Removing stickers

I have taken off the ugly tank sticker on many bikes before but when I eventually got round to doing my latest yesterday (prompted by Sim), I made an interesting discovery. There is plastic laminate covering the sticker. I applied heat from a hair drier, to soften the adhesive in the usual way. I lifted the corner an peeled. Half the sticker came clean away without any need to rub with my nail  or soft wood. Then, just the laminate came away leaving a half unlaminated sticker underneath. That took ages with extra heat, white spirit and rubbing to remove. It's the laminate that sticks to the sticker which provides the key to pull the sticker off. So my advice is to pull slowly from one corner keeping the two layers together. If the laminate should start to lift on its own, stop and try another corner. By rubbing I have scratched the tank a little. The section that came away clean is unmarked.

 

Maybe petrol will take them off more easily or lighter fuel. What is your experience?
For me I will carefully need to rub in a tiny bit of T-Cut to remove the slight scratches.

That looks better!  I'm sorry I mentioned it now   the scratches will come out won't they? I used to always use petrol to get the glue off, I've gone to that sticky stuff remover now and it works a treat, smells of lemons too 

ps. I find it ridiculous that bike manufacturers stick them on the tank of all places 

Could be worse! you could have a little orange bike with a plastic tank! not sure petrol etc will work without melting the plastic, so its the hard way for me

you could have a little orange bike with a plastic tank! not sure petrol etc will work without melting the plastic

Er - what's inside the tank, Justin ?

simbo wrote:

I'm sorry I mentioned it now   the scratches will come out won't they? 

No problem - gave it some elbow grease today and the surface scratches seem virtually gone.

That's good!  I'm glad I mentioned that ugly sticker  

katsd wrote:

you could have a little orange bike with a plastic tank! not sure petrol etc will work without melting the plastic

Er - what's inside the tank, Justin ?

OK OK the tanks metal but the shroud covering it where the stickers are is plastic! (smug bastard )

Ah - I thought that the majority of those bikes had plastic tanks - yours must be an upmarket model !!

Just checked, your right plastic over plastic! petrol cleaner it is then   shall I do it before or after I light up my next fag....

At the same time - better results !!!

Sorry you've had a bad experience removing stickers John.

I just use a hairdryer and WD40 or petrol to remove any cap that's left.

John - if the scratch is not too deep (just through the lacquer, so you can catch it with your nail but not through to the primer), try using a piece of very fine wet & dry - 1500 grit minimum, 3000 grit if you can get it.  Use plenty of water with some washing-up liquid in it & rub very gently in a circular motion.  What you are trying to do is smooth the edge off the scratch, which will fool the eye.  When you've flattened it off, it will look dull.  Very gently use some T-Cut to take the very fine scratches out, then finish it off with some wax.

It won't be perfect, but it works

Very often a small scratch is best left, as it can be made to look worse then it already is. If it is a small mark it will probably not be seen by others but it sticks out like a sore thumb to yourself, because you are always looking at it. With time you may forget about it.

Used T-Cut very gently. Virtually gone but as Jeff says, probably only I could see it anyway!

Put one of those warning stickers over it! 

Cover it with a decal perhaps?

What about an "Intruder" sticker ???  !!!