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Something you should never, ever do, is stick duct tape on your car. There are just better options if you ever need to put tape on your car, such as painter’s tape or automotive tape. Heck, even masking tape won’t mess up your car’s paint as much as duct tape will.

If you ever do find yourself having to remove duct tape from the paint of your car, you have to be careful with how you remove it. It may damage the paint when the tape is pulling off the paint/clear coat. Other times, the duct tape might come off easily, but there will be duct tape adhesive that is left stuck on the paint. In cases like this, you may have to apply adhesive remover, let it sit, and then wipe it off.

In other extreme cases where duct tape has been left on a car’s paint for a long time, removing it can leave behind adhesive and strands of fabric material. Duct tape is made up of a layer of fabric strands and adhesive. It is these strands of fiber that make duct tape so strong. No matter how much adhesive remover and elbow grease you use, you can’t rub it off.

In this post, I’ll go through my process for removing duct tape and the fabric/adhesive residue that may left behind, completely and safely off of a car’s paint. It takes patience and some time to work the material off using a combination of plastic razor blades, adhesive remover (e.g. Goo Gone), saran wrap or a plastic bag, and a rag or microfiber towel.

Materials Used For This Project

Plastic Razor Blades: KUSUFEFI Plastic Razor Blade Scraper With 60 Blades
Saran Wrap or Plastic Bag
Adhesive Remover: Goo Gone Automotive Adhesive Remover
Microfiber Towel: HOMEXCEL Microfiber Cleaning Cloth (12-pk)

How To Remove Duct Tape Residue From Car Paint

On my project car, the previous owner used packing tape or duct tape to tape down the broken windshield wiper fluid reservoir cap. Either way, there are fiber strands that are infused with adhesive, making this difficult to remove.

I’m not sure how long this tape was on for, but it was probably on there for a very long time since the tape had dried up become brittle.

After I peeled the tape off and wiped the area down, the duct tape left these fiberglass strands behind, fused with adhesive and dirt. This makes it really hard to remove, even if you use adhesive remover. The fabric strands act as barrier to any chemicals that would otherwise be effective at this point.

You could try using adhesive remover on its own (I’m using Goo Gone here), which will take off any loose material but will likely be ineffective for the parts where the fiberglass strands have been stuck to the paint.

The way to actually get all of this duct tape residue off is to physically remove it. The safest way you can go about this is using a plastic razor blade to gently scrape it off. However, it’s best to first apply some adhesive remover, and then use a piece of saran wrap or even a plastic bag to cover up the area. This allows the adhesive remover to soak in, which in time will loosen up the adhesive.

After letting it sit for about 10-15 minutes (preferably sitting in the heat of the sun), remove the plastic and use the plastic razor blade to gently scrape the caked on dirt/adhesive/fiber strands. Don’t get too aggressive, otherwise you risk damage to the paint underneath.

After scraping with the plastic razor, a lot of the caked on adhesive and duct tape residue should have come off. For the areas that may still have residue stuck on, this usually means you did not scrape it off completely with the plastic razor blade. If this is the case, you’ll need to reapply adhesive remover, let it dwell again, and then scrape again with the plastic razor blade. It’s not uncommon to have to repeat this step multiple times to get it fully clean.

Repeat this process of applying adhesive remover, applying plastic, letting it sit for about 10-15 minutes, and then scraping with the plastic razor blade. Eventually, you will be able to remove all of it without any damage to your car’s paint. If you have a bit of hazing left behind, you may need to polish it out with some polishing compound to completely restore the clarity of the paint.

It’s possible to use regular metal razor blades instead of the plastic ones, but there is a much higher risk of nicking the paint. Plastic razor blades almost completely eliminate that from happening, especially if you’re careful during the scraping process. As you can see below, using a combination of the plastic razor blades and adhesive remover can really clean up the area nicely, almost as if there was never duct tape on it before.