Best way to remove pinstriping?

[qslim]

It's an adhesive stripe, so i figured I'd blast it with a heat gun and pick at the edge with a plastic razor blade 'til it comes off. That'll work for the tank, I guess , but the guy before me striped the plastic side covers and the tail cover also. Anyone have any tricks for getting them off plastic?

[sae3231]

I have removed pin striping from cars on several occasions. You can use a heat gun to soften the adhesive on both metal and plastic. YOU NEED TO BE VERY CAREFUL on both, You can bubble the paint very easily on metal because the metal transfers the heat and it goes without saying what will happen if you overheat plastic. The trick is to only use a little heat and go very slowly. If you use to much heat in order to finish the job quicker you increase the probability of ruining the underlying material.

[Can_O_Tuna]

I have used a hair dryer (not as hot ) and Goo Gone with success in the past.

[chicagogsx]

i actually just took the stripes of the plastic side covers off my suzuki gn this last weekend. i just used a blow dryer off and on for whatever small section i was peeling off...it left a residue though...i think im goin to ask the guy who detailed my car about what to do about the residue, he took off the residue from some stock pinstripes from my car...i know there is some solution where it comes right off and wont harm the surface, goo gone seems like it would be not the best choice in using on automotive parts.


as far as the tank goes...im having trouble removing that..i didnt try too hard yet, but i was curious as to if anyone knew if stock pinstripes were done differently on tanks as opposed to the plastic side panels...if its possible the tank has a clear coat on top of the stripes, or if the stripes on the tank might actually even be paint, even though the side panels were just adhesive...im a newbie, so i'm not too familiar with this stuff.

[CamaRod]

i think on the tank, the pinstripe tape is cover with a coat of clear

I sanded mine off when i took the paint off, but i tried pulling the tape off first, and it caused the clear coat to chip off

[Macmatic]

I did the same heat gun trick last summer when I was painting my GS750EF. I used plain rubbing alcohol to remove the residue left behind. A wadded up paper towel was the best thing I found to do the rubbing with.

Wipe some alcohol on and let it sit for a minute and them come back and rub with the paper towel...worked like a charm!

/\/\ac

[qslim]

Well, somehow in the process of figuring out how to get the pinstripes off my bike and redo them, I tricked myself into having the whole thing repainted. I don't know how it happened. One minute I was trying to peel stripes off my tank, the next minute I was driving to the body shop with my tank, fenders, and side covers in my trunk. Funny how that happens.
Anyway, I'm changing from brown w/ orange stripes to Laguna Blue Pearl (a la Honda S2000) with either orange, silver, or while stripes. We'll see when I get everything back together.

[FTGRET]

The pinstripes on the tank are under the clearcoat if the tank is stock. No way to remove them without sanding through and the respraying the clear.

[bgmart450]

I have used a hair dryer (not as hot ) and Goo Gone with success in the past.

Worked well for me too.