it with some brake cleaner.

Thanks!

 

A hair dryer might work, at least that thaws frozen doors

 

Wow, I feel your pain...

I removed pinstripes and those dumb wheel well/door rubber moulding strips from my car. I got some good advice:

- Use fishing line (dental floss works, but fishing line is thinner/stronger IMO)

- Heating it up is optional (I didn't do it), but it will definitely help and make it easier

- Get underneath those things with fishing line and use a saw motion to cut thru the glue, make sure not to go too fast so you don't mess things up

- Once you saw thru the glue that crap will fall right off, then use some goo gone or any similar product (I used TurtleWax adhesive remover and it worked great) to remove the remaining glue. Use a microfiber or terry cloth to do so and make sure not to rub too hard or you may damage the clear coat. It helps having something w/ a sharp edge to get the glue up, I used my finger nails destroying my hands in the process (dedication/passion) but it worked well.

- I advise against using Brakleen, it can damage the clear coat. If you do use it, at least use the non-chlorinated one (green can) but even things like WD-40 are way safer and work just as well.

- You can buy a 3M Eraser Wheel which attaches to a household drill, and it removes glue easily and very quickly with minimal effort and no damage to the paint. This is hands down the best/easiest way to do it but the wheel runs from $20-40 and you need a drill.

- After you're done, depending on how long that crap was on there and how bad the glue was, you might need/want to get some TurleWax rubbing compound and go over those areas for a nice finish without any leftover marks.

Not sure if all that writing was needed, but hopefully its useful. Good luck with it dude.

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice!
I will try the fishing line method instead since it is stronger.
I will keep you posted on the results.

 

Brake cleaner is very potent stuff. I do not recommend using that on paint.

+1

I've tried that exact product and I think it's tricky to use. It started to bubble/burn through my paint.

 

dental floss (waxed) and goo-gone. done