Practically Classics Forum

Hi folks,somehow I have got a line of indelible marker pen on my cream vinyl dash.Anyone have any removal ideas.Have tried various items but only fades it .Have tried thinners,panelwipe,silicone eater,hairspray,nail varnish deodorant and vinegar.Any thoughts appreciated. regards j3k

Contact spray should shift it, Halfords do one that's as good as any you'd find in Maplins' catalogue.

It worked when I used it to remove some dark green, xylene marker-related graffiti from the front cover of my ivory Sovereign during its recent restoration:

Is that a Smith electric on the right ?

zipgun wrote:Is that a Smith electric on the right ?

No, it's two of the things! I cropped the photo to avoid it being full of sectrics but here they are below, the brown Bakelite one just by the radio is a 1932 which is lacking a residual field in its stator to the point that now, if there's been a power cut, only the most vigorous shaking will start it, the green Phenolic one is an alarm from 1947 and it self starts as soon as it has electricity. These things are the only truly accurate timepieces ever made available to the public, I can't get enough of the things. And radio sets, boomboxes, cars, record players, certain historic computer equipment and watches. Maybe I need professional help?

With a big apology to the O/P who, poor guy, only wanted to know how to get marker pen out of vinyl, here's that piccie and if anyone can be bothered, I'll post this sort of stuff in the O/T section.



Halfords own brand contact cleaner spray, remember the name.

Wanna see mine? Its BIG ! I got it for a fiver ..

If you want it and pay the post i've got a wireless you can have..or i'll dump it. Its pastel blue...i'll go and find the bloody thing

Hell yeah! But maybe, so we don't get our butts kicked too hard by the management, we could see it in a new off-topic thread.

They wont mind ... i found it . Its a Philco ! will need contact spray

Speaking of contact spray, I can recommend the Halfords own brand one in the aerosol can with the green lid. It's also useful for removing certain ink stains from pieces of upholstery material.

John, would you like your radio posts copied in to a new thread?

The formulation may have changed, but we used to use Lynx (allegedly a deodorant!) for taking permanent marker off white-boards at one of the schools I worked for. We discovered that when the deputy head came for some "meths" (IPA) and saw a can of Lynx that a child had misplaced and said that it was better! They started getting "interactive boards" while I was there and there was a cheer when one of the science teachers used a permanent marker on one of them: everyone else was being very careful not to be the first to do it! Apparently baby wipes were the only thing you could use to clean the stuff off those boards.

I saw some "expert" on TV some time ago and she reckoned the best way was actually to use a permanent marker to go over the original mark before using a cleaner. The theory being that the solvent in the marker pen would soften the original ink and thus make it easier to remove. I won't think I'd have the courage to try that on a cream coloured dash board!

I seem to think someone said that contact spray might help. I can't remember which make though