Maintenance

[Beneteau]

We have a 1997 Beneteau Oceanids 321 .i would like to remove the originally installed water line decal (green).
I tried using a drill powered decal eraser it barely touched the decal ,and created excessive heat even at low speed
Have used these decal erasers before on another boat and they worked great no heat and fast removal.
Any and all suggestions welcome

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

If it’s a glued stripe rather than paint, judicious use of a heat gun on low will melt the glue without damaging the gel coat. Any abrasive or mechanical method is far more potentially damaging.

 

[Tally Ho]

Heat gun, plastic scraper. I have used a razor blade in the past to remove some decals, but you have to be very careful not to dig into the gel coat.

Greg

 

[ToddS]

Following this conversation because I would (or more accurately, the Admiral would) like to change my stripes too... I've got too many "real" upgrades/changes/repairs on my to-do-list for this one to bubble up to the top of the list so far, but I'm curious to hear about the success and quantity of work involved with this. I've removed vinyl lettering (with good success) with one of those eraser wheels, but the waterline stripes and cove stripe on the topside are a LOT more area to cover... and so far (for the two seasons I've owned the boat), when deciding between spending the time to redo the stripes, or go out sailing a weekend or two earlier in the spring... sailing has won out. A happy Admiral, however, may someday involve me doing some re-striping...