How to: Remove trail pinstriping

Great work!!

 

Thanks! I used to have a black c55 amg that I was religious with the paint with so it was hard to keep the trail pinstriping on my truck.

 

Does anyone have a way of preventing trail striping?

I always wondered if there was some sort of shrink wrap or something that was tough enough and cheap enough to apply prophylactically. Maybe call it a taco condom?

 

I really hope there is. im tired of cleaning the clear coat of striping.

 

The only thing that would hold up would be 3m clear bra. Xpel Stealth is supposed to be self healing and makes your paint look matte (I think orange matte looks awesome). Super expensive though.

 

Hell, I'd buy it.

There's always that ONE set of scratches where I'm all like, "is THAT one gonna buff out? Shit."

 

Has anyone just covered the truck in 3m? Curious if it looks like crap or not. Also Amazon carries VVividd and mouish... something brands as well. I'd rather protect against scratches then buff my top coat off.

 

60 grit Flap disc on an angle grinder and Rust-Oleum spray paint gets those trail pins stripes off nicely as well.

 

Was just looking at craigslist for an old E30 325is and think I came across yours

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/cto/d/is-bar-legal-m3-swap-e30/6445978954.html

I had one back in the 90's and wish I never got rid of it.

 

yep. come and pick mine up. no more regerts. lol

 

Anyone?

What about the stuff they put on the trucks for transport? Or the stuff they put on refrigerators and stuff? Can't be too expensive.

 

Well, they wrap test cars in camouflage material when they test drive new model trucks and cars in Death Valley, but I don’t think wrapping with flammable materials is that good of an idea...

 

You could use the stuff they use to protect carpet when doing jobs/moving inside the house.

Carpet Protection Film 36" x 200' Floor Protector Roll, Carpet Cover, Paint Protection, Self Adhesive Plastic Film USA Business

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06X3VG6TL/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1

Although not sure if that would leave residue on your paint when you're done and also it would probably snag on the first real branch it came across.

 

Happen to me! Buffed thru the clearcoat on a 1x1 section I feel bummed out like a dam fool but it's not quite noticeable. But this good advice. I thought about getting the entire door re clearcoated. But got quoted a hefty $700.

 

Damn that’s rough. I think there are things you can get to help protect that area from the sun and other things. Kind of like some fake clear coat. It’s been a bit so I’m sure you figured it out

 

Just left it alone learned to live with it

 

I know this is old…but I found this How to particularly useful and wanted to add some learnings I had as a complete novice with the detailing world.

I picked up the Bauer 6 in DA polisher at the Harbor Freight parking lot sale this week…it was on sale for $40 bucks. I did change out the backing plate from 6 in to 5 in because I thought the smaller pads would fit the contours and shapes better.

The foam pads are color coded based on cut (IE: like grit rating on sand papers). The colors are not universal across manufactures from what I could tell, so read the manufacturers packages. I used Grant foam pads from Harbor freight. In that line up, black is fine cut for finishing or waxing, yellow is low cut for polishing with a high finish, blue is medium cut for compounding and a medium finish, and microfiber is heavy cut with a medium finish. I didn’t understand all that immediately so was just looking for yellow or microfiber. Choose the cut based on how bad your scratch is. Deeper scratches need bigger cut.

There are a ton of scratch potions it’s overwhelming. Compound has more cut than a polish. Polish has a fine cut that leaves a higher finish than compound. There are also non-abrasive scratch removers. I first tried the orange bottle Nu Finish scratch doctor. That is some kind of resin that tries to fill in a scratch to make it less noticeable. It improved it but was still visible.

From what I could tell, it comes down to the trade off of time vs finish for buffing out scratches. More aggressive combinations of pad and compound smooth out the scratch faster but may have a less fine finish. For severe scratches you may need aggressive cutting as the first stage then a 2nd stage with a finer polish.

in my case, I had some pin striping from a wheeling trip all the way down my passenger side doors and bed. Nothing deep enough to catch a finger nail, looked to be in clear coat only, but Looked bad.

I used the Grants yellow pad with Meguires Ultimate Compound. For each section I went slowly up and down then switched to left to right and did that pattern 3-4 times before wiping off the residue with a micro fiber cloth. The worst scratch took two repeats of that (3-4 passes twice).

Pin striping is now gone and I am super happy with how it turned out. My old 4x4 was a 20 year old Nissan Xterra that I didn’t care about the finish, so never got into detailing a vehicle. Once I upgraded to my 2021 TRD off road, wheeling came with a bit more anxiety with such a nicer vehicle. I can wheel a little more relaxed now knowing I can repair some minor paint defects.

 

Quicksand for the Win. Even when it's dirty, it don't look dirty!!!!

 

I go trail riding with a black truck . . . . and I don't expect to keep it nice . . . . I don't care if it gets scratches dents etc. - I bought it to go off road and it's black because the best deal I found was for a black TRD Off Road.

EDIT:
I was a rookie and starting out off roading before lifted it and armored up but still to me it's something to be proud of - although I cleaned her up the best I could

Now I just go for it

 

Yeah it’s a good thing you don’t care at this point just go have fun….