Old Masking Tape?

Question

I have a problem with masking tape. I painted my house partially and decided the colour was not dark enough. I stopped and got lazy and never removed the masking tape off the Windows for like a year. The windows had a lot of heat from the sun on them and when I finally decided to remove the tape from the windows and trim, it is like glues on. I can get like 70% of it off with a lot of sticky fingers in the end from peeling on it....and the 30% is like almost part of the trim now. Is there an easier way to get this stuff off?

Answer 1

3m adhesive remover- you can buy it in a spray can, spay ,let set a minute or two and wipe off. this stuff works miracles. test your paint but 95 percent of the time it does not harm the paint

Answer 2

Two things to try, one expensive, the other even more expensive. The cheaper one is acetone or methyl alcohol, available at place like Ace Hardware, Lowes, Home Depot and such. The problem, both of these will most likely damage the paint while dissolving th adhesive. The more expensive "Goo Gone" a yellow citrus smelling solvent which will take off residue from almost any kind of adhesive from almost any source, tape, labels, whatever. I have used Goo Gone on some painted surfaces and the paint was not damaged. Your mileage may vary as I have no idea what kind of paint you have and whether Goo Gone will attack it like it does adhesive residue. Be sure to run a test first in an unabtrusive area to determine if the paint will be damaged before indiscriminately slathering the stuff onto the tape residue. I checked the bottle I have, and verified the name is "Goo Gone." I find it hard to believe "Goof Off" is real (in an answer above me.) Gum Out might be for real, but the Gum Out I know of comes from my auto parts store and it says carburator cleaner on the can and I used it when I rebuit my carburator a while back to get the gunk out of the metering jets, which is why I had to rebuild the thing in the first place.

Answer 3

The best way to remove this old tape is with a product called Gum Out of Goof Off.
Just put in on the tape and with a towel rub lightly and the tape and the sticky backing with fall right off.

Answer 4

You're saying that some of the tape is on the trim, rather than on the glass?

For glass, razor blade scrapers and strong solvents rule. But Goof Off will take fully cured latex paint off and razor blades will ruin paint or trim. It's been said that you can soften masking tape residue with vegetable oil. Of course, vegetable oil will permanently stain flat painted walls.

Answer 5

Hi, First use a scraper that uses a razor blade, available at an auto parts store. Then you can use steel wool and glass cleaner. I know what your thinking, steel wool will not scratch glass. A very long time ago I worked in a car detail shop, steel wool is the trick for glass and chrome. Both glass and chrome are harder than steel wool. Finally, as your last step you can use glass cleaner and newspaper, it leaves less lint than papertowels and the ink hide very small scratches. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

First you need to scrape off as much of the masking tape as you can with a window scraper (they're cheap) then apply Goo Gone with a cloth. You're gonna need a lot of elbow grease unfortunately. Maybe your uncle could do it!

Answer 7

Break the tapes surface in a few spots with a knife or razorblade so the liquid can soak in.Try a good soak with turps. If this does not work then try one of the commercial gum removers.

Answer 8

use a razor blade and some laquer thinner