Removing stickers from alloy wheels

[Watchman]

Bagged a decent set of alloy 700c wheels on eBay for my daughter's bike but they came with red stickers which won't work with the colour scheme of the bike. They don't peel very well either, the surface comes off like thin paper, leaving the sticky residue underneath.

Any proven solvents or techniques that will remove this without damaging the anodizing? I usually use carburettor cleaner on bare metal surfaces but that will strip powder coating and paint, so I don't want to risk it damaging the anodizing.

Thanks.

[Robbidoo]

Start with nail polish remover if there is any around, or get some IPA.

[Watchman]

Robbidoo said:

Start with nail polish remover if there is any around, or get some IPA.

Good call - daughter will have loads of that. Thanks.

[CoolC]

A bit of heat on the sticker with a heat gun or hairdryer. Not much, just enough to soften it.

Also peel slowly back on itself.

Then as above to remove any little bits of residue left.

[wobert]

Just a note regarding anodising.

It isn’t a surface plating treatment it’s more of a material treatment that actually penetrates the top 60/80 microns of the aluminium.

Plating typically sits on the surface and where’s to the material it’s plated to. It can be removed by mechanical or chemical means.

Anodising becomes part of the material itself, so unless you erode the material it won’t “wear off”, but you could damage the aluminium surface that is anodised.

[Herr Schnell]

Hairdryer, razor blade and AF road tar remover to finish worked for me.

[gazza285]

I use a wallpaper steamer to heat up the decals first, never failed yet.

[Watchman]

Heat, yes I'll give that a go first.

Anodising, also yes... Thanks. I was aware it was less of a coat and more of a chemical change but I still wasn't sure how it'd react to the carb cleaner. It's very aggressive stuff. But thanks for the reminder.

[Barchettaman]

Just did this yesterday!

Gently peeled them back & cleaned up the residue with acetone on a microfibre cloth, with a bit of scraping from a fingernail for the bigger bits.

[Mr Ted]

For future reference White Spirit is best for the sorts of glues used on labels and sticky tape!

[Fastpedeller]

Glues..... Spent about 1.5 hours getting some stickers off a pair of glass shelves bought from B&Q - It took longer to get the glue off than it did the mount the shelf brackets on the wall
I tried, water, white spirit, petrol, acetone. WD40 panelwipe - you name it I tried it! In teh end a razor blade followed up by gaffer tape to pull off the remains. I've never encountered anything like it.