DIY: Door Sill Decal Removal and Installation of Carbon Fiber Protector
12-07-2011, 01:54 AM
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DIY: Door Sill Decal Removal and Installation of Carbon Fiber Protector
I recently purchased a set of Carbon door sill protectors. See this thread:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...lls-cheap.html
While I’m waiting for FedEx to bring them, I thought I’d start with a DIY on removing the existing door sill decals. I’ll update this thread or duplicate it so it’s vendor specific for adding in the Carbon sill protectors.
Here’s what you’ll need to remove the stock sill decals:
-Heat gun
-Goo Gone or Goof Off
-Painters Tape
-Tape Measure
-Light swirl or scratch remover
-Applicator pad
-Detail spray
-Detailing towels
I first measured the length of the current sill decal and found the center. I marked it with painter’s tape on the inside door trim at center and both ends so I will have a reference point for installing the new sill protector.
Use a heat gun to heat the decal. Don’t leave it in one place too long—heat it slowly. I recommend spending a couple minutes passing the heat gun over the entire decal with back and forth motion, in order to cause the adhesive underneath to loosen and let go.
When you have the decal nice and warm, and you’re ready to begin peeling it off, point the heat gun at the corner of the decal for several seconds. As it heats, the edge will bubble slightly and you can easily get hold of it with your fingers. Keep pulling with one hand while you continue to run the heat gun over the decal.
I had better luck applying heat to the top side of the decal as I peeled it off, rather than applying heat to the newly-exposed underside of the decal as I peeled it off.
Note: If you have any interest in saving the decals, you may want to enlist help for removing them. As you heat it and pull, the decal will stretch in the middle. If you have an extra set of hands you can remove them without stretching them out.
After you get the decal peeled off, you’ll be left with a mess similar to what’s below. Lots of adhesive is leftover that didn’t peel up with the decal. To remove this, I dribbled Goo Gone all over the adhesive and continually worked it around with just my fingers, loosening, removing, cleaning my hands over and over until all the adhesive had been removed.
When you think you have all the adhesive removed, dump some more Goo Gone on it and give it one more rubdown. Then wipe it down with a towel to remove excess Goo Gone.
This is what the decal will look like after you peel it off and toss it on the garage floor:
After you have all the adhesive removed, wipe the sill down with a detail spray so that it’s nice and clean. I noticed that I’d made some very small scratches with all the rubbing, toweling, etc on the sill, so I used some Meguiars Swirl Remover with a hand applicator to clean up the micro scratches. I only rubbed for a minute or so and had the sill looking perfect. After removing the scratches, I shot it with detail spray again and it’s looking good.
As an aside, if you desire to keep the stock sill decals for any reason—posterity, wall hanging, stick on a toolbox, etc—it’s possible to flatten them out after removal. If you didn’t ‘stretch’ them out too much during removal, just lay them on a flat surface, pick up one end, leaving the other on the flat surface. Run the heat gun left to right until the decal becomes pliable and starts to ‘lay down’.
Do this the entire length of the decal, letting it lay down as you go. As a result you’ll flatten those out. I haven’t done anything with them but I bet you could put some light adhesive on the back, heat them up and stick them to something and they would stay relatively flat.
This may be a worthy DIY in and of itself, but I’ll add instructions and a review of the Carbon sill protectors as soon as I can get them installed.
For those waiting for Carbon Fiber Door Sills Part Deux, see edits below for the review and installation steps and pics.
The prep work for this mod was covered earlier in this post. Once the sills arrived, there really isn't much to it.
My Carbon Fiber door sills arrived today from Forum Member Quik Z06 and G3-Composites. They were well packaged and well protected, wrapped in paper, bubble wrapped and sent in a triangular cardboard box. No issues.
I unpacked and inspected, then gave the plates a quick shot of detail spray to clean. I then did a quick hand buffing on them with some Meguiars swirl remover, just to make sure there weren't any surface blemishes. Much easier to do this before placing them on the car.
After a quick buffing and another detail spray I did a dry fit to make sure where I wanted to position the plate on the door sill. Toward the front of the car on the doorsill there is a small channel and notch, which is presumably to allow water to escape. Make sure you don't put the plate over it. I aligned it roughly with the piece of blue tape that marked the end of the stock sill decal toward the rear of the car.
Make sure you do your dry fit carefully and take note of exactly how you want to position it. The double sided tape on the back of these is a one-time thing!
After the dry fit, I passed my heat gun over each plate for a minute or two, just to remove some of the rigidity. Mine were very slightly bowed upward. Hold the plate in the middle and pass the heat gun back and forth, not leaving it in one place at all. It doesn't take much to loosen them up.
After a minute or two of heat, I peeled the backing off the tape, gave them another shot of heat for 30 seconds and laid them in place. Obviously, start at your mark on the back end and lay it down slowly forward (the heat helps this portion by making it flexible). Rub your hand firmly up and down the plate to adhere all the tape.
I gave them another shot of detailer to get my fingerprints off.
Total prep time in removing the old and prepping for the new was probably 45 minutes. Total time to put the new ones on, including everything I've outlined = 15 minutes.
Here are several of the installed pictures. Taken with an IPhone, some good, some not, but I'm including all that I took. I really like the Carbon look with Cyber Gray. I'm debating whether to put some red inserts into the lettering. I think the red accent would look great.
The guys at G3 Composites responded quickly to a couple inquiries I had, the product looks great, easy install and is a major upgrade from what GM put in. Which one would you rather have?
And finally, here's a gratuitous picture of my car with a couple of buddies:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...lls-cheap.html
While I’m waiting for FedEx to bring them, I thought I’d start with a DIY on removing the existing door sill decals. I’ll update this thread or duplicate it so it’s vendor specific for adding in the Carbon sill protectors.
Here’s what you’ll need to remove the stock sill decals:
-Heat gun
-Goo Gone or Goof Off
-Painters Tape
-Tape Measure
-Light swirl or scratch remover
-Applicator pad
-Detail spray
-Detailing towels
I first measured the length of the current sill decal and found the center. I marked it with painter’s tape on the inside door trim at center and both ends so I will have a reference point for installing the new sill protector.
Use a heat gun to heat the decal. Don’t leave it in one place too long—heat it slowly. I recommend spending a couple minutes passing the heat gun over the entire decal with back and forth motion, in order to cause the adhesive underneath to loosen and let go.
When you have the decal nice and warm, and you’re ready to begin peeling it off, point the heat gun at the corner of the decal for several seconds. As it heats, the edge will bubble slightly and you can easily get hold of it with your fingers. Keep pulling with one hand while you continue to run the heat gun over the decal.
I had better luck applying heat to the top side of the decal as I peeled it off, rather than applying heat to the newly-exposed underside of the decal as I peeled it off.
Note: If you have any interest in saving the decals, you may want to enlist help for removing them. As you heat it and pull, the decal will stretch in the middle. If you have an extra set of hands you can remove them without stretching them out.
After you get the decal peeled off, you’ll be left with a mess similar to what’s below. Lots of adhesive is leftover that didn’t peel up with the decal. To remove this, I dribbled Goo Gone all over the adhesive and continually worked it around with just my fingers, loosening, removing, cleaning my hands over and over until all the adhesive had been removed.
When you think you have all the adhesive removed, dump some more Goo Gone on it and give it one more rubdown. Then wipe it down with a towel to remove excess Goo Gone.
This is what the decal will look like after you peel it off and toss it on the garage floor:
After you have all the adhesive removed, wipe the sill down with a detail spray so that it’s nice and clean. I noticed that I’d made some very small scratches with all the rubbing, toweling, etc on the sill, so I used some Meguiars Swirl Remover with a hand applicator to clean up the micro scratches. I only rubbed for a minute or so and had the sill looking perfect. After removing the scratches, I shot it with detail spray again and it’s looking good.
As an aside, if you desire to keep the stock sill decals for any reason—posterity, wall hanging, stick on a toolbox, etc—it’s possible to flatten them out after removal. If you didn’t ‘stretch’ them out too much during removal, just lay them on a flat surface, pick up one end, leaving the other on the flat surface. Run the heat gun left to right until the decal becomes pliable and starts to ‘lay down’.
Do this the entire length of the decal, letting it lay down as you go. As a result you’ll flatten those out. I haven’t done anything with them but I bet you could put some light adhesive on the back, heat them up and stick them to something and they would stay relatively flat.
This may be a worthy DIY in and of itself, but I’ll add instructions and a review of the Carbon sill protectors as soon as I can get them installed.
For those waiting for Carbon Fiber Door Sills Part Deux, see edits below for the review and installation steps and pics.
The prep work for this mod was covered earlier in this post. Once the sills arrived, there really isn't much to it.
My Carbon Fiber door sills arrived today from Forum Member Quik Z06 and G3-Composites. They were well packaged and well protected, wrapped in paper, bubble wrapped and sent in a triangular cardboard box. No issues.
I unpacked and inspected, then gave the plates a quick shot of detail spray to clean. I then did a quick hand buffing on them with some Meguiars swirl remover, just to make sure there weren't any surface blemishes. Much easier to do this before placing them on the car.
After a quick buffing and another detail spray I did a dry fit to make sure where I wanted to position the plate on the door sill. Toward the front of the car on the doorsill there is a small channel and notch, which is presumably to allow water to escape. Make sure you don't put the plate over it. I aligned it roughly with the piece of blue tape that marked the end of the stock sill decal toward the rear of the car.
Make sure you do your dry fit carefully and take note of exactly how you want to position it. The double sided tape on the back of these is a one-time thing!
After the dry fit, I passed my heat gun over each plate for a minute or two, just to remove some of the rigidity. Mine were very slightly bowed upward. Hold the plate in the middle and pass the heat gun back and forth, not leaving it in one place at all. It doesn't take much to loosen them up.
After a minute or two of heat, I peeled the backing off the tape, gave them another shot of heat for 30 seconds and laid them in place. Obviously, start at your mark on the back end and lay it down slowly forward (the heat helps this portion by making it flexible). Rub your hand firmly up and down the plate to adhere all the tape.
I gave them another shot of detailer to get my fingerprints off.
Total prep time in removing the old and prepping for the new was probably 45 minutes. Total time to put the new ones on, including everything I've outlined = 15 minutes.
Here are several of the installed pictures. Taken with an IPhone, some good, some not, but I'm including all that I took. I really like the Carbon look with Cyber Gray. I'm debating whether to put some red inserts into the lettering. I think the red accent would look great.
The guys at G3 Composites responded quickly to a couple inquiries I had, the product looks great, easy install and is a major upgrade from what GM put in. Which one would you rather have?
And finally, here's a gratuitous picture of my car with a couple of buddies:
Last edited by Cyber2010; 12-09-2011 at 12:44 AM.
12-07-2011, 08:06 AM
#2
Team Owner
Nice write-up, waiting for episode 2.
12-07-2011, 08:48 AM
#3
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Sep 2009
Location: Mooresville North Carolina
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St. Jude Donor '10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17-'18
Nice!
Damn good write up and pictures....
It is nice to see the General Discussion section being used by the Forum members...and not just another Parts for Sale section by Vendors...
Great job....I want to do this also and you are paving the way!...
It is nice to see the General Discussion section being used by the Forum members...and not just another Parts for Sale section by Vendors...
Great job....I want to do this also and you are paving the way!...
12-09-2011, 03:15 AM
#8
Former Vendor
NICE!! Thanks Brandon, we greatly appreciate you detailing it all out for us. I agree, no comparison, these look 10x's better than the OEM piece. I also agree that Red would look really good, it would blend in nicely with the red on your floor mats 
For anyone interested here is the Group Buy on them
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...oor-sills.html
For anyone interested here is the Group Buy on them
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...oor-sills.html
