After detailing my car yesterday I decided it would be a good idea to remove the black pillar tape on my doors as the car's previous owner who had applied it hadn't done a terribly good job, leaving a few unsightly bubbles. In addition to this it was starting to crack and peel on the edges so its time was up. The first half of the car was a nightmare as I had never done anything like this before and set about pulling it off. It was breaking and coming off in little pieces. After scouring these forums for some tips I realised that a hairdryer was the best approach, resulting in swift progress and all sections of tape removed in no time.

This left an unsightly redisue like nothing I had seen before. Again after browsing these forums and various others the favoured approaches were:

WD40,

Nail polish remover (acetone based) and

Autoglym tar remover (which as claimed on the front removes adhesives)

The results were a little interesting, After applying WD40 and leaving to dwell for a few minutes absolutely nothing happened, the residue was just the same only slippery. The same applied to Nail polish which had no impact on the thick hard residue. The Autoglym Tar remover was a little more promising, slowly breaking down the residue but it was so slow I sought another approach. Then I remembered when I bought a guitar covered in stickers once my mother stating that Brasso duraglit was good for removing residue. This can be bought very cheap in most supermarkets in a small tin but it needs to be the duraglit variety which contains a wadding soaked in said substance. So it was with great trepidation (and a bit of nerve) that I applied some Duraglit to some of the residue. I made sure to do this on the inside of the door so it wouldnt be so unsightly if my paint just dissolved! I left this for no more than 20 seconds and carefully scraped at it with the edge of an old credit card and voila! The residue started to peel. Although it still took me quite some time to do both sides of the car this method worked much quicker than any of the previous ones mentioned and hasn't left any visible marks on the paintwork. Obviously I will need to wax the areas I have worked on as they will have been stripped of their finish but it is raining here as we speak so I just swilled off the area and gave it a quick going over with Meguiars speed detailer until I get a window in the weather to do so.

Hope this is of help to anybody suffering with residue

Edited 8 June, 201016 yr by joe198804

Ive used White Spirit in the past with good results...warmed up first with a Hairdryer

Peanut butter works a treat also.

sugar soap works well IIRC

WD40 works quite well, just removed some sticker residue from the caravan without any problem

WD40 works quite well, just removed some sticker residue from the caravan without any problem

Maybe it was just this particular type of adhesive WD40 doesn't like, it wouldn't even budge it. It was like a thick glaze though...