Quarter panel sticker residue

If you blow up the pic you can see a multitude of flat and glossy areas where the 4x4 TRD Off Road sticker usually residents.

 

The 3M eraser wheel is available in store at a ton of Auto Zone and Advance Auto stores. And O’Reilly’s has 3M variations of the same thing in tons of stores.

 

don't wet sand you will cut into the clear coat like i did.

 

you might be at the point "the more you monkey with it the worse it gets"?

 

Should be able to buff. I see it on the pics.

 

I'm surprised the goo gone didn't strip all that residue off. I'd recommend some all purpose cleaner followed up with car soap and water to wash off the apc. You can try cutting the apc by 50% with water, but as long as it's applied to a cool surface in the shade you shouldn't have any streaking or other issues. I like Adam's apc.

$13 Adam's Polishes All Purpose Cleaner (16oz) - Professional Heavy Duty Industrial Cleaner & Degreaser | Cuts Heavy Grease & Tar | Car Detailing, Tire Cleaner, Engine Cleaner, Wheel Cleaner

https://www.amazon.com/Adams-Heavy-...la-720320464755&ref=&adgrpid=69167827135&th=1

The more residue you can remove before polishing the better results you'll get. Otherwise you'll just smear it around into the clear coat.

If you proceed with the compound/polisher route I'd recommend Jescar, Rupes, or 3m compounds. Something very mild should take care of it, but you'll likely need a machine polisher (random orbital polisher) otherwise your hands will fall off from hours of polishing.

 

No monkeying done with anything yet, let alone too much.

I'm going to try the magic eraser wheel first as it's the least intrusive, and then I'll move on to the compound cut then swirl remover and see where I stand.
I'm hoping the wheel removes what remains and I won't have to mess with the compound.

 

Report!

Well I went back to the paint specialist place and got the strongest industrial cleaner they had....

I then went to work in succession;

1. I started with industrial cleaner, a bit of rubbing then soap and water.

Result - negative, it didn't touch ANY of the remaining gunk.

2. I then moved to the old Meguiars clay bar that I've used a TON before for tree sap.

Result - minimal, I rubbed and rubbed (lol) on it but not a whole lot happened, just a bit more of a dulling effect. It didn't do much to it but did make things a bit smoother feeling. It was still VERY evidently there when looking at it in the light.

3. Next up was the wonder wheel (aka stripe eraser, aka eraser wheel) attached to my variable speed drill

Result - negative, I took the elbow grease to this one as much as I dared for fear of burning through any of the clear coat but even after going over and OVER it with the wheel for 15 or 20 min, it didn't make any difference to the marks at all. I really had high hopes for this one as the wheel was quite a bit more expensive than I figured looking at the ones on Amazon. Alas it was not to be this time and that's when I knew it had to be into the clear coat.
As you can see there was little to no difference but it did make a heck of a mess:





4. Feeling a bit desperate, I broke out the two small bottles I purchased from the very old school guys at the car color shop, "Wizards" cut compound and the accompanying polish/swirl remover:



Result - WE HAVE A WINNER!

This stiff IS made by some magic wizard!!

I started with the compound and put very little elbow grease into it at first and even then it REALLY started to get after it!
Hell, after 2 or 3 rounds of using the compound by hand it looked SO good I nearly didn't even need the polish.
Super duper happy with how but turned out after a few rounds of using the polish by hand and then a buff out with a new micro fiber cloth:




Yay! Day saved for sure, and I can HIGHLY recommend the Wizards brand compound cut and polish. Per my brother who is also old school, indicated Wizards has been around a LONG time.

 

You must have done something to the clearcoat. Micro scratches or some kind of topical chemical burn. Glad you got it shined up though. Trust me though, those wheels are the way to go on decals, pinstripes, etc.

 

Nothing other than buy the truck and remove the TRD 4x4 Off Road sticker, which came off quite easily as stickers go, especially for the kind made of the typical factory clear plastic.
Honestly, the truck remains in the garage for the vast majority of the time, so all I can think is that during the first 7,000 miles of her life she existed in southern TX and may have spent a lot of time in some direct sun and high heat.

 

I will definitely be using the wonder wheel in the future when I have to remove some visible gunk.

 

After getting the 4x4 TRD stickers off and then getting the remaining residue off I got to work getting the replacement on and the reason for the factory sticker removal in the first place



I've got the passenger side rear heratige stripe to get on, then a 3rd much smaller one for the nose.

 

Old school guys' recommendation, a wizard with a mystical potion, and then sweet success. This was exactly the kind of story tale ending I subbed to this thread for lol

 

I've had good luck with Goof Off Aerosol.

Have tried a few other products (like Goo Gone and Rapid Remover) and this seems to work best - still requires some elbow grease though.

 

Took mine off with the heatgun and goo-gone. Used erasure wheel to get the last of it.
Polish/corrected with Meguires M80 on the PC to shine it back up.

 

Heat gun took the sticker off great, but I was pretty shocked when GooGone didn't touch the remainder of it.
Although the eraser wheel didn't remove the residue I'll be keeping it, as I'm sure it will come in handy at some point in the future.