Compusmurf

What's the safest way of removing the dealer's sticker without doing ANY harm to the paint?

Googone? Bug & Tar remover? Something else?

If they want to advertise for free on my car, they need to pay me a monthly stipend.

black_maxed95

iTrader: (41)

i usually use googone and a plastic razorblade.

Compusmurf

Thanks. I'll give it a try tomorrow in daylight.

Mastermind1

The absolute safest bet is goo gone, a blow dryer, and the little plastic cap that comes on the bottle of goo gone. Dab the goo gone on the spot and warm the part with the dryer. You should be able to see the sticker get soft. Mine came off my 7G Max very easily. The warning stickers on a motorcycle are a *****.

MM1

jcalabria

Mastermind is on the right track, but... Sign shops (I used to own one and spent way too much time removing vinyl graphics) use a little tool called the "Lil' Chizzler", which basically is a big plastic fingernail - its wider and thinner edge is both easier and safer than using the bottle cap. They cost less than a buck and are always handy to have around. Plenty of sign supply (or tint supply) places sell them online (you can Google "Lil' Chizzler") or you may even get your local sign shop to part with a used one just for the asking (they get dull but usually still have a good edge somewhere on them - less of a problem for removing one decal than when removing a full set of graphics from a commercial vehicle).




A Lil' Chizzler and a quick spray of WD40 (also a safe adhesive remover) should have the dealer sticker gone in less than 30 seconds. Parking it in the hot sun is as good as the hair dryer - no extension cord needed.

Two other tips.... First, if you use a Lil' Chizzler, use a slight sliding motion across the edge of the decal rather than trying to push it straight under the edge. Also, whatever you use to start the decal removal, once you get an edge up on a larger piece it's always better to peel the rest away rather than to continue hacking at the decal.... it typically comes up with less adhesive residue and less chance of damaging the paint. Just keep moving your fingers back close to the surface rather than trying to pull in one shot - if you pull it in one shot the decal will stretch and break off, requiring you to scrape again to get it started.

BTW, I completely agree with Compusmurf - I told the dealer he could put the decal on my trunk for $100/mo advertising fee and ABSOLUTELY no front dealer plate (noted it on the contract that if the front license bracket was installed the sales contract was null and void). The poor salesman went back and stood over the prep guys making sure they didn't drill any holes in my front bumper, lol.

Mastermind1

Dammit, I wish I would have thought to tell his *** that! I remembered after I saw the dammed contraption on my front bumper. My bumper plugs should be here in a few days...

MM1

Compusmurf

Thank heavens FL doesn't need front plate. The holder/frame was in my trunk, now it's hanging out with the other junk in my garage.

Goo Gone, microfiber and my fingernail worked awesomely.

I soaked it, let it sit for about 5 mins, then peeled it off with my fingernail. No scratches, no issues.

Not a whole lot of "mods" available yet.

My local dealer can't even order the "accessories" yet, like the mudguard attachments or the bra. LOL Impatient early adopters.

jcalabria

NC doesn't either, but some dealers seem to think its OK to install the front bracket anyway and use it as their own private billboard space. I wasn't having any of that.

They really didn't give me a hard time - its just that the salesman was a little anxious about making the sale and he really did keep after the prep guys - he put a post-it on the front bumper and kept going back there to check anyway. It was nice to have a car salesman look after those details for the customer... and I did appreciate it. They were good when I bought the '95 and '03 from them, too. My '00 I got from a different Nissan dealer and they put the bracket on anyway and basically told me tough shït when I complained. That's why I started writing it on the sales contract.

lightonthehill

No front plate in GA either. But my dealer drills the holes and mounts his logo plate on the front as he is prepping the car for display on the lot. It is a neat logo plate (just a clean black plate with 'NISSAN SOUTH' and the hamburger - nothing else). I tried specifying no front mounting bracket on my offer-to-buy tenders, but that usually got overlooked.

So I finally resorted to 'picking my car out' (one equipped exactly as I wanted) as it leaves the Nissan plant in Smyrna and is added to my dealer's inventory on www.nissanusa.com. I enter the new vehicle VIN # into my purchase offer and send it to my dealer's internet manager (she knows me). Then I check the dealer's back lot daily until this car arrives, and immediately slap a big sticker on which I have written 'NO FRONT BRACKET TO BE PLACED ON THIS CAR' right where they would normally drill.

Yes, a little work involved. But it has worked so far.

jcalabria

Worth the effort!

I used to pull the front plates off in NJ, where it WAS required, lol. Put it back on for annual inspection and, luckily, never got stopped.

JPS79

Illinois has a front plate law so oh well i gotta deal with that, i took my dealer sticker off with a little baby oil.

ForeverMAX

i hate when they have they're huge *** name on the back end of a nice car

ddelaud

i used my finger nail..

maxprivate

iTrader: (12)

Your lucky I have gotten so many tickets for not having a front plate that I was forced to put it back on. Throwing money in the trash = NO GOOD.

lightonthehill

There will come a time where license tags will be replaced by internal transponders, and exterior tags will become obsolete. Of course that would mean your car could be instantly spotted from a satellite, should the police have a desire to find it.

Already, police in many areas have a system in their cars that reads the tag numbers of all cars that come within even a quick glance of a built-in tag reader, and an automatic computerized search done in nanoseconds determines if a particular tag is wanted for anything. Where this system is in use, the number of arrests has greatly increased.

jcalabria

That was back between '78 (first car registered in my name) and '93 (left for NC). Different times and maybe had to do with being in a small town where I knew well (or was related to) 90% of the local cops, lol.