OK just an update, it's safe for everyone to pull these off.

I had a detailer (Dave from Reflect Effect) over to check out the car.

He had a paint thickness meter which determinded that the paint on the drivers side rear quarter panel was thicker than the OEM paint on the rest of the car.

Great! :/

So the panel has at some point been resprayed by a dodgey panel beater that didn't bother to take off the clear protection decal, instead they just cleared right over it!

The only thing Dave could do was reduce the very visible and sharp and crisp line between the OEM clearcoat which was under the clear decal and the thicker clearcoat on top.

He went at the car with wet and dry sandpaper and a lot of water, he used the paint thickness meter a lot to make sure he wasn't rubbing back too much and he also used a special cutting compound and sponge.

It took about an hour all up, great job that will have to do (short of respraying the whole panel).

 

glad to hear it worked out for you.