Removing and replacing decals

[klr650goldwing]

Has anyone removed old decals and replaced them with new ones? How did it go? What is your recommendations for such activity?

[Fisher_Bill]

I really dislike how they put the decals over the windows on ours, still scrape off a little bit each trip.

[Weldon]

Some time ago yjere was a guy who sanded the old decal down with 00 steel wool. He then cleaned the residue off the decals and then spray painted the decals. Used krylon ultra cover, krylon supermax all ib one, k.rylon clearcoat. 5 coats

The man is a member here and was pleased with the results. Maybe he will drop in and give more comments.

[shepstone]

With full body paint are the decals painted or are they still glued on?

[opnspaces]

Some old and new photos. The wheels have been repainted and are no longer rusty messes.

[opnspaces]

No you can't leave the adhesive residue behind, it just won't look good at all. What I found on mine was once the actual vinyl was gone the goof off did a quick job of removing the leftover adhesive. I will admit though on my front window cover it seemed like the cover was weathered and eroded around the old decal. So the I wound up sanding the cover down and repainting it white and then sticking on a new decal.

Once the decal and adhesive is gone there will still be a faint shadow where the old decal was. So yes a painter could hand paint new ones on.

[JRMunn]

I have what might be a couple of "dumb" questions. For background, my 2004 trailer has peeling decals. No argument that this is ugly. But won't replacing decals lead to the same problem in a few years? After the decal surface comes off, dried adhesive is left behind. Can this be painted over by an experienced sign painter, using the adhesive as a pattern without removing it?

JRMunn

[colliehauler]

Removing graphics can be a pain. Mentioned earlier was the 3M eraser wheel and spray decal remover. I found both of these methods also remove paint from a aluminum trailer. After I got the sun dried graphics off and the glue removed I repainted the front cap.

As mentioned above a heat gun and plastic razor blade work best for aluminum. This is a very time consuming project.

I have another trailer to replace graphics and plan on using the 3M eraser wheel. I also plan on repainting the front cap so no harm done removing the paint.

[ppine]

I have used a razor blade scraper to remove some bad decals and left the good ones. Nothing wrong with removing all of them. Why should we be driving advertisements for an RV company?

[opnspaces]

I've done it, but I also am fortunate that I know people in the sign business. I used a heat gun and plastic razor blades. There's an art to heating the vinyl enough to loosen the adhesive and not overheating the vinyl to where it stretches like warm taffy. Just to clarify, the warm taffy is not a good thing. On the severely sun cracked decals it's really difficult and time consuming to remove.

After the decals were removed I used Goof off to remove the remaining adhesive. Then washed the trailer with water and hand dishwashing soap. Before you try to install a decal wipe the area off with 70 or 90% rubbing alcohol.

My recommendation is kind of dependent on your trailer construction.

Go for it if you have smooth sides and some experience with installing stickers without bubbles. Use a spray of water and dishwashing soap to moisten the trailer and the back of the decal. This allows you to move the decal around and squeegee the air bubbles out before it becomes permanent.

Use a tool like a credit card wrapped in a bit of terry cloth to smooth the vinyl to the surface.

If you have a big bubble that you just can't push the bubble to an edge, you can poke a tiny hole in the bubble and squeeze the water out through the hole. You'll never see the hole once it all dries.

BUT, if you have corrugated sides do the removal work and then hire someone to install the new graphics. Trying to stretch over the corrugations is not easy. I had a guy with may many years doing graphic installs put my graphics on. It looks great, but it took him over 6 hours to replace all the vinyl.


If you can't find replacement graphics call a few sign shops in your area for a quote. They will need to measure and cut the new graphics. They will also be able to do the install though they will probably call a third party in to do the work.

Take a lot of clear pictures from all sides as well as front and back before you begin. It will really help when the time comes to figuring out exactly where the replacements go.

I also stripped the graphics and used my trailer FEMA style (no graphics) for many months. It looked better than leaving it with the cracked graphics that came off.

In the end my trailer is 14 years old and with the new graphics it looks like new again. I guarantee that I could pass a 10 year rule inspection unless they demanded to see the registration.

I was told that for a regular customer the price would be about $1,200 - $1,500. I don't remember if that included the new graphics or just the install. but I think it was with cutting the new graphics as well.

[Veebyes]

laknox wrote:
There are some chemicals that people use, but the most frequent method seems to be a heat gun and patience.

Lyle

The right answer. Lots of patience.

[4x4ord]

This is the eraser wheel you want. You need to be somewhat careful not to burn the gelcoat.

[BB_TX]

I removed the cracked and peeling decals on the front and rear of my 5er. Sides still look good.

Started with a heat gun and plastic scraper. Worked pretty well on some decals that were in better condition. But the ones really cracked were very hard to get off, coming off in very small pieces. Bought a 3M eraser wheel. Decals came off easier with the added benefit that a lot of the old adhesive came off with the decal material. But it does take a good corded drill to turn the eraser wheel. I supppse a cordless would work but you would probably be recharging the battery every few minutes as it works it pretty hard.

With either method there will be adhesive material left on the surface requiring some type solvent to thoroughly remove it. I used 3M Adhesive Remover. What worked for me was to use an old towel and wet it with solvent. Then holding the towel below a section of adhesive, I would squirt a stream of solvent across and above that section letting the liquid “sheet” down over the adhesive and soak into the towel. Then use the towel to wipe the adhesive off that section. Then move on to another section working small sections at a time.

The areas that had been under the decals were nice and shiny showing the outline of the old decals. The other areas showed signs of oxidation. But for me that was great. I managed to get exact replacement decals and the outlines made placement of the new decals easy.

I used the “wet hinge” method of installing the new decals. (Google it). And found that using a wet towel to smooth the decals and squeeze out the water worked better than a squeegee.

[Super_Dave]

I can't install a foot long decal without bubbles. When the time comes, it's going to be a graphics or body wrap company doing all my decal work.

[Fisher_Bill]

Yes I'm also in the same boat, the stock graphics are drying off the surface and I would rather go all white but of course the removal will show the change in color tones.

We have a 2010 so not that old but the nose and sides are peeling an inch every two or so years, unit came from CA and looked like it baked in the sun...