spiral04

I am planning on running at the track and was wondering whether anyone had used or know if it's OK to use the self-adhesive transparent contact paper normally found in Home Depot with wallpaper. Will it damage the paint? I put a small piece on and let it set over the weekend and it peeled right off, but I want to make sure and not screw up my paint. I know I can use the blue painters tape.

slvr76

Using self-adhesive transparent contact paper should not hurt your paint. Forum member Sperkins uses this all the time. I believe his method has been dubbed as the Corvette body condom

95jersey

I have been using it for 2 years now at EVERY event. It works fantastic, leaves little residue, and the front of my car is show room perfect. What makes it so great is the thickness of the contact paper. I can take a real beating. Make sure you start higher on the nose/hood and work your way down, so the overlaps cover eachother, or it will tear from the wind. If you apply it right, it will last an entire weekend.

You want the transparent contact paper, it leaves the least residue. The only downside is soap and water will not remove all of the residue. You need a cleaner, like bug a tar or something to assist. But any drawbacks are far outweight by it's benefit.

It does look a little funny though when you pull up in line with this big condom on your car, but hey, it's your car and YOU paid for it.

VetteDrmr

Clear Wal Mart shelf paper works great, doesn't leave much (if any) residue (unless it rains, then get the stuff off!), is easy to find and pretty tough.

I used the carpet protector tape ONE TIME, then spent three days trying to get all the adhesive off. Adhesive remover, rubbing compound, and swirl remover finally, FINALLY, got it off.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

AlwaysInBoost

does anyone have any brand names for this stuff or places where its in stock?

Thanks

RedLS6

I had the leading edge of a piece of contact paper lift up about an inch at 140mph. The edge was near my headlight, on the front of the hood. When the leading edge lifted, the wind caused it to flap against the paint. The pictures below are the result of the contact paper beating against the paint. I suspect some fine grit dirt may also have gotten onto the sticky side of the paper as I drove around, as it was a very windy day. This could have contributed to the pitting. Those scratches were in the clear coat, and about 90% of them buffed out. Some of the pit marks did not buff out.

Make sure that the contact paper adheres to the paint in all places, if you use it. One problem I had was that I had just waxed the car, and the paper did not adhere as well as it would have if I had stripped the wax off beforehand.

I only use race tape now; takes a little longer to apply, but it sticks, and the residue is much easier to remove.





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spiral04

I found it in the Wallpapering section in home depot. It looks like a wrapping paper roll.

AverageVetteNut

I have heard of a few people using this stuff on their cars, and was told that as long as you don't leave it on for more than a week or so, it's easy to take off and such. They DID mention, as someone else did, that if it gets wet or stays on too long that it can be a pain.

As spiral04 mentioned... Home Depot or Lowes should have it in the wallpaper section in roll form.

I might look into it for some protection when travelling this summer... even just to cover the nose and windshield when towing.

95jersey

This CAN happen on the edges of the paper. I use race tape to tape around all the edges for extra security. Any exposed edge will be helped with some race tape and you should be fine. If you have a problem, just come in and tear off the portion that came apart.

It's not a perfect solution, but it's benefits far outway the negatives. I find racetape to thin to provide the same level of protection that contact paper does.

AlwaysInBoost

thanks for the tip.
I have to go to Home Depot tonight anyways so I'll just add this to the list.

Datawiz

I've used it on the sides of my '08 Z for the past 17 months. I left it on for 6 weeks this past stint and it came off with zero issues.

Make sure you wax before applying and try not to leave any bubbles. Use a credit card or some other piece of stiff plastic to smooth the bubbles out from under the contact paper. Also, a hair dryer or heat gun helps you mold it around the odd shaped areas.

R Mackow

Contact paper! Walmart! Squeeze out the air bubbles and make sure the edges are down.
Quit using the expensive blue tape last year!

UstaB-GS549

I had same experience with carpet protector. I didn't think I was ever going to get the residue off.

I gave up on all that now.

71corv

Buy mine at Walmart. I usually put the blue painter's tape over the places where the clear over laps.

Gene

sperkins

Yep that's me. I used it for an entire season last year with great results. I usually only use it on the hood since I tape up the fenders and quarters. I've never had a problem with it coming loose since I tuck it under the nose bra and there are no exposed corners to the wind. Through all the searching (and I searched them all), I found that by far the best contact paper to use was at Walmart. The brand name is Con-tact and it's 18" wide x 24' long. The roll itself is wrapped in cellophane with a red label on it that reads:
CLEAR
TRANSPARENT
.
CON-TACT BRAND

I've never had a problem with residue that was diffucult to take off. Usually, it only leaves a waxy mark in some places, but it comes off with a quick wipe of any type of wax (even the spray on and wipe off kind). I've even left it on for a full 2 weeks between track events with no problem. Best 5 bucks I ever spent.

Here's the best picture I can find of it online: