I purchased a new used car (98 Civic) and the pin striping on it is HIDEOUS, almost a deal breaker! I talked to one body shop about it and they suggested having a professional wet sand it very carefully and I might get lucky.

Anyone have any experience with a similar situation that might be able to pass some knowledge down?

 

I managed to google this after the fact but this seems like a good idea-

 

I've had a lot of experience with this type of stuff. Wetsanding/buffing would be your best bet. The only thing is you want to be very careful when wet sanding. You do not want to sand too hard because you risk burning the original paint!

I suggest you get some 1500 grit WET sand paper, and use plenty of water and try to sand a small area of the pin stripe. If you can get it off without burning into your paint continue to wetsand it all off and then buff the sanded areas and you'll be fine!

 

for having lots of experience why would you worry about burning through the paint? You would **** up the clear coar lightyears before even getting to the basecoat...

I'd rather have a mustard yellow pin-stripe down my entire car then have a hazy half-assed looking cloudy line from where the clear was removed. OP even tape type pin-stripes are horrible to remove when they are applied before the clear coat. Leave this job up to the professionals you wont be sorry.

 

Do you have any common sense? Depending on the condition of his current paint you have no idea how much clear coat he has left. "light years" Lmao. Please if you don't know what you're talking about don't speak at all.

 

You obviously don't know anything about wet sanding or buffing if you think there will be a "cloudy line" after wet sanding it off. You most likely are just talking out of your ***.

 

Its not a big deal. I would start with 1000 grit just to get it beat down a little bit. Try and stay off any body lines or panel edges. Use very clean water. Once you get the stripe beat down a little bit move to 1500, should be almost gone now. Make sure you sand outside the previous 1000 grit area so your not trying to polish out 1000 grit sand marks. Lastly hit it with 2000. Again make sure you get the outside area and make sure you cover everywhere you hit with 1500 & 1000.

Start with some heavy cut and a wool pad.

Then medium with wool pad. Should be all the way gone just about.

Then I usually finish with fine and foam finish pad.

When your done polishing I usually use a hand glaze as a filler. It will really make it pop.

Again, this is MY process. Everyone does it different or has there own method of wet sanding/polishing.

 

SNAP- On tools sells a pinstripe remover made of a material similar to ERASERS.

You use it on a high speed drill

I have no tried them but heared good things of them.

 

I wouldnt feel comfortable erasing painted on stripe. Just seems unethical in my world of paint. Id hate to burn through the paint and cost myself even more money on top of the snap on tool.

Im not saying it doesnt work, I just dont trust it.

Good ol elbow grease is what it needs.

 

Ok Bud.....

 

wetsand and buff it. thats the only way its coming off. be careful and if you **** it up be ready to spend a fair amount of money to fix it. chances are your going to burn the paint around the stripe before getting rid of the stripe.

 

I gotta jump in here. I've been doing body work for a few years now and there are a few things I've learned:

1. IF the pinstripe is the stick-on kind, AND it's on top of the clear coat, then you can use the "eraser" and it works REALLY well. Just don't push too hard and the stripe will come off. It also works on dealer stickers that they put on the back - good for de-badging a car.

2. If the pinstripe is under the clear coat, then you have to go through the clear to get the stripe off (someone is going "uh, duh!"). I know it's an obvious statement, but I state it to make it clear that going through the clear coat is not that bad IF you are careful to not go through the paint underneath the stripes. That's where this job can get very tricky. If you're not interested in dong any painting after taking off that pinstripe, you make want to have it done professionally.

IT IS EXTREMELY HARD TO TAKE OFF A PINSTRIPE THAT IS PAINTED ON AND CLEAR COATED OVER WITHOUT ALSO GOING THROUGH THE BASE COAT PAINT UNDERNEATH. WHEN YOU DO, YOU WILL FEEL THIS:

You can do it, but you have to go very slow and be very careful.

Thankfully, most cars have the pinstripe put on after the clear coat, so the eraser is your best bet.

If you do sand it off, use 1000 grit or 1500 grit wet/dry paper and put some dish soap in the water. The soap helps keep the paper from clogging up. Sand it very carefully so you take off the stripe without going through the paint underneath, then use a buffer and compound to make it shiny again.

 

its a good chance there isn't any clear under that stripe. it'll have to be sanded and touched up, and re-cleared.

 

The other main method of getting rid of a pinstripe involves painting. If the stripe is under the clear, and there's no bump where the stripe is, scuff that whole panel, mask off around it, paint and clearcoat the panel. If there's a bump where the stripe is block sand the bump until is down to the same level as the rest, then scuff, mask and paint as above. It's a lot more work and involves having a spray gun and compressor, but they can usually be rented. And I've seen driveway jobs turn out really good.

 

I thought I'd update the thread after I realized I never responded. The pin striping was painted on. Usually a painted on stripe means it was done with acrylic paint. I was advised to use Easy Off Oven Cleaner by a local body shop. I decided to read up on it and it really worked! It didn't damage the clear coat or anything. Make sure you wear gloves though, that stuff will burn right through your hands. Not that I know from personal experience or anything.