Removing large decals

[ouisconsin]

I have a 2006 220 Select and would like to remove not only the stripe starting at the bow, but the large 1'x3' swirl decal at the stern. Looking for a cleaner look. Was thinking it might be to large for a 3M wheel.
Thanks for any help. Kevin

 

[scoflaw]

heat gun works

 

[searay495]

Whizzy Wheel Car Decal and Sticker Remover with Drill Adapter Kit...
look for it on Amazon

 

[Lazy Daze]

Won't be too big for a 3M wheel. But see what you can do with a heat gun, first. If the stickers aren't dry and cracked, you'll most likely be able to remove them completely with a heat gun. You'll have some color mismatch between what's under the stickers and the gel that's been exposed to the UV - just something to be aware of.

 

[Strecker25]

I’m doing the boot stripes on our 410 with eraser wheels. Takes about 1.5hr per side and 2 wheels per side. You just have to work methodically one strip at a time and not bounce around. It seems like a lot but goes pretty quickly

 

[sbw1]

I would use a heat gun on relatively low heat and a plastic spatula to get it started. Once it starts coming off, pull the decal off parallel to the hull instead of straight out at 90 degrees. They seem to come off in bigger pieces if you do not pull them straight out. Use a rag soaked in acetone to remove any glue residue. Rub out the hull side with a rotary buffer set to about 1500 rpms and a wool pad to get rid of the ghosting. Finish up with a good polish such as Finesse It and then apply your wax.

 

[OldToys]

sbw1 has it right. Heat the vinyl up nice and warm and peel them off. If you pull the stripe "away" from the boat, it will tend to leave the adhesive on the gelcoat. Once you get enough peeled off, lay the stripe back onto itself and pull so that it is kinda "rolling" off and most of the adhesive will come with the vinyl. Careful with the heat gun on the part that is already off the boat, it will heat up really fast and then stretch and break.

I just finished doing my 95 220 BR this week. Lazy Daze is right as well, there will be some difference in the color under the stripe. All of my white has yellowed some. I am wet sanding and compounding but there is still a little difference.

 

[SilentJ20]

sbw1 has it right. Heat the vinyl up nice and warm and peel them off. If you pull the stripe "away" from the boat, it will tend to leave the adhesive on the gelcoat. Once you get enough peeled off, lay the stripe back onto itself and pull so that it is kinda "rolling" off and most of the adhesive will come with the vinyl. Careful with the heat gun on the part that is already off the boat, it will heat up really fast and then stretch and break.

I just finished doing my 95 220 BR this week. Lazy Daze is right as well, there will be some difference in the color under the stripe. All of my white has yellowed some. I am wet sanding and compounding but there is still a little difference.

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Thank you for having the aaaaalmost exact pics of what my '94 220BR would look like with striping removed. The vinyl has of course gotten pretty dinged up over almost 30 years (new to me, but only one previous owner). I just didn't know what the gel coat would look like underneath. I was expecting a lot more ragged edges, but that doesn't look bad!

 

[OldToys]

Thank you for having the aaaaalmost exact pics of what my '94 220BR would look like with striping removed. The vinyl has of course gotten pretty dinged up over almost 30 years (new to me, but only one previous owner). I just didn't know what the gel coat would look like underneath. I was expecting a lot more ragged edges, but that doesn't look bad!

The previous owner of my boat was very surprised how great it looks after removing the decals. It made it much less 90's looking. Still not quite 'modern' but it is much better than before.

 

[Creekwood]

I just destriped my 330 at the waterline. I brought a few tools to do the job:
- heat gun
- two whizzy wheels (in case 66ft of stripe was too much)
- a package of plastic blade scrapers like these

Test 1 - heat gun. I found that the heat gun softened the glue under the decals and made it harder, not easier, to remove cleanly.
Test 2 - the blades. I found that the blades did a very slow and tedious job. Heat gun followed by scrapers got the decal off, but left a lot of melted decal glue on the boat. Kind of a mess.
Test 3 - The whizzy wheel worked great on un-heated stickers, but it was slow and I doubt 2 wheels would have done both sides. Where the decals were heated, it made it worse.

What worked the best was:

- I used the scrapers to lift the edge and carefully just peeled the stripes off. The main wide one came off mostly clean in reasonably large sections. Some places did not come off clean and needed scraping or the whizzy wheel if I just could not get them off. The wheel works great, but peeling is much faster.

The thin stripes did not come off clean. It was a real pain in the a$$. In the end, I just used the whizzy wheel to remove them with no heat. They are relatively thin so one half whizzy wheel did all of the thin stripes and the few spots where the main black stripe did not come off cleanly with peeling/scraping.

The whizzy wheel was great for getting the glue residue off where it did not come off cleanly with peeling.