Taking off decals

[Terry Forshier]

I spent a lot of time today trying to get the old name off the side of my new boat. It is a huge decal and I tried a hair dryer, no good. I tried a razer blade, not the best by far and it knicks the sides. I tried a little "Stripper" on a brush and then used the blade to peel it off. I went to the store and bought "goof Off" and it worked marginally.  I then tried rubbing compound I use on the plastic car.I tried every solvent in my shop. Finally it is more of less off. (one side) but the area is still shows the baked in outline. A little more come off. I guess tomorrow I will fire up the polisher see if I can polish it out the rest of the way. A lot of work and I still have the other side to do.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Terry in NAples

[Ron Hill]

Terry : Did you try WD40?  I've had alot of Luck with it and it doesn't stain the gel coat.   

[Jeff Kaplan]

go to an autoparts store, and get a can of decal remover.follow the directions.  it works...jeff

[Stephen Butler]

Decal remover helped us, but not entirely.  The decal had been on the boat for 13 years and was "baked" on.  The yard foreman came over and took pity on us...suggested a plain soft rubber disc on a varible speed electric drill...sort of like a large rubber eraser.   Took the decal and all the residue off in a flash, with no nicks.  Followed this up with some rubbing compound and wax with a buffer, to blend in the fiberglass that had been covered for so many years.  If chemicals fail as they did for us, you might give this a try.  Good luck.

[Jeff Kaplan]

ooops, didn't read post all the way. decal remover does just that, but doesn't remove the residue or the baked in outlines. when i bought #219, 2 seasons ago, i removed the name and #'s that had been on for 18 years. i buffed out as much as possible, but outline still showed . i just applied a light coat of krylon spray paint, white in my case, and the area looked brand new, ready for her new graphics. just an idea...jeff

[John Sheehan]

When I removed the old lettering we had on our C-25 for 15 years I noticed the lettering had protected the gelcoat under the lettering and caused an apparent raising of the gelcoat.  It wasn't raised but some the unprotected gelcoat had eroded slightly giving the appearance of being raised or incomplete removal of the lettering.

[SteveLyle]

When I did this 'remove the old name' job I used a heat gun.  Kind of like a hair dryer on steroids.  Hair dryers can't burn you, heat guns can melt your skin off in seconds at the top setting if you're not careful.  It basically melted/bubbled off the decal and the underlying adhesive.  I used very fine sandpaper and polishing compound to deal with the 'baked in' effect of the old letters. 

Heat guns are also great for softening plastic or vinyl hose ends prior to inserting or removing from barbs, stripping old varnish, and heat shrink tubing on electrical connections.

This taught me a very important thing when dealing with cosmetics on old boats.  Back up and take a look.  If you can't see what you're trying to deal with from 20 feet away, or whatever's appropriate for what you're working on (and there's hardly anyone ever within 20 feet of our stern, in the case of our old name), then it's good enough.  If you have to get within a foot or a few inches to see it, then just get over it and move on.

Also applies to repairing gelcoat nicks.

[Terry Forshier]

Thanks for the replys. The first side I worked on was experimental. I tried it all, goof off  and rubbing compound and all as earlier reported. Today I went out with some ultra fine sandpaper sponges and sanded lightly the areas that were bleeding through. It came off very well and I did not sand through the gel coat. Now I need to put on a coat of wax or something and polish it up. Should be able to put new letters right over it.
With this success I decided to shortcut the other side. I got a small palm sander,a rubber hand sander,  a razer blade and goof off. First I applied the goof off with a paintbrush on the decal and let it set a few minutes. I took the blade and was able to scrape off the plastic decal. This left the thick build up on the gold lettering and bleed through baked on areas. These I lightly sanded off with the sander until thin and finished by hand. It took about 30 minutes vs 3 hours on the other side.
I think I have a good result considering it has been there for 18 years baking in the Florida sun.
Terry








terry