Masking tape - removal peels off paint?

[Insurgence]

hello.

i've a question.

im touching up the undercarraige of my car (the bit below the door) and i have taped it up and have applied the layers of undercoat.

now my question is:

after i put on the top coat, when i go to remove the masking tape is there a danger i will uproot all the paint that is stacked on top of it?

-william

[Astroboysoup]

it happened in some areas to me when i was painting my car. it only happen where i use cheap ordinary masking tape.. but the expensive stuff that was made for masking paint didn't...

soooo

i guess i hope you bought good masking tape.

[OMY005]

Use the best tape you can buy. Although none of the tapes will lift the original paint on a car, cleaning up is a lot easier with good quality ones. To stop the new paint lifting, run a knife very very carefully along the edge of the tape. If possible use a straight edge as well. Also make sure you feather the edge afterwards with very fine grit paper.

[Benny]

If you wait for the paint to dry completely, you'll have Buckley's chance of lifting the tape without taking some of the new paint with it.
The trick is with masking tape is to remove it BEFORE the paint dries.
Then you should get a nice clean line.

[Insurgence]

pulled the tape off my car today
didn't lift off any of the new paint!

yay.

even though the paint was 'dry' it was only on from yesterday and I understand it takes a while (30 days) for paint to completely set or something.

i couldnt do the knife trick cos i didnt know exactly where the masking tape was ( i used plastic masking tape)

i did however pull the masking tape at the smallest angle so the paint didnt lift off

[OMY005]

Glad it all went well. Can be nerve racking at times.

[ampz]

just a tip with masking surfaces to be painted (a spraypainter told me). fold one edge of the masking tape about 5mm in, then apply this 'lifted' edge to the surface side which is getting sprayed, this allows the paint to ever so slightly bleed into the original paint and wont leave a hard edge which can be difficult to buff/polish out.