BERLIN: Whether it's love for a sports team or a heavy metal band, many people choose to advertise the fact with a sticker on their car windows or paintwork.
Unfortunately they’re not always easy to remove cleanly if you get tired of them.
Just ripping off the stickers is never a good idea and can result in unsightly adhesive residue or even damage to the paint.
Perhaps most importantly, heat can help stretch the sticker and loosen the adhesive. Parking in the sun for a while might be enough, but if not, try a hairdryer. Use it to heat the surface of the sticker – extremely carefully and from a sufficient distance. Be careful because excessive heat can damage paint or glass surfaces.
In the case of glass, don’t apply the heat to a specific area, but rather heat the entire surface. Otherwise, the glass could crack, especially if there are large temperature differences.
For that reason, using heat to remove a sticker from car windows on a cold day is not a good idea. Blades and scrapers should only be used with the utmost caution or else you’ll get scratches.
Once heated, the sticker should hopefully come off cleanly. If the removal isn't completely successful, any adhesive residue can be removed from the paintwork or windows using white spirit or benzine.
Special sticker removers are available, which may be more gentle on the paint. It's advisable to first test the cleaning agent on an inconspicuous area to determine whether it's suitable for the surface in question.
For very hard, porous or wafer-thin stickers, a film eraser attached to a cordless screwdriver or drill can be used – again, very carefully. The rubber adapter should sand the film off the surface without damaging the paint. After removing the sticker, you may need to use paint polish or a paint care product on the area.
If you don’t want to risk anything by doing the job yourself you can always go to a car detailing shop. And before you apply stickers to your car, remember that after removal the paintwork that was covered by the sticker may now look different from the surrounding areas.
