lexusk8

I plan to remove the painted pinstriping from my black '01 ES, and I just purchased a quart of lacquer thinner. I browsed through this thread, which seems to generally say that lacquer thinner is the best solution to remove painted pinstriping, but I'm a bit worried about harming the paint down the road. The black paint on my car is clearcoated, and I haven't done anything to the pinstriping yet.

Should I proceed with the lacquer thinner, or return it to Home Depot (where I bought it)?

Guitarman

I don't think I can give you any definitive answer. This has been discussed here and at Autopia and the consensus is that it *may* cause damage, but there's no way to say either way on every oem paint.

The culprit is xylene. Xylene in itself can damage the resins in some clearcoats ( can cause micro cracks or "checking" ), and lacquer thinner contains xylene (as does gasoline-and that *usually doesn't hurt urethane enamel, at least in small doses). So...You might be fine using it to remove the stripes, but I will tell you that my GS400 also had the dreaded painted pinstripes when I purchased it, and I've decided (FWIW) that it's not worth the risk to me to try the lacquer thinner.

That said, i would see if you can find others who have used it on lexus paint a while ago and report no problems as of now. That would at least give you some confidence that you'd be ok.

I'd like a guarantee also, but until I get one, I would probably prefer to use a fine cut compound and my rotary instead, to remove them. That will also take away some good paint, so I haven't done it yet either. I may just suck it up and leave them, even though I've never been a fan of 'em.

Hang tight and see if anyone else here has used the lacquer thinner a couple years ago and has no problems to report. Cheers.