Bumper stickers can be a fun way to express your sentiments, share a joke or even display your political affiliations. But after some time, that bumper sticker is going to be past its prime – either because what it expresses no longer fits your personality or because exposure to the elements has taken its toll.
Removing a bumper sticker from your car is actually a fairly simple process. The first thing you’ll need to do is to go to your local hardware or paint store. You’ll need two supplies – a scraper with a single, straight razor blade in a safety handle and denatured alcohol, which is usually available in small containers. If you don’t have any at home, you might also want to pick up some cleaning rags while you’re at the store.
The easiest decals to remove are the ones that are stuck to the glass parts of your car. Use the scraper to scrape them from the glass surface – your razor blade scraper shouldn’t cause any damage to the glass. Some bits of adhesive residue will probably remain on the glass once the sticker is removed, so apply a little denatured alcohol to one of your cleaning rags and rub it firmly against the adhesive residue. It will soon dissolve and rub away. Use a clean rag to wipe off the glass and you’re finished. This same process will remove stickers of any kind from virtually any glass surface.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit trickier to remove a bumper sticker from a painted surface. You’ll need to use great care to avoid damaging the painted surface underneath the bumper sticker and use the scraper with a very light touch to avoid nicking or damaging the paint. To start, gently hold the scraper at a low angle, almost parallel to the painted surface. Starting from the corners, work on one small section of the bumper sticker at a time. Patiently slide the blade between the sticker and the painted surface. With luck, you may be able to peel most of the bumper sticker from the painted surface from one of the corners. If that doesn’t work, you may need to rub the sticker regularly with the denatured alcohol to help dissolve the adhesive as you scrape. Generally, the newer the sticker, the easier it is to remove.
The last step after removing stickers from any surface is to clean the area with some soap and water. Generally, the alcohol will evaporate, but any bits that remain could eventually affect your paint, so it’s best not to leave anything to chance.
If you want to work on removing a sticker but don’t have the time to make a trip to the hardware store or if you want a more eco-friendly alternative, you can try using olive oil or vinegar instead of denatured alcohol. The process will be slower, but with patience, you should get the same results. As with the denatured alcohol, make sure to thoroughly remove any vinegar from painted surfaces, as the vinegary will eventually break down the paint.
