Decal Removal

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Charlie Crews

After 16 years of hot sun, bombarding UV rays and unintentional bumps against the dock, the Hunter decal was ratty looking. So, I decided to scrape the decals off - after a foot had been removed (only 73 left for a 37C)I realized what a job I had made for myself. Has anyone ever been successful in doing this job? I have one side removed but cannot get the baked on glue off, I have used acetone, 400 grit sanding, penetrol, "gunk remover - all to no avail. Also can now see what the original color of the gel coat was - no match to the remaining hull which has been bleached bright white! I would appreciate any suggestions. Charlie Crews
 
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Gary Jensen

My luck at decal removal was first remove as much as I could with a hair dryer, then using acetone, followed by polishing compound....I just removed "Lady~Ev Wrighrsvillebeach, N.C. I had to remove it from TWO sides and it took one full day! The decals were two years old, like the boat. Yours will probably need more elbo grease...Good luck!
 
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Jay Beery

Decal Removel

Charlie, After using the heat gun, try using toluel (spelling?) to take the glue off. Toluel is the thinner part of many glues and usually works better than acetone. Good Luck!
 
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Justin - O'day Owner's Web

Decal removal procedure

Hey, My daysailer had nasty 80's graphics when I bought it. I decided they had to go, but had some trouble both getting the residue off and matching the colors. 3M general purpose adhesive remover got most of the crap off. For the stubborn areas, I took rags, soaked them in the stuff, the taped them to the hull. I taped plastic over them to prevent evaporation, then went to lunch. When I got back, the rest of the goo came off easily with a razor blade. As for color matching. After compounding the hull to get at least some of the original color back, I used wetsanded the edges of the off color area to fade the colors together. When I was done, if you covered the fade with your hand and look to either side of it, you could see the difference, but take your hand away and you couldn't tell unless you were an insurance appraiser. YMMV, Justin - O'day Owner' s Web
 
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A.L. ("Jim") Willis Pres of ISLAND GIRL PROD.

All About Decals & Dried Adhesive Residue

Instead of using a heat gun- another way is to peel back and edge and dribble in some ISLAND GIRL Pink product - leave overnight, peel some more back and trickle in some more. Incidentally, IG Pink (soak for up to one hour) will easily remove the dried residue, even if it is baked hard from a year in the sun. ISLAND GIRL Clear is even more rapid in action. Keep both these products off painted lettering and inactivate with water to stop the reaction. With regards to color matching due to fade. The idea of blending in the edges with fine wet and dry is a good one. At a Boat Show in Oakland , about 2 years ago, I used a piece of old Hobie Cat from which I had removed the decal and adhesive(as above). On this blue hobie cat jull, I used SEA GLOW with a 3M synthetic wool scuff pad (finest grade "000'). Light scuffing,m then our superwax (or SILKENSEAL + Collinite wax) left s surface where you could FEEL where the lettering had been, but could not see it. Why? The Cleanser conditioner had removed the ingrained chalk that made the blue look lighter and filled it in with a conditioner that made the blue pigment "light up" to an approximation of the original color. As for using acetone and toluene - toluene is best (because it works on adhesive better), acetone will, of course also dissolve the gelcoat. Finally, these type of solvents "flash off" before they can really begin to act, wherease the our products mentioned above have solvent activity "locked up" in a polymer so that it does not immediately flash off. Hope this doesn't sound like an advert!. Incidentally, adhesive residue from Duckt Tape does not respond so well with IG cleansers, I found that Goof Off (actually only Xylene) worked best. This will also remove dried on cetol. These are all tested on my own Boat as well as customer suggestions gleaned from almost 6 years of Boat Shows and phone calls. Thanks ALW
 
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John

Decals

Just stripped all the decals off a 25.5 using just a razor scrapper, only took about four hours and no chemicals, take about half the blades width and go withn a steady horizontal push usually about 3ft.
 
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Lander Nicolait

Patterns on H37 cabin side are Decals?

Are the patterns surrounding the windows on the cabinsides of the H37 decals? They have been painted over and now show vertical "wrinkles". Has anyone out there removed these? How long did it take and what did you use?
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
One more time, but not the last

Charlie: I did an article last year and posted the photos in the Photo Forum De-stripping made easy 11/8/99. Take a look for yourself. It took an hour and I needed a little refreshment in the process. Less than $20 in equipment and materials and it is done.
 
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