DIY Clear Tape and clear PVC film minor mods

[newtonsfirstlaw]

Originally Posted by NoCO2

What kind of tape did you use? If I had to guess I would say it's just clear plastic, packing tape from the pictures, but I just want to be sure before I use it on my car. My car has been in a few accidents by previous owners so there are large gaps that need to be sealed around the head lamps and near the rear fender. I just want to be sure that it will not pull paint or dissolve the clear coat on the paint before I do this because I know some kinds of tape have an acid in them that can damage things such as paper.

The tape is heavy duty construction type plastic tape from a hardware store.

I have not tried to remove the tape, so I don't know what the effects are. If you go ahead with it, assume the worst - that it will strip the paint. I don't know that, but that was my assumption going into it.

The whole reason I could do this was because I have a cheap car and I don't care about resale value. In fact, considering the fuel I'll be saving over driving a standard, unmodified car in a standard way, the payback period is 5 years. If fuel prices go higher in the next 5 years, obviously, the payback period will be shorter. e.g., if they double, it's 2.5 years. If they triple, it's 1.7 years.

[NoCO2]

Newtonsfirstlaw: thanks for the info. I will test a small corner of the car that is already in bad shape to see if it does any damage after leaving it there for a while before I continue further. I will let you know how it turns out.

[jwxr7]

My car was in a wreck before I bought it too. Many big gaps in the front so I've been using "duck" high performance packing tape for a year now without issue. It might leave goo behind but it comes off with wd-40 or "goo gone". It will pull paint that isn't sound underneath though.