Vinyl Remover on Sprinter Van – Strip! (Not THAT kind of Strip, silly!)

This article will give you the Top Five Vinyl Remover Options for your Sprinter Van.  After researching for months, we finally came up with the top five, so you don’t have to do the legwork.

The last one is going to knock your socks off, and trust me, if you want to know how to remove vinyl wrap adhesive, you will have an answer by the end of this article!

First, a bit of a backstory:  Our precious Van Adieu came to us soiled and half plastered with vinyl stickers.  In her previous life, she was clearly a heating & cooling company’s van.  But not anymore!  She has been given a new life, and a new purpose, as we say Farewell Comfort Zone, Hello Adventure!  So, the first thing we needed to do was get her looking like a little bit less of an eyesore.  They say beauty is more than skin deep (let’s hope so!)  We researched many vinyl removal tools and many vinyl lettering removal chemicals, and then experimented (a lot!!), and here is what we found out (so you don’t have to!)

Vinyl Wraps on Vehicles

Vehicle Vinyl Wraps are made of a strong adhesive on one side, with a print on the other side.  This allows companies to advertise and promote their product or company as a moving billboard.  The wraps also contain plasticizers, which allow the wrap to have flexibility and be printed to the customer’s requests.  These vinyl wraps are beautiful and effective marketing tools, but really inconvenient if you want to remove and old vehicle wrap.  After searching the internet and asking experts, we determined how best to remove vinyl wrap, and vinyl wrap adhesive from a Sprinter Van.

MLC with Vinyl Lettering on Sprinter Van – we had “eat” left from “heating”

MLC with Vinyl Lettering on Sprinter Van – we had “eat” left from “heating”

Vinyl Remover Techniques

1. Pay Someone Else

Annnnnnnd done!  How easy is that?  Right?  Well, we will be honest, the idea of paying someone else to remove this hard to remove vinyl lettering did cross our minds!  But, given the fact that most people actually expect to be paid for their work (shocking!), we decided we weren’t even going to look into the option of someone else being our vinyl remover. I mean, how hard can it be to remove vinyl wrap from a Sprinter Van?

We can do this!  We can deal with some vinyl removal.  Right?  If you choose to look into this option, then it will likely cost you a pretty penny (or thousands).

2.  Goo Gone

We did our research in how to remove old, cracked vehicle wraps.  Goo Gone can be found on Amazon.   Goo Gone Pro-Power works on all your industrial adhesives including caulk, grease, tar and paint.  The rumor is that this works on the removal of vinyl as well.  So, we tried it out.   Long story short, this did not work as well for us.  Perhaps our vinyl removal on our Sprinter Van failed because the vinyl stickers had been on the van too long (it had been several years), or perhaps this was just crazy strong superhero vinyl that was stubborn and refused to be removed.  Either way, this didn’t work for us.

3.  Heat Gun

So, vinyl is plastic, right?  There are many people that swear that if you buy a heat gun like the one you can find on Amazon, that you just simply warm the vinyl up and then use something sharp to slide it off.  We tried.  Legitimately, we tried.  So many people swear by this, and I think it might be appropriate if you have vinyl decals that have not spent a decade on the vehicle.  Again, we just had stubborn vinyl.  Like, that-donkey-wont-move STUBBORN vinyl.  So, this little parlor trick didn’t work for us, either.

4.  Acetone

This is a method that some people use, but frankly, its not a good option in and of itself.  This may help with some “ghosting” letters afterwards.  Some people have had success with using this to take off the actual vinyl.  We had absolutely no luck with this!  It’s a cheap option though, so you might want to try it just to see if it would work.

Todd working on removing the vinyl lettering

5. Amazing, Awesome, Incredible, (Totally Worth the Money) Vinyl Remover Tool

The story goes like this.  Todd used to work in the automotive industry a long time ago as a salesman.  He would of course, try to sell his wares from shop to shop.

Usually, he was met with “no thanks, we don’t need any of whatever it is you are selling, thank you very much.”  Todd, politely would say, sure, I understand…..but…..hey, do you want that vinyl sticker removed from that bumper of the vehicle you are working on?

With perked ears and squinted eyes, the guys would always say…..absolutely.  Without a moment to spare Todd would pull out his MBX Vinyl Zapper tool, spend literally 20 seconds using it on the bumper sticker and it would be gone.  Poof.  Just like that.  The guys always bought two or three.

This tool is hand held and runs on household current and spins at 3,200 rpm. This vinyl version has toothy wheel made from a rubber compound that delicately but enthusiastically removes vinyl away from clean metal, glass,  or fiberglass.  Most importantly?  It does all of this without damaging the finish!

From reports I’ve read this vinyl tool sill even remove reflective tape and any adhesive you can think of –  vinyl lettering, decals, graphics and pinstripes. And more importantly, it doesn’t ruin the finish of the van’s paint, because it doesn’t “sand” the van, or create heat that would ruin the paint!

Still don’t believe me?  Check this video below out!!!

The details say that you can use each wheel for 90 minutes, but you may be able to get a bit more time than that.  It also says that it will remove somewhere between 30-50 square feet per hour.  Replacement wheels are only $24.50.

This vinyl remover tool is incredible.  INCREDIBLE.  The video below shows exactly how easy it is to remove the vinyl from the car, without damaging any paint.  In fact, it also removes that ghosting  that happens (not the kind when the boy doesn’t call you after a date, but the kind where you can still sort of see the letters because they were on the van for so long.)  Check it out for yourself! It’s expensive, at around $400.00, but its well worth it!  And, if you don’t need it after, you could sell it! 🙂

Sprinter Van with Vinyl Remover Completed!

Conclusion

Check out the pic above!  That is the SAME VAN, PEOPLE!!!!!  The exact same Sprinter Van as the first image.

The MBX Electrical Vinyl Zapper Tool is absolutely the best option as a vinyl remover.  I understand that it can be a bit pricey, but when you are dealing with the removal of a lot of vinyl, in high and low and hard to reach places, this tool is simply a necessity.  (I’m sure you could even resell it after you used it, if you never plan on using it again.)  Any way you look at it, I can’t stress highly enough how amazing this tool is to remove vinyl.

Let us know if you used it!  Or, if you used something different that worked, let us know that in the comments section below, too!  We want to hear your stories!

Adieu for now!