Replacing D4D Turbo stickers

[kizbot Member Find all posts View Profile Close kizbot]

I am just going to post this as a warning. I have a 2010 Prado so stickers are 12 years old. Thought it would be a good idea to replace them with new ones. Nope. 3 days of scratching away with a hair dryer and the sticker has damaged the paint and chipped off in places. Also, the stickers were around 65 dollars from Toyota. I now have to pay a panel beater to touch up the area before applying the new stickers so probably looking at around 200 to replace them. I was not planning on putting new stickers on initially but the stickers have also stained the paint so kind of have to now without spending a fortune. If ordering a new vehicle, I would opt for no stickers. I think the newer models may not come with them anyway. Point of posting is hopefully stop someone else from developing RSI by scraping at stickers for hours on end.

[kizbot Member Find all posts View Profile Close kizbot]

The saga continues... No one will repair it without respraying the entire panel so figured I would just stick the sticker on and stuffed it up. Another 37 dollars down the drain. That's over 100 dollars on stickers.

[Piggy Water pistol pilot. Find all posts View Profile Close Piggy]

Heating paint and using a scraper are guaranteed to cause issues with your paint. A cheap caramel wheel from Bunnings would be a better option for removing the stickers. Last ones I removed took about 45 seconds a side. .

[watsea Member Find all posts View Profile Close watsea]

Thanks Piggy for the information about a caramel wheel. I had not heard of that tool before. Hopefully I can keep a memory for possible use in the future.

[kizbot Member Find all posts View Profile Close kizbot]

Man I wish I knew about that thing...

[marshallarts Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close marshallarts]

Yes me too. I've just been down this very path with a 2008 Prado. I managed to get the old deteriorated stickers off without damaging the paint myself, but it sort of looks like the stickers have eaten into the paint somehow, and there are little indentations where the blank areas were - the paint under the black lettering is fine. I also tried a panel shop, and a couple of those guys who do small paint retouching. The panel shop was not interested, and the prices from the other guys were just stupid, like around $500. But something the panel shop guy said rang bells for me. he said maybe I could get some after-market stickers made that would cover the damage. I actually believe that is actually the best solution - get stickers made which have a white background, not a clear one, then the paint damage would be covered up. But because I had already paid for a pair of new ones...

I also already had some touch-up paint that (theoretically) matched the white of my Prado. So I decided to mask closely around the area where the stickers were, and repaint myself. Then when the new stickers go on, I reckoned the eye would not notice if any of the damage still shows through slightly, or if the paint is not quite a perfect match. I am reasonably happy with the paint job, and was looking here for some guidance about applying the stickers. Couldn't find any, so pressed on. Because I wanted them to be very accurately placed over my painted patches, I trimmed the stickers with scissors back to the actual edges of the bit that stays on there. Then ran a piece of masking tape along the top, and positioned it where it needed to be. I could then fold it upwards and remove the backing layer without it moving, then drop it back down and burnish it onto the surface from the middle outwards. There is a top layer which needs to be peeled off, and it gives the sticker part enough rigidity that it is fairly easy to avoid creases and air bubbles etc. Then lift a corner of that top layer and carefully peel it off. Bingo. I am quite happy with my results, and as I thought, now that the stickers are there the eye does not notice the very slight mismatch of paint colour. I guess it remains to be seen how well this touch-up paint lasts out in the weather. It is mostly covered by the stickers of course, but there may be some bits around the edges that are not, and it will still get pretty hot in the summer. But for now, it looks far better than it did before I embarked on this exercise.

But as I said above, if this all turns to crap and deteriorates quickly due to weather etc, I will definitely be looking at getting some after-market stickers made that have white backgrounds. I really think that is the best way to go, and it also allows for a bit of creativity in the design, instead of just copying Mr Toyota's stickers - if you want to.