Yes. Painted panels, windows, and bumpers all take our standard vinyl, and outdoors it lasts 3 to 5 years before the print starts to fade. A car parked outside all day in a hot, sunny climate sits at the short end of that; one that lives in a garage sits at the long end.
Where it goes
| Surface | What to know |
|---|---|
| Painted panels and bumpers | Takes standard vinyl well once it's clean and free of wax. |
| Windows | The easiest surface there is. Stick it on the outside, facing out. |
| Unpainted textured plastic (some bumpers, trim, and mirror housings) | Textured, and often a hard-to-bond plastic. Choose High-Tack Stickers. |
| Fresh paint | Wait until the body shop says it has fully cured. |
Wax, polish, and ceramic coatings are made so that nothing sticks to the paint, and that includes stickers. Clean the spot with isopropyl alcohol first, and expect a ceramic-coated car to be a struggle for any sticker.
Putting it on
Clean the exact spot with isopropyl alcohol and let it dry. Work in the shade on a mild day, not on a panel that has been baking in the sun or one that's cold. Bumper Stickers and anything larger go on more easily with the hinge method or wet application; see how to apply a sticker so it stays on.
Car washes
Give a new sticker 24 hours before it gets wet and 48 hours before a brush or drive-through car wash. After that, regular washing is fine. At a self-serve pressure washer, keep the wand moving and never aim the jet at the sticker's edge: a jet aimed at an edge will lift any sticker.
Places to avoid
- Under the sweep of a windshield wiper, which drags across the sticker's edge every time it runs
- On windows that roll down, where the seal scrapes the sticker on every trip
- Across panel gaps, door edges, and the gas cap door
- Where an ice scraper will catch it in winter
- Anywhere it blocks the driver's view. What's allowed on a windshield and the front side windows varies by state, so check your state's rules.
Clear or white on a window
White vinyl reads clearly on any glass. A clear sticker looks printed onto the window, but without white ink behind it, its colors are see-through, and on a dark or tinted window they can almost disappear. See clear or white vinyl.
Taking it off
Standard vinyl peels off cleanly. Warm it with a hair dryer, peel slowly and almost flat against itself, and take any leftover adhesive off with isopropyl alcohol. Never use a metal blade on paint, and never scrape across a rear window's defroster lines. High-Tack is harder to remove and can leave residue. Full steps: how to remove a sticker cleanly.
After a few years, expect a faint outline when a sticker comes off. The paint around it has been in the sun and the paint under it hasn't, so the two can differ slightly in color. That's the paint, not the adhesive.