There is one thing that will usually stop me from buying a car, no matter how much I like it otherwise: I’m always turned off by business marketing decals and graphics. Those stickers are generally truly stuck, and never come off easily. And when removed, they almost always leave behind awful residue.Â
… Which is a drag, as my Smart has some decals I’d like to get gone. Thankfully, I’ve found a tool just for this job, and I wish I’d discovered it sooner. It’s a drill-powered rubber eraser wheel that zaps decals off of your car in just minutes – but there’s a catch.
I have a rule with most of my cars. Decals and stickers have to go on windows, not on the body. In my experience, it’s just much easier to scrape a decal off of a window than the body. Worse, if a decal spends enough time on the body, the paint may fade around it. Then, you’ll remove the decal and end up with more or less a decal-sized paint swatch that’s bolder than the rest of the body. All of that is ignoring what happens when any adhesive gets left behind or, if you’re employing old-school tricks, you accidentally scratch the body.
I normally avoid all of this by never putting decals on my car’s paint and just never buying cars that have decals on their body, either. The exception to that rule came in the fall of 2020 when I saw the perfect cheap Smart. It was a 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe and it was fully loaded with every single option checked for just $1,400. The seller noted some issues, but nothing actually serious. The downside? The car still wore the decals of the seller’s defunct IT support business. He couldn’t get the decals off. But hey, for just $1,400 I was willing to look the other way.
Besides, the reflective-decal character on the side of the car looked cute.
Unfortunately, I discovered pretty much instantly that removing what was then 12-year-old decals was going to be next to impossible. My mechanic friends suggested I attack the decals with a razor blade. This method did work, but progress was annoyingly slow. I would remove maybe about a millimeter of material per minute and if I wasn’t perfect, I’d nick the car’s paint while I did so.
Other people suggested using my fingernails, a heat gun, a credit card, a window scraper, or even chemicals. While I have used the heat gun and credit card method to great success in the past, all of those decals were usually not that old and were still pretty pliable. In this case, these over-decade-old decals were now super brittle. It didn’t matter what combination of the above process I used, the decal just chipped and broke off a millimeter at a time. Look, I don’t have time to spend an entire day chipping at a decal like it’s an ancient artifact. I want it gone, now.
Sadly, that “now” never happened. I went on to use the car on the Tennessee Gambler 500, breaking the vehicle’s plastic panels on some huge rocks at a waterfall. I would later park the car and daily drive some Volkswagens. Fast-forward to this year and I’ve had the Smart for four years, storing it for two of those years. Yet, throughout all of this time, I still haven’t found the solution to getting rid of those decals.
As I wrote in the past, I’m selling off every car that I don’t consider to be a favorite car or a dream car. The upshot of this selling spree is that I’m daily driving Smarts again as I no longer own my old Volkswagen daily drivers. Unfortunately, this also means rolling around with the name of a defunct business on my bumpers and safety cell.
A desperate Amazon search brought me to a listing for a “CowboyBOB 2 Pack Decal Remover Eraser Wheel – Rubber Eraser Wheel for Drill Removes Car Stripes Vinyl Tapes and Graphics Rubber Eraser Wheel Tool Kit for Cars, RV, Motorcycles Sticker Remover Tool.” Oy vey, what a listing name. However, the tool had 4.5 stars with 400 reviews, most of them saying that the tool is effective.
Here’s how it works: You attach the wheel to your power drill and then let it rip. These wheels use abrasion to erase decals, adhesives, pinstripes, tape, and stickers off of various surfaces. I did some research and discovered the name-brand version of this tool is the 3M Stripe Off Wheel. It’s a tool with 5,311 mostly positive reviews on Amazon. It was also around $50 when I priced it earlier this year, however. Now you can get it for about $42 on Amazon.
I went with the knockoff “CowboyBob” version for only $16 after tax for two wheels and started watching videos about rotary decal-remover tools. As it turns out, the fluted style (like my CowboyBobs) might not be the best, as shown by YouTuber Gander Flight:
Maybe I should have watched videos before making my purchase of the fluted wheels, but oh well. I had the wheels already, so I might as well use them. Last night, I rolled my Smartie next to the garage and let the CowboyBob rip.
My setup was pretty basic. I used an $18 Warrior corded drill from Harbor Freight. This thing is a total weakling and says it maxes out at 3,000 RPM. I use it for general work around the apartment and for basic car stuff. As it turns out, this kind of drill is perfect for the task of forcefully removing decals from a car. Both the 3M Stripe Off Wheel and the clones recommend a speed no faster than 4,000 RPM, which is great because my drill can’t even spin that fast.
Thankfully, I also had much better results than Gander Flight with my fluted wheel. Maybe it was the ancient, now 16-year-old decals or maybe it was me putting a little pressure on the wheel, but the decals stripped off of the Smart’s metal lightning quick. Forget about a minute per millimeter. I had both sides done in only 15 minutes!
This tool didn’t come with an instruction guide, so I sort of just experimented on my own. I used medium pressure and made sure the tool didn’t stay in one place for any longer than about a second or so. It seemed so long as I did that, the decals came off cleanly and without major damage to the paint underneath.
I also angled the tool a bit, which seemed to be more effective than laying it flat on the car’s metal.
I experimented further by spritzing a little bit of water on the surface to see if that changed the performance, but this made the tool totally ineffective. It seemed the best way to use the tool was just directly on the surface without any modifications.
Since this Smart has been a bit of a guinea pig for the crazy stuff I wouldn’t do with my other cars, I tested what happens if strong pressure is applied without moving the tool. I was surprised to find the rubber wheel didn’t burn all of the way through the paint. The only bad spot was a place where the paint was already damaged on my car. However, I would still try to keep the tool moving just in case.
I also tried to use the tool on the Smart’s plastic parts. The makers of these tools don’t recommend using them on plastic, but again, this car is basically my equivalent of the Autopian Test Car. Sure enough, the tool immediately wore through both the decal and the paint on my Smart’s tailgate.
I then tried to refine my tactic, applying only the lightest of pressure and barely spinning the drill at all. That didn’t work, either. Even at a slow rotation speed, the rubber wheel ripped through both the paint and the decal pretty much instantly.
But hey, I did make some great progress here. The car’s safety cell looks better than it ever has under my ownership! Now, I just need to figure out how to get rid of the phone number on the website on the back of the car. I think I’ll be keeping the helicopter hat character guy because it’s just my kind of silly. I just don’t want to continue advertising some guy’s defunct business.
So, I’m going to need some help here. How do I get rid of the decals on the bumper and tailgate? The decals don’t respond well to heat or traditional scraping methods, but this abrasive method is overkill. I’m not sure what to try next here.
That said, if you have pesky decals, stickers, adhesives, tape, or similar stuck to a surface that’s metal, glass, or maybe fiberglass, it seems like one of these rubber wheels should do a great job at making removal so much easier. It seems like the name-brand 3M version works the best, but also costs the most. However, I found that at least this clone version also works fine for less than half of the cost.
I wish I discovered this tool sooner. This just opened up a wider net of cars I’m willing to buy now, so long as they don’t have decals on plastic, anyway.
Note: This post includes Amazon referral links, so if you buy something after clicking one of these links we might get a commission. Just FYI!
That looks like a great small battlebot wheel. I’ll give it a……….. whirl
I use naptha to clean guitars and it never harms the sometimes delicate finishes. Naptha and a plastic scraper would be my first try. I’ve used it to remove old stickers from an old Fender bass.
Second try would probably be a brief soak using naptha on a paper towel, covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from gassing off too fast.
The 3M style is worth its weight in gold. When I Bought my V Sport it had pinstripes and they had to go. It literally just erased them. They’re amazing. The finish underneath was completely unmarred. The one I used is ABN brand from Amazon and they’re $12.
Have you tried Xylene or MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone)? One of those two should dissolve pretty much any decal adhesive. Make sure to test it on you plastic surfaces first just in case. However in my experiences I’ve not had any damage.
It’s pretty much the same as the WD40 / Credit Card process, but leaves less mess. Apply a little to an edge, scrape, apply more, scrape, repeat. A final wash with a soaked rag usually leaves a nice clean surface. Maybe apply a little wax after to protect said surface.
MEK is literally paint remover. I’ve used it on old cars to strip them to bare metal.
It’s not something I’d use on a painted surface unless I want to reprime and repaint it when I’m finished.
If you try these – and I agree they should work but test first, wear good gloves and ideally a respirator rated for organic solvents. Those are SUPER nasty chemicals that you do NOT want absorbing into you. Safety last!
I actually really like the helicopter hat dude – it’s just perfect on a Smart!
Floss+heat is my go-to for removal and not damaging the surface.
I’ve got some 25yr+ old adhesive that was holding on monsoon shields above the windows. I was trying to get rid of it, but it’s now rock hard.
Have tried a wheel like this but didn’t seem to do much. Also trying to chip or peel them off pulls off some paint.
Any ideas?
Uh, see my post above. Solvents can be your friend, but they can also dissolve window gaskets too. I would try some MEK first on a rag.
soak/dab the remaining residue with a citrus based solvent, let it get tacky (might take a few application) then hit it with the eraser wheel again.
Citrus usually leaves a residue which is why I prefer solvents for these situations. That said, I love Orange Clean and have spent many hours being slightly nauseated by its potent permeating aroma.
“In the morning, the decals mysteriously reappeared…”
For less aggressive adhesives like on price stickers or those endless lawyer labels telling you in fifteen languages not to put your children in the microwave, plain old cooking oil or even mineral oil works. You need to give it time to soak a bit, maybe even peel up a corner on plastic stickers so the oil can soak in under it. The good part is it is low odour and usually leaves a clean finish.
I’ve had good success soaking decals in PAM cooking spray for 5-10 minutes then just rubbing it with a wet washcloth. I might try one of these wheels next time though!
Decals? WD-40 and a credit card, works a charm.
This summer I spent an entire weekend with a can of WD40 and the end of an old plastic UK number plate (like a credit card but stiffer) and took the huge dealer-fitted stripes off the side of my fiancée’s Suzuki. They’d been on there for seven years.
It was horrible, but it worked great. Every now and then a bit would peel off in a single foot long strip, and it felt amazing.
I’ll give that a try! I tried heat and a credit card in the past and wasn’t so lucky.
Credit where due: I saw it on YouTube and it worked.