CA owners - are you removing your white/green HOV decals?

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mwalsh

Well-known member
Leaf Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
9,781
Location
Garden Grove, CA
Trying to decide on removing the HOV decals from the LEAF and the Volt come New Year. They are looking a bit shabby on both cars, but if I take them off and then remove the adhesive residue, I'm probably going to have a ghost image of the shape in the less faded paint underneath.

What are you guys going to do?
 
We don't have carpool lanes in our direct area - so I never put them on...fearing paint issues.

I wish I hadn't applied for them, as I could have waited until we sold the car - or ordered the latest when/if we really needed them. At the time we bought I didn't think about the need, or not, for them so we just ordered them. Now that I realize that we could have postponed getting the stickers and thus get a later version (red ones?)...

Oh well - I haven't needed them, so I won't miss them when they expire.
 
mwalsh said:
Trying to decide on removing the HOV decals from the LEAF and the Volt come New Year. They are looking a bit shabby on both cars, but if I take them off and then remove the adhesive residue, I'm probably going to have a ghost image of the shape in the less faded paint underneath.

What are you guys going to do?

I'll remove them. There are some tips on this teslamotorsclub page: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/how-to-remove-hov-sticker.78541/

I have thoughts of plasti-dipping the whole car. The pieces I did 4 years ago are holding up fairly well.

IMG_2226_zps6c83fd28.jpg
 
I get the red replacement stickers, so I am going to have to. I wonder how many other 2013 Leafs will be out there with red stickers....I love the fact that it never had stickers prior to me buying it last year.
 
I got red stickers for a 2017 EV, and I decided to remove the white stickers, rather than just cover them up. Big mistake, it was huge pain:

The sticker was a 2 layer construction, with the top layer designed to separate relatively easily from the bottom layer as an anti-theft measure. The bottom layer was well adhered and impervious to the solvents I was willing to try (isopropanol, ethanol, and "green" mineral spirits). So I had to manually scrape the bottom layer off, very laboriously. The alcohols were slightly effective in softening any remaining residue, but more scraping was required.

Cheers, Wayne
 
Although I no longer own a Leaf and have an eGolf now, I do have white stickers on the car and yes I plan on removing them as they are pre-2017 issue. I always hated the look of them but I was willing to tolerate it for the convenience of solo HOV lane privileges, even though I was not a frequent user nor were there any in my commute.

I am concerned about them leaving a “shadow” but as my car is garaged both at home and work I’m hoping the exposed area will have minimal fading.
 
Yeah, I'll take them off my RAV4EV. I have, I think, the best case, white stickers on a white car, but they are still butt ugly. That's the best I can say for them. The state should have really come up with something better.
 
I was gonna try and color my white stickers red with erase red markers haha if that doesn't work I am buying a new leaf this month to get my last tax break and car-pool lane usage ... that's all I really care about, traffic is brutal for me !

S
 
No carpool lanes for me, but removing stickers is often easier if you warm them up with a hair dryer/heat gun. The adhesives underneath need to be warmed up, but not too hot to burn the plastic/paper sticker. The thicker the label or adhesive, the more heat needed. I've done this with a large number of different types of labels (including DOT labels and wine bottle labels) and can tell you that success is definitely label/adhesive specific. You can use one person, especially for single labels, but for processing multiple labels, use two people. I find the best method is to heat the label, use a flat blade (exacto knife, box cutter, single razor blade, etc) to get under the label without scratching the surface or burning your fingers, then pull the label off with needle-nose pliers, all the while continuing to heat the label as needed with the heat gun. Pull slowly to keep the label in one piece, otherwise you will need to start over with a new edge.

Finally, another secret for removing any residual gummy adhesive is to scrub lightly with a Borax soap and water paste. This works better than any solvent (which just dissolves and smears the residue) because the Borax is slightly basic, slightly soap-like, and has scrubbing qualities that cause the adhesive to ball up and become easier to remove. Fair warning, Borax is slightly poisonous (see Wikipedia) so don't eat it, but it's a great way to clean up certain messes.

Unfortunately, I can't help with the obvious lack of sun-fade where the label once was.
 
Reddy said:
No carpool lanes for me, but removing stickers is often easier if you warm them up with a hair dryer/heat gun. The adhesives underneath need to be warmed up, but not too hot to burn the plastic/paper sticker.

I'd use a hair dryer certainly, but my heat gun settings are 800 degrees and 1200 degrees - I'm not sure I'd go there on a plastic bumper cover.
 
mwalsh said:
Reddy said:
No carpool lanes for me, but removing stickers is often easier if you warm them up with a hair dryer/heat gun. The adhesives underneath need to be warmed up, but not too hot to burn the plastic/paper sticker.

I'd use a hair dryer certainly, but my heat gun settings are 800 degrees and 1200 degrees - I'm not sure I'd go there on a plastic bumper cover.

I've done it. Use the Low setting and keep the gun at least a foot away from the bumper.
 
I took the stickers off both cars yesterday (4 HOV on the Volt, 3 HOV plus the EV parking sticker on the LEAF). Six came off quite easily, but one was a Son of a Bitch!

The six that came off easily, the plastic sheeting that made up the top layer of the sticker pretty much separated from the adhesive, but not so much that I was left with a "VOID" imprint on the bumpers. Instead I was left with a white patch that was pretty much everything except the printing (which appeared to be reverse printed on the back of the plastic sheeting). This residue I hit up with some Goof Off, and it came off relatively easily. I followed this with a spot wash of the area with soapy (car wash) water.

The one sticker that was a S.O.A.B was the smaller HOV sticker on the back of the LEAF, and on it the plastic sheeting would not separate from the adhesive at all. Plus the Goof Off had zero effect on the plastic. So I started to scrape it off with a fingernail; then got frustrated with the pace and went to a utility knife blade. The latter mostly worked OK, but I did end up jacking up my paint a tiny bit. I covered those boo-boos with a GB country sticker. If I had it to do over again, I probably would have left any sticker giving me the slightest resistance in place.

Fading around the stickers was about what I had expected - somewhat noticeable, but not to the point that it would be obvious if you didn't know where to look.
 
Wasn't planning on it.

Heck, the long useless (expired in 2011) yellow stickers are still on the rear bumper cover of my 06 Prius. The front one was removed by a body shop when the had to repaint half of my front bumper cover after my dad got into a minor accident when he'd borrowed my car.
 
Just removed the ones off my eGolf. I bought a cheap ($15 + tax) heat gun from Harbor Freight. I put it in the "low" setting and made sure the surface of the sticker didn't get hotter than I could touch with my bare hands. I warmed it up to about 100-120 F, picked up one corner with my fingernail, and peeled it slowly, re-warming the exposed part of the adhesive surface.

That caused a pattern of "VOID" left behind, but I had a can of "3M Adhesive Remover" in one of my garage cabinets which I used to remove them.

There appears to be no sun fading after 44 months, but my car is garaged both at home and at work, so my car has spent little time in direct sunlight. I won't know for sure until the car is fully detailed and I can see it in the bright sunshine. It's gloomy and rainy right now.
 
Well, my yellow carpool decals are still on our 2002 Prius. Seemed too much work to take them off, and no real need to.

For my 2017 Leaf did want the extended red HOV Decals, so took some of the tips suggested above. Got a razor blade to help start at the edges, pliers, and a helpful wife to direct the hot air from a hair dryer to remove the top layer. (Note: Don’t work to slowly or you may try the helper’s patience). Of course cleaned/washed the area first to get any dust and dirt off.

Had planned to get some “Goof Off or Gunck Off” or try the Borox paste to remove the underlining “Void” printing, but got stared before I had purchased them. Ended up just cleaning with soap and water, drying well, leaving the underlying “void” lettering, and sticking the new red decals right on top were the old ones where located (have to use a good eye and not rush). Made sure not to create any air bubbles under the decal and consistently pressed down the edges several times to ensure a good seal. WALA and I was done.

The red decals didn’t look as bad as I thought they would as the brake lights and tail lights were matching red too.
 
smkettner said:
Never put mine on. Never had a consistent need for them. They expired sitting in the glove box.

My commute is short enough that I don't need them, plus if I did use the short stretch of HOV lane available to me, I'd have to exit at the next opening in the double yellows anyway.

But on my days off, the few times I was able to take advantage of them, it was worth putting up with the ugliness.
 
When I get the new purple stickers I’m considering using the 3M film underneath that a lot of Tesla owners use. Yes risk of theft but I park in a garage mostly.
 
On my Ioniq I did not bother with the stickers. My eGolf came with them so I mounted them on some magnetic sign material and kept them in the glove compartment. I really have no need for the HOV lanes. In fact I rarely drive on freeways these days.
 
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