Remove PPF from hood vinyl - any tips?

[w.gil2024]

Hey guys, new (to me) dark horse owner here. The car I bought was covered head to toe in PPF, but done poorly. Orange peeled and bubbles everywhere. I've managed to get the PPF off of the body with relative ease, however the hood decal is also PPF'd and it's been a slow, chipping, painful process. I bought a cheap steamer off of amazon and so far it's been helping but it's still slow and tedious. Any tips on what to do or if there is a better way? Some have suggested a heat gun or hair dryer but I'm worried about also damaging the hood decal so I've been sticking to steam and my thumbnail/fingernails.

I'm trying to post pictures but they won't upload. So I'm going to drop an imgur link to show yall my progress. I've got the passenger side completely off, but the driver's side and middle are just a pain.

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[LouG]

My PPF guy used a heat gun, but, as you say, the decal is the issue. You could try on a small section to see what happens.

 

[2BigPups]

Decal with PPF off, new decal installed.

 

[BimmerDriver]

Seems to me that since the PPF is relatively new, it should peel off in one piece, not chipped off in little segments. That sucks.

I would use a heat gun or hair dryer, and use extreme caution around the edges of the decal, working from the inside/out.

That's all theoretical, because in practice, I don't have enough patience to actually do all of that, and would likely rip everything off and just leave it alone.

I am not a PPF fan. Had it on several cars, and sure, it does protect well, but I don't like the look. Plus issues like this.

A former coworker of mine had old PPF on his car and after several years it had faded and yellowed and could not be easily removed. He took it to a shop and had them do it for him at great expense. I would think/hope that any reputable PPF installer who has been in business for a while would have the experience to do it.

 

[w.gil2024]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah I did consider using a heat gun. It seems there is a point where the PPF goes from too brittle (cracking) to a little too malleable, which also causes rips and tears. I've managed to get the left and right decals free of PPF, working on the center one now and so far steam does seem to be the answer. It's just a slow process that requires a lot of .patience. This is where I'm at so far.

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