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Thread: How To: Remove your airbag decals.

  1. #1
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    How To: Remove your airbag decals.

    I don't know why BMW saw fit to plaster those ugly airbag warnings all over the visors in the Z3, but I saw fit to remove them. This isn't a difficult project, nor it is particularly time consuming. However, I think there is a significant number of people that are interested in ditching those decals, and might be a little apprehensive about taking chemicals to their interior. If you are such a person, read on...

    Required tools:

    T25 Torx-driver
    Goof-off (1 can)
    Paper towels (many)
    Latex gloves (or the like)
    Tooth brush

    I. Remove the visors
    You could probably do all of this with the visors in place in the car, but why risk spilling chemicals on your interior when you can pull the visors out with 2 torx screws?

    Each visor is held in by a pair of T25 torx screws. The visors are "spring loaded", so it is slightly easier to remove the visors when they are half-way flipped down.



    II. Remove the decal
    Crack open your can of Goof-off (~$4 at Wal-Mart) and note that it has some extremely noxious vapors. Do NOT use this stuff in an enclosed space. Use it outdoors and wear your gloves when working with it. When you see what it does to the visors, you'll see why you don't want it on your skin.



    Splash a little Goof-off onto a clean paper towel and begin scrubbing the decal. After a couple scrubs, it will begin to disolve and smear. Switch to a clean paper towel every so often when you get too much decal carnage on it.



    After a little scrubbing, you're going to notice that the vinyl on the visor is pulling away and wrinkling up. You're probably going to want to start cursing me and wondering why I would suggest you ruin your visors, but relax. The vinyl will get wrinkled and stretched out, but will tighten back up after several hours.



    Once you've cleared most of the decal off with paper towels, you'll probably have a bunch of little specks that won't come off. This is where you use your tooth brush. Dunk the brush in the can of Goof-off and scrub those spots off.

    At this point, you should have a wrinkled, smelly visor that's missing an ugly decal.

    III. Let the visor dry
    You can't do any more with the visor until it dries up and the vinyl shrinks, so set it some place that is well-ventilated and check back in on it after 6-8 hours. I did mine at night and they were ready to go by morning.


    (This is after around 3 hours of drying. You can see it is tightening back up.)

    IV. Reinstall
    Bolt the visors back in just like they came out, and take note of how nice it is not to have those gaudy yellow/white decals all over your classy ride.
    Last edited by Vinci; 07-28-2015 at 12:00 PM. Reason: Removed senseless conditioning step.

  2. #2
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    Nice write up! I've been meaning to get rid of those decals for a while.

    How'd you come across this? And, how'd you react at first when it started to wrinkle your visors?

  3. #3
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    I read about the wrinkling in some notes on a site I came across when looking to do this myself. Had I not read about the wrinkling thing, I would have been freaking out. That's the biggest reason I wrote this. It's not difficult to scrub off a decal, but it would be very easy to panic about the wrinkling if you didn't know about it ahead of time.

  4. #4
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    Ah. I'll definitely get this done before Bimmerfest.

  5. #5
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    Oh, nice, I was thinking about removing mine today.


    Where did you buy those bottles of leatherique?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sound Of Speed
    Where did you buy those bottles of leatherique?
    They came in the 32 ounce kit from Autogeek.com.

  7. #7
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    great write up, however I don't know that the oils and stuff in the Leatherique are really doing anything for the visor. Maybe try 303 Aerospace or something afterwards, to clean and UV protect the vinyl.
    997 Carrera 2S..the choice of 2 out of 3 Top Gear presenters.

  8. #8
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    Hey I just realized that your visors are fold-down only. Mine detach on one side and can swivel to block sun from the sides.

    Is this another update on the 00+ Coupes, like the chrome trim, door sills, etc.?

  9. #9
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    Those are Roadster visors. Only Coupes have swivel visors.
    997 Carrera 2S..the choice of 2 out of 3 Top Gear presenters.

  10. #10
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    Thanks for the write up, you just reminded me that I need to get off my arse and do this!
    '02 Steel Grey/Black M Coupe

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  11. #11
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    Thanks for the tips. Looks good.... I want to do this too.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by IslandS52
    great write up, however I don't know that the oils and stuff in the Leatherique are really doing anything for the visor. Maybe try 303 Aerospace or something afterwards, to clean and UV protect the vinyl.
    I don't know what the Leatherique does for the vinyl, but it looked much nicer after the treatment, so I mentioned it in the writeup. 303 might give you the same results, but I am always leary of using protectants like that on the interior because they always seem to make things overly glossy.

  13. #13
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    I have Leatherique too. Great stuff for leather, but if you have not tried it, get some 303. Its' not greasy like the other stuff and it has UV protection in it.
    997 Carrera 2S..the choice of 2 out of 3 Top Gear presenters.

  14. #14
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    Nice write-up Vinci. The only thing I would add is that when I removed mine last year, the paper towels took forever. I went straight to a pot-scrubbing brush and it worked much quicker.

  15. #15
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    I just did mine it took all of 15 min, but 7 hours later I still have really bad wrinkles. I'll see how they are when I wake up.

    Chris

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by cngizbleevng
    the paper towels took forever.
    You're right, using a brush from the start would probably be easiest. The only brush I had on hand was that toothbrush, and that might have taken longer than the paper towels. I would think any larger firm nylon brush would cut some time off the project.

  17. #17
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    After I go f/i, i'm going to make another decal for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by thedaddy View Post
    thedaddy ties Obama to Ozzie Osbourne...........nails triple word score.

  18. #18
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    from airbag to funbag

    those have been around a while
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  19. #19
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    Props man!!
    The search box is awesome..try it!


  20. #20
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  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by LordoftheRoad View Post
    After I go f/i, i'm going to make another decal for it.

    I seem to be unable to find the eBay auction.

  22. #22
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    iv seen those with "this vehicle equipt with a "hemi"" but i have never seen that one before. . .

  23. #23
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    There used to be someone on eBay selling these when this thread was created.

  24. #24
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    To get all the adhesive off, it's best to scrub with the toothbrush very slowly.

  25. #25
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    I just did this a while back and the only thing I would add to the write-up is to make sure you do not overdoit with the Goof-off. I put too many drops on my visor and some of it leaked to the backside, slightly damaging the plastic trim around the mirror.

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