Just a quick update....

Its been a hot weekend here in Sunny Gloucester, sadly I didnt get much done with Nina, Saturday I was recovering from my All Day Photography Shoot at Cotswold Wildlife Park (http://www.damoncannard.com/CotswoldWildlifePark.html) and only managed to cut the grass and cut a tree back that was overhanging the public footpath outside our home.

Today, I woke up with a whopper of a headache and dizziness which still hasnt really gone.

Anyway, I waited until early this evening for the temperature to drop slightly, as I wanted to use the heat we've had all day to carry on getting the checkers off.

I discovered the drivers side was very different to the passenger side as from the back to the front drivers door, the checks had been replaced at some point, and unlike the front end and the other side, which had had a strip of the yellow vinyl put all the way along, and then green rectangles put on top to make the pattern, which was relatively easy as the yellow stuff heated up easily and was very pliable to pull off, this side was made up completely of small rectangles, meaning you have to heat up all the individual bits of vinyl one by one and pull them off. Great for the yellow pieces, they came off straight away, the green pieces which are the reflective rectangles, have a silver backing to them, and wont pull away in one go, instead, breaking in to lots of tiny pieces and leaving lots of the backing glue behind.

So as I didnt have a huge amount of time I concentrated on the yellow.

The back doors were a mix of the yellow, and foil backed reflective red vinyl, again I was just going to get the yellow off, but thought I'd give them a go too, to my surprise, although they were much more sticky and harder to pull off, they did come off in one piece too, although the red vinyl seems to be a lot thicker than the green. If you got a corner up and pulled it all away quite quickly, it didnt leave a massive amount of glue.

Graeme, your comment about not heating it up too much was spot on, although when I was doing it before, the weather was cold and would have made a difference, but the past couple of times ive done it, if you overheat the yellow vinyl, it leaves big patches of glue behind, if you quickly and evenly heat it, and pull it away at about a 30 degree angle from the body, while keeping your fingers under the vinyl as close to the stuck edge as possible so that the vinyl appears to be ballooning out as you go, it leaves quite a small amount of glue, which is obviously a lot better and loads less work afterwards.

Anyway, little bit if before and after here. Hoping to get the glue off over the next week kr two, but its very time consuming and really takes it out of your hands and arms rubbing it all away, in my case with brake cleaner fluid and a cheap micro fibre cloth from Tesco. Usually a small spray of the cleaner and a rub of the cloth, keep repeating until the glue disappears. Will tackle the green rectangles too if the weather stays warm.



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Location:Gloucester