UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Removing the bump strips on your polo will improve the looks as it smooths the look on the side of the car. This is also a very simple to process as the strips are simply stuck on with double sided foam tape, so hair dryer at the ready and here goes!

These are the required items:

Hairdryer
Old credit card
An intensive tar remover
White spirit/meths (optional, but worth it if you have any).
Lots of time - give yourself a couple of hours just in case...

FAQ:

Q: I have a 6N2/Mk5, can I remove my bump strips like this?
A: You can, however the 6N2/MK5 has bump strip lugs what are attached to the door and when removed the door is left with a visible hole from where the strip used to be attached.

Q: I've heard that the glue which attaches these can pull off the paint, is this so?
A: This can happen, unfortuantly there is no way to tell wether the paint will pull off until the strip is off. This is the risk you take following this guide, I do not take responsibility for what happens to your car while following this guide.

1. Take the hairdryer and heat the end of the bump strip, this will warm up the glue and cause it to become sticky.

2. Once the glue is sticky enough, prise the credit card under the bumpstrip so it pulls away the glue from the car. This is a careful process as you don't want to tear the foam and leave the nasty glue stuck to the bodywork of your car. Remember to keep heating the strip, otherwise the above will happen.



3. Keep warming the glue strip and using the credit card (or alternatively you can use you hand to pull the strip away, but I found that this caused more of the glued foam to tear and stick to the bodywork) until the whole strip is removed.



4. Now that the strip is removed, you may have noticed the build up of grime and other substances along the edge of where the bumpstrip used to be. Also you may have some of the glue foam strip still stuck to your bodywork. To remove the glue, reheat it so it become sticky again then take the credit card and scrape the remaining off. You now have to remove the build up of mould and such from the paintwork.



5. I took some “Autoglym Intensive Tar remover” and rubbed it into the grime and glue lines. This removed the majority and I was left with the nasty thin patches of glue.



6. To remove this, I took a rag, dipped it in some white spirit, then rubbed it into the existing glue. This loosened it off from the bodywork which allowed me to scrape the last bits off with the credit card.


Your done!

Total cost = £7 for the autoglym stuff as I had the others around the house.

Before:



After:

Nice guide mate

what if you just peel it back slightly and spray glue remover and slowly prise it off?

would that be more effective than heating?

Gotta say mine was much easier, depends on your luck really.

I just peeled mine off (slowly) and the backing came off with it

This is a pretty easy mod to do and a nice guide to go with it, however if you are thinking of removing both sides have a lot of spare time on hand for sitting on your arse afterwards picking all the tiny chunks of glue off. it really is a pain in the arse but worth it in the end

Yeah it's a simple change but a good improvement to looks. I'll uploads those pics onto photobucket now they are lost.

Doing mine tomorrow!!!! Wasn't quite saure how the strip was secured to the vehicle, awesome guid, many thnaks.

yeah im doing mine on monday, and take the seats out to shampoo inside if someone bloody tells me how to on my other topic lol.
just abit worries about removing paint too? obviouslt the glue is alot weaker than the paint... or you would hope so

Good luck with it

Are there any improvements I can do to this guide people?

na, its spot on mate=]
really descriptive, good pics, and plenty of them!
good work!

I did one of mine earlier today. Unfortunately I think I was a little too quick and in places the foam glue stuff is still on the car, whats the best way to get this off?
Also, at the top of where the strip goes it looks like there is a flaky line of paint, is this normal?
Thanks,
Dan

Step 4 and 5

Also, the paint can bubble over time and unfortuanty this can happen.

They're looking good now Thanks Darren!

took mine off today and last night ! best thing i used was rip the old ones off first ! you know you may cause paint damage but you will be well ready for that if your thinking of doing this ! after wards remove what is left by rubbing hard with dry cloth then soak rag with thinners and wipe over apply t cut then use a paint striping heat gun thingy majigy to dry t cut fast then run with dry cloth again ! then repeat with thinners and t cut in the order mentioned above untill done ! i tried many tactics but this worked the best ! hope that helps ... jamie

yeah did this other day to mine,Masssive difference really easy aswell
i just used meths then polished over results gooooooooooooood.

Rob