This is topic Graffitti Removal in forum Letterhead/Pinstriper Talk at The Letterville BullBoard.


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Posted by David Nyman (Member # 3399) on :
 
Hello,
Interesting morning, a customer called this morning and wanted to know if I could come out and remove the black spray painted grafitti off the back doors of his white semi-trailer's. In an effort to try and remove it themselves first, they took off some of the original paint and managed to smear the black grafitti around. I went out to look and it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I think using some graffitti removal might be an option. Has anyone here had any experience using this product and were the results good, bad or otherwise? Would appreicate any feedback.

Thanks
 
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
 
Hi David,

Unfortunately, this one may be beyond a simple clean up.

As you mentioned, the owner's attempt to clean it themselves not only smeared the black graffiti around, but also had an adverse effect on the original finish and has left a "haze" from the graffitti paint. The smeared spray paint pigment has probably had a chance to work into the trailer paint and will be there for good. (Colors like red and maroon are especially difficult in situations like this.)

The older the trailer is, the more likely it has oxidized, or lost it's original durability. Using harse cleaning agents or solvents will break down the trailer paint right along side the graffitti, in effect, mixing the pigments together. As the solvent evaporates, the paint esidues will dry out and bond to each other.

Buffing the surface with a rubbing compound may work, but only if the black paint wasn't able to work into the finish too deeply, but my best guess is it would be better to redo the damaged area.

Hope this helps...
Rapid

Oh yeah....
If the customer is concered this could happen again, you may want to include using One Shot anti graffitti clearcoat when the trailer is fixed up. The cleaning agent for it is acetone, which will remove just about anything it can be hit with, including spray paint and magic markers.

(editeded for the "oh yeah" part)

[ June 29, 2004, 05:55 PM: Message edited by: Ray Rheaume ]
 
Posted by David Nyman (Member # 3399) on :
 
Ray,
Thanks for the reply back. I did some calling around today and pretty much heard the same thing you were saying. Dont think the grafitti removal is going to work out. I'm leaning towards trying the rubbing compound before anything else. The trailers are his brand news ones so I'm hoping we get lucky.

Appreciate your feedback,

David
 
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
 
David,

One way to see if it is going to polish out is to buy a small can of rubbing compound at the local auto parts store. It's in a paste form and you can get a pretty good test with a few minutes of hand polishing.

Best of luck...
Rapid
 
Posted by David Nyman (Member # 3399) on :
 
Thanks Ray,
Givin it a try tomarrow.. will post results.

Thanks...

David
 
Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
 
As I've mentioned this before, body shop suppliers sell a clay bar that when used with soap and water removes overspray and it also works with sprayed on graffti. Check it out before they ruin everything.
 
Posted by David Nyman (Member # 3399) on :
 
Just an update here, we gave the graffitti removal to the customer and let them try it out. Fortunately and much to our suprise it worked beautifully! Customer happy and we didnt ruin the paint! We purchased the product from Grimco, so thought we give it a little boost here [Smile]

David

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[ July 12, 2004, 03:16 PM: Message edited by: David Nyman ]
 


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