anyone remove the decals from the 96-97 models

Just bought this 96 and want to remove the decals on the door and bed.worried that since the age the truck the sticker is going to leave a mark, anyone take these off your truck. maybe a good wax would work. heres a pic

 

Since its 15 yrs old, and a reddish color, I would guess that the paint is probably faded around the stickers. A good polish might help even it up, but its hard to say.

 

Yea you would have to do some buffing. I took my rear off and its a different color now. Just havn't put on my new one..

 

I bet that it leaves a mark. We had two that I removed the decals from, both 97's one was cobalt blue one was dark green. Removed the decals in 2001 and they had already faded the paint some after just 4 years..

 

I have a 97 and the 2 orange ones on the tailgate, they left a mark but their little... I honestly wouldnt take it off but its your truck

 

Hmmm yea I really don't want the marks there. Anyone try painting stickers? I'm painting the bumpers black wheels black and putting on a brushguard so I really wanted to take the decals off. I like the big Toyota on the tailgate just wish it were black.

 

Thanks for the input guys just going to leave it all stock besides the brush guard. Plan on doing some off tossing and I doubt the painting bumpers would hold up to well.

 

I replaced the big TOYOTA decal on my tailgate with a black one I bought off EBAY. However, I was re-painting my whole tailgate when I did this, so that made it easier. Those things are hard to scrape off, and you will probably scratch up your paint in the process.

The crappy thing for me was my truck got rear-ended about two months after I finished my tailgate! And the body shop put a silver TOYOTA sticker back on. Oh well, it looks nice.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

 

I'm going to take it to a local body shop and see what they say I'm going to ask them I'd they can jus replace them with black if they wont be able to buff it out. I'll let you know what happens.

 

Your going to have a shadow and buffing won't hide it, you would have to buff the area only around the decals to brighten it up to match the shadow, which will be darker. I supose you could buff before you remove the decals and see what you end up with.

 

Don't know if those side decals on your 96-97 are similar to the TRD decals I had but I removed mine 11 years later off a dark red truck:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/detailing/181154-how-remove-crap-2.html#post4046950

 

Did it leave a shadow on your truck?

 

The decals did not. You can't tell they were ever there. No paint color difference or an outline.

The badges were a different story. There was some "ghost writing" because of a color difference in the paint under the badges versus the rest of the body.

After a lot of elbow grease (goo gone, wash, clay bar, compound, etc..) you can't tell anymore.

The only spot you can tell there were badges is behind the xtra cab window on the driver's side. If you basically press your face up to the truck at a certain angle you can see the "SR5"

But if you're standing 3 feet away casually looking at the same spot, you don't see anything.

 

i have a 95.5 model and i just started to removing the decal from the whole truck. i'm using a eraser pad i got off from Amazon. i just got done removing the toyota from teh tailgate and passenger side bed. still need to remove the door front fender and the entire side of the driver side. as i was scraping the decal using the eraser pad, it leaves the marks from the pad and the line from the decal. i'm planning to use rubbing compound to wax out the marks. i hope it all goes well.

 

After the compound those marks and outlines from the decals should go away. They did easily with mine.

 

^^^^^^^^^ thanks! but probably the toyota decal on the tailgate will still show. it has a cut outline of the sign decal.

 

Could you post some pictures when your finished?

 

There's a pad made by 3M that is made fr removing decals without harming paint. You should se that there is video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaflXzJSp_c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

Heat gun and paying attention to what you are doing will remove the decals, heat it up grab a end of the decal and pull it off, some 3 M citrus will remove the glue.