How to remove Sikaflex

[RTB]

Not a request for information, more my experiences of removing a large amount of Sikaflex from my car bodywork.

I looked online and the recommendations for removing Sikaflex ranged from various solvents, to scrapers and razor blades. I didn't fancy any of those options and instead went for the often recommended toffee wheel, the efficacy of which I was sceptical about given the thickness of Sikaflex I would have to get through..

So, how did I get Sikaflex all over my car in the first place? Well, until recently, the Sikaflex was doing a brilliant job holding the rear spoiler onto my Mk6 Fiesta ST, that is until some scrote decided to rip the spoiler off. I recovered the spoiler (which itself needs repair) and looked with dismay at the volume of gloop that someone had used to afix the spoiler:



First I loosely masked off around the Sikaflex just to protect the paint work from my usual hamfistedness. As you can see there was plenty of it on the car. The blue is the paint off the inside of the spoiler.....

So to get it off I went onto ebay and bought the first toffee wheel I found:



Cost about 7 quid with postage, and went straght on my drill.



Now this is an after use pic, so essentially about half the wheel did both sides of the car, if you've got any more than twice the amount of Sikaflex that is on the first pic get more than one wheel, they wear down very quickly (and coat absolutely everything in tiny rubber shavings).

Now I experimented with the technique and found that keeping the drill at about half speed, keeping it moving in a small circular motion and not running the wheel for more than about 15 seconds at a time was the way to go. It gets very hot, so take your time otherwise I'm sure it would mark the paint. Another tip would be to keep a cloth handy and wipe the surface after every pass so you can see what you're doing.

It took about 20 minutes per side and after I finished I gave the area a good wash and then went over it with a small amount of T-Cut and a DA polisher to remove the small amount of residue. The results were pretty good, better than I expected:



I'm surprised that I managed to get all the gloop off without damaging the paint, so it can be done. Now I have to decide whether or not to repair and refit the spoiler.....

Anyway, I hope someone finds this useful.

[Penelope Stopit]

Excellent post
The toffee wheel does a sweet job. I had never heard of a toffee wheel

[paintman]

Indeed.
Known by various names, normally for removing stripes, decals etc & whilst I've seen them I've never seen one used so a very interesting post.
3M's version: http://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-produ...

[pixelatedJH]

Funny you should post this - I went through the exact same process with the spoiler on my Fiesta a couple of weeks ago. Mine was stuck on with tiger seal, and I would've been there all day were it not for the toffee wheel.

[RTB]

It was quite a satisfying job, not as satisfying as kicking the scrote who vandalised my car up and down the road, but still.