7-26-2017 UPDATE Pinstripe and decal removal questions - paint fade

UPDATE 7-26-2017
I peeled about an inch and DEFINITE ghosting on 10 year old Radiant Red 3L5.
Beware or be ready to deal with it if you do it yourself!


First post on what has been an endless forum of information since I bought into Taco life. Thank you, TacomaWorld!

First of all, I know this is subjective to the condition of the paint. I got a 2007 DCSB in 3L5 Radiant Red in April. The paint is in decent shape and I love the color, but I kind of want to remove pinstripes, decals and possibly emblems to paint black. I can live with the TRD decal if it means avoiding a giant splotch of bright red, but the pinstripes are in rough shape themselves and I'd like those off. Has anyone done this with great regret, OR great results?

 

I have a 2009, and will NOT do this (as much as I would LOVE to get a custom bed sticker) because the guy who owned the truck before me didn't really take care of it and I'm afraid there will always be those ghost lines from taking them off. If you do, good luck and hope it doesn't show a difference in the paint.

 

Ha, you and I got almost the same deal! Mine had 57,000 miles on it at 10 years old, was a second home vehicle for the owner.
How is that FlexiDip holding up after a week or so? I think I might dedicate a day and do the hairdryer off-full auto paint on my emblems, but I have the chrome bumper to deal with too. I replaced my grill and headlights with black and I love the look on my truck, I bet yours would look pretty serious.

Yeah, ghost lines on the bed decal would be rough. I wonder how bad the pinstripes would be, though. They're so slim.

 

Thats funny, mine had less than 60k on it too! The Flexidip is holding up pretty good so far. I want to do the side and rear emblems the same color, and then the rest of the grill in all black as I think that would look good. I wanted to get custom "Vader Edition" bed stickers and a silloette of Darth Vaders helmet, but again being able to see where it used to have the TRDOR stickers just makes it a non-starter for me. If I had it new I would have done it in a heartbeat.

 

I have a silver 07 Sport, I removed my decals and no ghost lines or faded paint all, cannot tell the decals were ever there.

 

Nice! How long ago did you remove the decals?

 

its been right about a year now since I removed them.

 

Well there's you go @highriserkaiser. Guess you will be fine doing this. Take some before and after pics and let us know how it turns out.

 

I removed the pinstripes from mine. After getting the glue residue off there was still just a faint line there, but I used some Megauirs Ultimate Compound with a DA and now I can't see them. Then again though, red is a lot tougher to work with than silver.

 

indeed, red might be different!

 

@Choco_Taco @bluezzy @80schild Thanks!

I took a good walk around the truck and the pinstripes are going to stay. There are chunks and lengths of 1/2" missing already just from time and I'm just going to keep up my care regimen and let them go as they go.

The overwhelming TRD Offroad sticker is probably staying as well, unfortunately. It might look ridiculous on a DCSB but a ute bed, or one from Winkel Manufacturing would be pretty functional for me and then I wont have to worry about the "steeze" from a decade ago.

 

Pics, since we all like to share. I need new shoes on her, but I live where winters can get pretty rough so I have to do some research before I buy something new. The "all season" tires that came with it are good enough for now.

I replaced the grill, fogs and headlights this past week.

 

Looks good! Your pinstripes don't stand out nearly as bad as mine did. I don't think yours looks bad at all.

 

@80schild Thanks! Yours is rad too, I like your grill set.

They don't stand out like yours did, but it's the fact they look like crap while the rest of the vehicle is pretty good that annoys me. But the decal... ugh.

 

I removed/replaced my TRD bedside decal with the newer style, which is a different shape than the original. I was concerned about how 11 year old black sand pearl would look, but after removing all the decal residue, and compounding/waxing, I saw no paint fade whatsoever.

 

Radiant Red will almost certainly need to be polished after these many years. Reds, yellows, and oranges tend to oxidize leaving a yellowed finish every few years without a nice polish.

Do you may see some shadowing when you remove the pin stripes but it likely won't be anything you couldn't remove with a polish. If you enjoy detailing spend a few hundred bucks and get a nice polisher and some beginner supplies and do everything yourself, or likely pay someone in your local area to buff for probably around $200 depending on your area and the level of correction needed.

I would not remove the badges if you are just going to put them back on. That's a lot of time and work for no reason. Plastidip the emblems if you want them black.

I vote you just remove them all together. I love the look of no emblems. Plus I am an avid detailer of all my vehicles and it makes my life much easier to not have to clean, cut, polish, and lay my paint sealers around badges. I love my clean and bare tail gait (that would be the hardest part to maintain with like a dozen badges lol).

Get rid of the pin stripes though, it makes a tremendous difference. I had pin stripes on my truck when I bought it and the guy that installed my tint took them off for free. You could actually see the ridge in the door panels without the pin stripes and it made the truck look so much better.

 

Ya, I have the same truck. Removed my decals and had some ghosting. Used a fine meguires rubbing compound and a polish (by hand), no more ghosting!

 

If I end up doing anything, I'll surely post pics no matter how it comes out.