I am working on the reproduction of the XR7 wood grain dash fascia panels. I have found a company that thinks they can duplicate the original wood grain with a new process they have developed. I need to send them the steel parts so they can apply the new finish. I have several samples of the original that are in horrible shape so removing the finish will be no great loss. The question is how do I remove the vinyl overlay?
Have any of you found an efficient way to do this?
Have you tried a heat gun on low and tried to scrape with a plastic scraper?
That sort of worked in the driver side panel but the passenger side is unaffected.
Try a rubber decal eraser drill attachment from Griot’s garage. That might work.
Try the stuff they tell you not to use on vinyl siding 
. E.g. organic solvents, degreasing agents. Seems acetone or ipa soaking can break down the adhesive, followed by a plastic razor blade.
You normally clean and prep PVC pipe with acetone prior to bonding. The bonding agent has acetone and MEK in it. You can read about the tricks for removing vinyl wrap from cars and boats. The dash pieces have the advantage that there’s nothing but steel underneath, no paint or fiberglass to protect.
Organic just means hydrocarbon-based 
Any idea what happened to the WCCC ‘stickers’?
While the stickers were nice I would really like to get much closer to the original wood grain.
I used stripper and it is turning it into something gooey but I hope there is a better way.
Acetone = organic solvent = hydrocarbon based solvent
Goo Gone seems to work well on sticky residue and may be worth a quick test.
Trying acetone next
I have some industrial stuff that might work. Heavy degreaser, tar remover(what I get our decals off trucks with) and brake cleaner. If any one of those or a combination of them will not get it off you need to get mechanical
Who ever said Acetone, you won. Amazing. It practically comes off in a sheet. I could not believe it.
Given that guess what I found under the vinyl? Our friend rust. Apparently just like a vinyl top, you can get enough water there to start some rust.
There used to be a spray product to remove vinyl woodgrain from station wagons. It worked pretty well at lifting up fairly fresh vinyl, I got some at an auto paint supply store 30 years ago for prepping my 72 Montego wagon.
I suspect the original vinyl wasn’t entirely waterproof in the first place.
https://omnigloves.com/2019/10/31/are-vinyl-gloves-waterproof/#:~:text=Vinyl%20gloves%20(also%20known%20as,are%20waterproof%20–%20to%20a%20degree.
As it aged it likely embrittled and got worse. My faux walnut steering wheel center is bubbled and crunchy. For some reason the dash pieces fared better.
Blessed are the reproduction of the XR7 wood grain dash fascia panels developers.
These are badly needed!
Any chance you’re going to produce the camera case for Eliminators
I have looked at it and I think I have a way to do it. I need someone to look at the XR7 and Eliminator fascia that goes around the instruments and see just how close they are (is the back pebble the only difference. I also need to know how many other items need to be done to create the set. Since I don’t own an Eliminator or have one close to take apart it will be a challenge.
One other consideration, the market for these is mostly people who are converting XR7 to Eliminator. How big is that market?
I’ve got two to do. Xr-7 to Eliminator. Trouble is, the Eliminators didn’t have a clock to my knowledge. Other than that, the sheet metal on the left side should be the same. I want to keep the clock in my cases and the xr-7 gauges…but who knows how others would want to proceed. This is what happens when you dye woodgrain black. I also stripped the paint off the rings, steel wool polished the steel and matte cleared them
Eliminator did have the clock. What else needs to be black pebble?
