Need Advice For Removing Pinstripe

[lexinva]

I recently bought a 98 LS400, with a beautiful gray exterior unfortunately marred with a painted silver & black (factory?) Lexus pinstripe. The rest of the paint is in great condition for a 10 yr old car, but the pinstripe shows its age. The stripe seems so thin, I'm wondering if it can just be rubbed off with a chemical stripper of some sort. Has anyone had any experience with this? What did you use? Rubbing compound? Wet sandpaper? Magic Eraser?

[jcrome04]

I know some companies make a pinstrip remover wheel type of thing you stick in a drill but that might be for vinyl ones only... I've never used one before..

[raymsixsix]

I recently bought a 98 LS400, with a beautiful gray exterior unfortunately marred with a painted silver & black (factory?) Lexus pinstripe. The rest of the paint is in great condition for a 10 yr old car, but the pinstripe shows its age. The stripe seems so thin, I'm wondering if it can just be rubbed off with a chemical stripper of some sort. Has anyone had any experience with this? What did you use? Rubbing compound? Wet sandpaper? Magic Eraser?

Personally, I've not done this, but this guy has some great turtorials and apparently knows what he's doing.

http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/body/pinstripes.html

[SW03ES]

Honestly? I would take the car to a professional for this. They will pick a chemical cleaner that will dissolve the stripe without damaging the paint and it will be much safer than you trying different things.

NEVER use a magic eraser on the paint! they are very abrasive.

[lexinva]

Thanks for the replies. Wow- the "lexls" site is a great resource! Thanks for the tip. I've tried Easy-Off on painted letters on my fiberglass sailboat with outstanding results, but it never occured to me to use it on a painted surface. I may just give it a test on the gas flap like he suggested. If that doesn't work I guess I'll start getting estimates....

[SW03ES]

Boats have a gelcoat though, its a different paint surface...

[raymsixsix]

Thanks for the replies. Wow- the "lexls" site is a great resource! Thanks for the tip. I've tried Easy-Off on painted letters on my fiberglass sailboat with outstanding results, but it never occured to me to use it on a painted surface. I may just give it a test on the gas flap like he suggested. If that doesn't work I guess I'll start getting estimates....

Your welcome...Yes, lexls.com has a lot of good info for the DIY. Good luck and let us know what you ended up doing B)

[lexinva]

Has anyone else tried the "easy-off" method? I admit it's risky but I may give it a shot. There's no way I'd chance it if I had a dark paint color, but I think I'd be okay with silver. Will let you know what happens........

[dair805]

Please send me some pictures of the area you want to remove. I have some experience on doing this. I would be a lot of help if I had some pics of your car (so I can see the problem) Thanks.

[smooth1]

I have used the easy off method. In fact I have a tutorial in the IS forums also. It works great, and it doesn't hurt the paint at all. You will need to rewax the car afterwards though as it removes all waxes also.