I decided after much research and deliberation to start trying to take off the god awful pinstripes on my IS.
Last owner must have thought it was sheek to put pinstripes on and not only that, but to have them painted on. . . .. sigh. . .

Anyway I have been busting my ***** with Eazy off for the last day and half so far and I got alot done, but there are some stubborn spots where I am at a really thin strip now or patches here and there that wont come off more.

I have been letting the easy off sit on for like 10 minutes at times thinking it needs more time and scraping with a qtip, but its only getting me soo far.

Any ideas with simple tools? A friend that does paint work suggested some laquer thinner that I might try. I think this stuff he uses for removing road paint when it gets on cars and some other stuff, but not sure how much more this can do than the easy off?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

if everything fails you can carefully wetsand it with 2000 grit or 3000 grit.. n then polish it out.

 

This method is easier than what you are doing now...

 

if the pinstripe is the type that is stick on, i usually get a heat gun to warm up the adhesive and then peel and pull the pinstripe off... a mild-light polish afterwards helps to clean up the gloss in the clear...

otherwise, +2 on the wetsanding and then polish...

 

trust me. I wish it was stick on. I removed those dozens of times from other cars I had.

I looked at my car today and apparently I marred the paint a bit in a couple spots from the damn q tips. sigh. . . .

I got 3000 grit pad today to try out and some laquer thinner to see how it fairs me. Its deff gonna need to go to a professional detailer afterwards cuz it looks like crap right now. (half done, wax/polish stripped off in some parts and little marring here and there)

 

ok, Laquer thinner didnt do jack!!!

I got most of it with 3000 grit and for the harder spots hit it with 2000 grit. I went a little hard in the one corner with the 3000 grit by accident and quickly learned from that mistake but all off now.

Now I just need to get to a detailer and get it all buffed and shiny again. I tried to polish a little by hand, but didnt really do anything at all. I sealed with some wax by hand until I can get detailed for another couple weeks.

 

Figured I'd bring this post back from the dead.

I recently bought an 09 ES 350 pebble beach edition and it came with the painted on pinstripe. After I got my wheels powder coated and windows tinted the red and gold pinstripes really looked out of place.

I tried lacquer thinner and it really marred the paint on a test area. I then bought an el cheapo black pinstripe from an auto parts store and it improved the looked but still stuck out. Finally I searched and found the easy off method and it worked perfectly.

I used painters tape around the pinstripes, sprayed the heavy duty easy off in a ceramic cup (at first I used an aluminum can but it began to eat away at it), used a Q tip to apply, left it on 2-3 minutes, and the factory stripes wiped away with a little pressure from a damp microfiber towel. And I followed up with a rinseless wash after.

Turned out great with only slight marring from the costco towels I used on the single stage obsidian black paint. Great results and I'm a happy guy with a better looking car now.