How to remove stickers without surface damage

[Alex]

Hello

I just wanted to share a technique I found that works well at removing stickers from the Tower Macs, should work on any mac surface actually — olive oil.

Pour enough olive oil on the sticker so that it can soak up some. Then after a few minutes, use a non-abresaive cloth to remove the sticker. Do so by rubbing the sticker off. The olive oil is excellent at dissolving the sticky glue material that the stickers uses for adhering to the surface of your mac or any material really.

Add more olive oil when needed as it will help further dissolve any remaining sticky glue from the sticker. Eventually it will all come off. Only a little pressure is needed and some patience. The ordeal should take only a few minutes and will leave the original surface unharmed.

As a final step use a clean non-abresive moist cloth and a little dish washing detergent to clean off the olive oil.

That's all. I hope it helps.

Kind regards

—Alex 

 

[aplmak]

Another thing I used to use on cash registers and copy machines to get the sticky residue off was WD40... Works great.. On sticky left over surfaces just spray some WD40 and let it soak for a little bit.. then I use some paper towel and rub it off.. WD40 also won't ruin plastics..

 

[Unknown_K]

Citrus Power GOO GONE is what I used.

 

[unity]

I just use rubbing alcohol. It also removes sharpie marks.

 

[Byrd]

For large stickers, another vote for WD40, left overnight with light heat (hair drier or heat gun set to low) when you peel away at the sticker.

For small stickers/funk/residue, I have access to a medical dressing called Remove, made by Smith and Nephew. It's made for removing residue left by dressings on skin, works great and not aggressive like some adhesive removers can be.

 

[AlpineRaven]

I second that - WD40. Depend what kind of surface I also use eucalyptus oil as well.

Cheers

AP

 

[james_w]

The other day I used baby wipes to remove some stickers and it worked really well!

 

[MikeatOSX]

I always use a hair drier to remove any stickers. Not too hot and slowly I remove them.

 

[Alex]

Lots of very interesting approaches. I appreciate everyone's contributions, they are invaluable for anyone who is confronting this problem. Much appreciated!

 

[hagan]

Rather than olive oil, I use mineral oil (not mineral spirits) to remove sticker residue. Just as Alex explained when using olive oil, mineral oil also takes time to soak in, as well as a bit of patience and persistence keep rubbing until all the sticker residue is liquified by the oil. For me, mineral oil has always worked in about 5 minutes or less, and has never harmed any surface I cleaned.

As the final step, I prefer to use Windex, rather than dish soap, to remove the oil I put on the surface.

My complete set of Apple product cleaning "tricks" consists of Windex, mineral oil, and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers when all else fails. Used lightly and carefully, the  Magic Erases can do a wonderful job removing stubborn stains from polycarbonate surfaces and rubberized areas, such as is found on the bottom of a Mac mini. But be gentle, or you'll rub off material from the original surface or you'll scratch of the glossy finish, leaving a dull, lusterless appearance.

 

[Alex]

Hi Hagan

I am glad you mentioned this alternative oil, mineral oil.

I have an old Sony CRT with some pretty stubborn gluey substance that I can't remove with olive oil. I  will try your method. Also, as I work on an old iMac G3 333, it too has some sticker residue that I found was dry and the olive oil is unable to get into, even after 24 hours.

Thank you so much for sharing what you have in your arsenal for those cleanups.

If I may, I also found "Plastx" to be incredibly easy to use and perfect for returning a nice shine to those post iMac G3 machines that are made of polycarbonate. As an example I got an iMac G3 recently and it had some paint drops on the blue housing so I started with using an eraser and very light rubbing and was semi-successful — not all the paint was removed.

I did rub slowly and lightly but then after thinking about it, I added a few drops of isopropyl alcohol and let it 'soak' in for a mere few seconds and returned to rubbing the affected area. To my surprise the mix of iso and eraser practically dissolved the paint off in seconds, only a wet milky material remained which I simply wiped off. It may have been drops of latex paint not oil paint but I can't say for sure.

After thoroughly cleaning the area I did find that a light smoky film as it were remained so I added a few drops of Plastx and lightly rubbed the area in a light circular motion and this eliminated the smoky appearance and returned the textured polycarbonate of the iMac G3 to a beautiful shine that I am confident is an original appearance.

Plastx can really bring polycarbonate back to life. It won't kill deep scratches but does return it do a marvelously rejuvenated appearance when used with caution and appropriately. By this I mean start light and slow and if nothing appears to happen then increase the duration and or pace and from time to time check how it is progressing.

Thanks again for documenting a summary of your methods and experiences.

I'll share some results with you here: https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/31288-imac-g3-333-battery-920-0980-a/?p=340850

 

[register]

Butter works very well in many cases, also. It is available in most places, convenient to apply, stays where it is supposed to stay and does no harm to plastics or your skin. Just apply onto the residues of a sticker and wait for one day, then rub off with a paper towel or cotton cloth.

 

[hagan]

Actually, I forgot to share my preferred plastic polish: Micro-Gloss. Here's their web site:

http://micro-surface.com/index.php/products-by-type/micro-gloss/micro-gloss-liquid-abrasive-type-1-cleaner-polish.html

What I especially like is that Micro-Gloss is in a water suspension, so when you're done polishing, it's easy to completely remove it from the polished surface. Some other polishes leave a wax and/or silicone residue.

If anyone tries it, let me know how you make out. And, let us know how it stacks up to other plastic polishes, such as Plastx.