Who has repainted their boat - removed stickers

Charlie S and Titan

Charlie S and Titan

Well-known member
Hi All,

I am finally going to repaint my boat, luckily I waited, cause now it is a different hull - LOL.

I am going to repaint over the existing blue sides with FME (open water med grey). I am not planning to paint the whole hull, just the parts that are blue now. I can just mask off the rest of it and respray it without much of a to-do.

I don't plan to go to bare metal, just remove the decals, scuff the existing paint and feather in any edges.

The main roadblock is that I need to remove the existing factory decals and pin striping stickers. Has anyone here done that?

How'd you remove the stickers? Lots of time with a razor blade and then goo-gone? Is there an easy way?

I seem to remember someone posting a new G3 that they did this to.

Any tips?

Thanks,
Charlie
 
I used razor-blade style glass scraper. Sometimes, if you can lift enough of the edge with the razor blade, the whole thing peels off. Depends on how old and brittle the stickers are.
Rick
 
Thanks all.

Harker, the blue is definitely painted on both of mine.

The new boat has paint rubbed through in one spot where it rubbed against a dock bumper. But it has decals over it and also pinstripes (three small ones parallel to the gunnel and one where the paint edge stops at the bottom).

Eric, I'll see if one of the local body shop supply places has one of those things.

Charlie
 
Seems I have seen a liquid decal remover...softens them up and you scrape them off with a plastic putty knife. The body shop may have that stuff too..or NAPA.
 
Googone seems to work pretty good at getting stickers off things...don't know if it can be used in this application or not...
 
I too thought it was a sticker type material, at least from Farris' 20' alaskan. Charlie would eb the expert given that he owns 2.
 
A heat gun works a lot better than the razor. Just wipe with acetone/lacquer thinner afterwards. I couldn't find my heat gun when I started pulling stickers off mine. I tried a couple of different things including a razor blade contraption. Thank goodness I hadn't gotten far when I remembered where the heat gun was. Using the heatgun, no adhesive stayed on the boat that I could see. With the razor blade, I had to scrub with acetone/lacquer thinner to get the remaining adhesive off.
 
do you know any one at a local body shop? When I worked at the body shop, what we used for stripes and decals is called a stripe eraser. It is like a big round eraser that goes on your air grinder. It works like a charm. You can get different widths depending on how big the vinyl is.
 
I painted my new red Lund SSV back in 1997 with minimal prep. I lightly scuffed the paint and stickers with a 3M pad, primed and then sprayed on two coats of paint that I got from a vendor at Point Moulee. I sprayed it again in 2003 to cover up some the wear areas. Since then I'd say there is only a few dime sized spots where paint has flaked off plus some normal wear and tear on the gunnels.

This worked for me...
 
Charlie,

3-M make a "woodgrain remover" spray can that works well on large decals and will not do much harm to the substrate. It was brought to market for body shops to remove the old woodgrain decals. Wear long sleeves and gloves, it will burn you. Spray it on, wait, scrape it off with a plastic scraper, wash it off. I've used it often to remove large signage on the side of work vans.

Gene
 
Thanks everyone.

The small local auto parts store that I pass on the way to work had a couple of the sprays (including the 3m woodgrain remover spray) and can get me one of those 3M eraser thingies, but they have to order it. Since they have the spray in stock, I may just try it out. The do have a warning on it that it may damage the substrate... But since I am just repainting anyway, I don't think that is a huge deal.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions.

Charlie
 
You have to be careful with both products Charlie. Both products can damage paint. I would never ever use the eraser type of product on any Laquer paint as it will burn the paint in a bad way. If you don't care about the paint, this tool is the only way to go as it works like a dream. If it doesn't, you can return it and get your money back.

The woodgrain product is part of a 2 part system so be sure you know what you are getting. There is one to remove the decal and there is a separate product to remove the adhesive. The decal remover will not remove the whole thing and the second product, the adhesive remover will be need following the first product

If you have any questions, give me a shout back. If I still worked in that area I could send you a loaner.

Mark W
 
Mark,

Thanks.

Your company sure makes some innovative products, which must be very popular with the professional crowd.

I learned that today when I stopped to check out the 3m eraser thing that he got from his supplier. The one he got in was a neat little deal, very interesting composition on the flap things. Unfortunately it didn't fit on the standard no-name arbor he had, so he'd need to order a special 3M piloted arbor or somesuch thing. It'd have been $50 by the time I was out the door.

So I ask him about the woodgrain remover and he tells me the same thing you typed. Woodgrain remover and then adhesive remover. ~$23 a can each, so again $50 by the time we pay the governor's share.

He said that most of the body shops just use a heat gun to remove the decals and then use the 3M product to remove the adhesive residual. I figure I'll try that first since at least the first part is free (borrow a heat gun). Who knows, maybe the adhesive won't stick, maybe WD-40 will remove it, maybe goo-gone. If not, back to pick up a can of that remover spray...

Thanks for the additional info.

Whoda' thunk it would have been so complicated...

Charlie
 
Once you get the sticker off try kerosene or diesel fuel, go over it with prepsol or thinner to cut the oil. I done it dozens of times.
 
Leslie,

Thanks. Sounds like a plan.

Again, the knowledge of the folks on this board is amazing. Not one, but several great ways to do this, and everyone willing to share without reservation.

Thanks guys!

Charlie
 
Charlie -

Save yourself some money. I would use a heat gun to remove the decal (being very careful to not bubble the paint) and then I would use any adhesive remover. 3M has many great products and we have some "me too" products. The one product that is a great all purpose product and is cheaper than the Woodgrain Adhesive remover is the General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner (GPAC) It comes a couple of different ways - in a metal can with a skinny snout and in an aerosol. I would spend the money and get the can. It will last you a lifetime and has at least 1000 uses. The aerosol is nice but you get a lot less product.

The nice thing about the wood grain products are that they cling to horizontal surfaces whereas the GPAC needs to be put on a rag and wiped across the adhesive. The only thing the GPAC has been unable to revoe for me is 5200.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The removal disk comes in more than one flavor. If I recall correctly, there is the one that consists of a bunch of thin disks all stuck together to make a flap wheel type of thing. Then there is a solid disk. I believe that the solid disk can be used in any drill and the thin stack sheet version has a special arbor like you mentioned. I think the link below takes you to the one solid disk that you can use in your drill.

http://solutions.3m.com/...JR0R56glTJ676SWF5Wbl

Good Luck

Mark W
 
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