wemct
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2019
- Threads
- 20
- Messages
- 732
- Reaction score
- 1,258
- Location
- Georgia, USA
- Vehicles
- '23 Cayenne S Coupe; '22 AMG SL55; Taycan 4S(sold)
- Thread starter
- #1
The two items that annoy me on US cars are the amber turn signal markers and the silly safety decals on the sun visors. I replaced the amber markers with the clear markers earlier this week. Today I tackled the sun visors. The decals are very easy to remove on some cars. On my Aston, you lift a corner and the entire decal peels off in one piece. On cars with black vinyl sun visors I have applied black vinyl rectangular blanks to cover over the safety decals. On the Taycan, the sun visors are fabric so the better option was to remove the decal. It was a bit of a PITA, but with an hour of effort the decals were gone. I don't know where Porsche found the adhesive for the sun visor decals, but if the car is a solid as the adhesive, this is one rock solid car.
The most common adhesive remover for this type of project is 91% isopropyl alcohol. Unless you want to spend the next month removing the decals on the Taycan don't bother with the isopropyl alcohol (in addition with COVID-19 91% isopropyl alcohol is a valuable item). Denatured alcohol works better, but the odor is a bit strong and the ethanol in denatured alcohol is not the best thing to play with for an hour. The best choice was acetone. I got a small container from Home Depot (under $8), an old white tee shirt (paper towels are not sturdy enough), and gloves.
Leave the visors in the closed position to provide a stable base to push against. Make sure you have good ventilation. Pour the acetone on a piece of the tee shirt. Hold the damp rag on the edge of the decal. WIthin 10 seconds you will see the edge start to lift. The decal will not lift off in a single piece (hence the reason it takes an hour). Pour more acetone on the rag and use a sliding motion to continue to get acetone under the decal and roll the decal off the visor. The decal will come off in bits and pieces, but you will make steady progress especially with fresh acetone on the rag. The color of the fabric under the decal will look a little different from the fabric on the rest of the sun visor. The color should blend as time passes and the visors get more exposure to sunlight. It is already a 100% better than the awful safety decals. The difference in color is more exaggerated in the photos due to the reflection of the flash.
The most common adhesive remover for this type of project is 91% isopropyl alcohol. Unless you want to spend the next month removing the decals on the Taycan don't bother with the isopropyl alcohol (in addition with COVID-19 91% isopropyl alcohol is a valuable item). Denatured alcohol works better, but the odor is a bit strong and the ethanol in denatured alcohol is not the best thing to play with for an hour. The best choice was acetone. I got a small container from Home Depot (under $8), an old white tee shirt (paper towels are not sturdy enough), and gloves.
Leave the visors in the closed position to provide a stable base to push against. Make sure you have good ventilation. Pour the acetone on a piece of the tee shirt. Hold the damp rag on the edge of the decal. WIthin 10 seconds you will see the edge start to lift. The decal will not lift off in a single piece (hence the reason it takes an hour). Pour more acetone on the rag and use a sliding motion to continue to get acetone under the decal and roll the decal off the visor. The decal will come off in bits and pieces, but you will make steady progress especially with fresh acetone on the rag. The color of the fabric under the decal will look a little different from the fabric on the rest of the sun visor. The color should blend as time passes and the visors get more exposure to sunlight. It is already a 100% better than the awful safety decals. The difference in color is more exaggerated in the photos due to the reflection of the flash.