THE TRIM TAPE HACK

Anyone who has tried to get double sided bodywork tape off car parts, such as exterior body mouldings, sill extensions etc, will know how tedious and time consuming it can be. Wouldn’t it be great if you could save the time, parts and the self-mutilation involved in removing double-sided body tape from automotive trim parts? Of course, you can buy dedicated sprays for this job, but they are often expensive and come in small cans?

If you want to save a trim part rather than replace it, such as an exterior body trim but have damaged the original tape when removing it then you will have to get the old tape off somehow before you can reattach the trim. Using rotating wheels can be risky because all that has to happen is that the wheel catches on a part of the moulding or the adhesive and the trim is ripped out of your hand. If the part flies out of your hand, it can, of course, be damaged or destroyed; this is particularly the case when trying to clean small parts. Rotating wheels also have the tendency to build up excessive heat and spread what has been removed from one position to another, so you end up with the tape being removed by the wheel but only to another section of the trim, which is self-defeating.

A heat gun can speed up removal considerably by softening the adhesive. Heating up plastic trim, however, is a tricky business because if the part gets too hot, it can easily deform permanently or soften and/or damage the paint! Some people resort to using petrol as a solvent, but soaking parts in petrol can be a risky business?

Well, there is a trick that can be used to significantly reduce the amount of effort required to get the result you are looking for. The solution in both senses of the word, is, curiously enough, BIZOL Gasoline Intake Clean+ c36. In the pharmaceutical world it’s what is called ‘off-label use’, put simply, you use a product for something other than is stated on the label; in this case removing high-strength adhesive body tape.

You can significantly cut the amount of time you spend scraping with the blade of a screwdriver, metal scraper or stripping using a rotating wheel. Test the compatibility of Gasoline Intake Clean on a non-visible part first.

How does it work? Place the part you want to clean on a level surface, such as a bench. Once you are ready to start work, just dribble Gasoline Intake Clean over the adhesive tape and wait for the adhesive to soften before you begin scraping the tape off. Be extra careful when spraying the tape, as the Gasoline Intake Clean should only dribble out of the can, because the idea is to soak the tape, not blast it off using the spray jet. You may need to spray the tape two or three times because the foam absorbs quite a lot of cleaner.

If you are familiar with the cleaning power of BIZOL Gasoline Intake Clean+ c36 in its ‘on-label’ function, then it shouldn’t really come as a surprise to you. Nonetheless, you will probably still be pleasantly surprised by just how effective it is at softening and shifting double-sided tape and the speed at which you can work.

BIZOL Gasoline Intake Clean+ c36 is great for the non-destructive cleaning of parts and reducing the amount of time and effort needed to get parts ready for reuse. Now just cut fresh tape to suit and reattach the trim.