Vinyl Striping Applied Over Vinyl Striping?

[rardiH36]

I know that vinyl striping can be successfully removed. Either by careful and very time consuming gentle scraping/shaving with a razor blade (or similar sharp tool). Or with a specialized tool that grinds away only a few thousandths of an inch ... so doesn't grind any of the gelcoat surface beneath the striping being removed.

But what if the existing striping still has good mechanical condition? Still bonded well to the gelcoat. Except that after many years has become oxidized so doesn't look so good anymore.

Can I get away with just applying new vinyl striping over the old?

 

[jssailem]

Heat gun... Warm and peel. Then a light sanding of the gelcoat to smooth the shadow away... a clean of the area with denatured alcohol... apply your new vinyl strip or lettering. By light I am talking wetsand with 1000-1600 plus grit...

 

[Justin_NSA]

Yeah, I would suck it up and remove the old. I don't think the new will bond with the old well. The old stripes should peel off with heat

 

[Joe Blizzard]

Heat gun... Warm and peel.

Warm and peel worked for me. I didn't do any sanding, though, just wiped it down with acetone. Getting the new stripes on straight was a little bit of a challenge.

 

[rgranger]

Heat gun.... me too. Actually I used my daughter's hair dryer.... shhhhh

Worked great. My letters were 30 years old. Softened right up and I peeled them back with my finger nail.

 

[Ralph Johnstone]

Actually I used my daughter's hair dryer

I used an old hair dryer as well on some name decals and was able to remove each letter in one piece. Hint, do it on a warm day and you can go faster.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Amen to the Mr. Johnstone

 

[BigEasy]

Just received a new roll of striping. Definitely going to remove the old stripes with plastic decal remover & heat.

 

[Knotallthere]

Last spring I used a rubber wheel on my drill to remove my old stripping and boats name. You can purchase the wheel at any major automotive supply store. Once removed I used acetone to wipe off the last of the adhesive. Worked great with no damage to the gel coat.

 

[rardiH36]

Thanks all respondents.

I completely forgot about the heat gun to soften technique. So that is what I will do.

Then dissolve the remaining adhesive with acetone -- Or in my case lacquer thinner since that is what I have a few gallons of.

 

[Gene Neill]

Is there a maximum recommended heat setting for this application?

The sheer stripe on my Albin Vega is extremely old, and has cracks every inch or so. I'm going to try a heat gun first (I know they can work miracles) but I have one of those rubber wheels @Knotallthere mentioned ready to go if heat-n-pick gets too tedious.

 

[Dan_Y]

To get the stripe straight start with a nice run of blue or green painters tape, maybe 1.5 or 2" wide. Work that until its straight along the cabin/hull. Then use the top or bottom edge as the guide to place the stripe. I added a cabin stripe in place of the teak eyebrow trim on our h30. First i placed a few short pieces of tape as markers where i wanted the stripe. Then i would pull out 3 -6 ft of tape and work to make it straight as possible. longer runs of tape are better.

Years ago when doing auto body repair, and needing to place new decals (faux wood panels, large hood decals and stripes), we would take a bucked of water with few drops of dish soap in it and wipe the soapy water on the body panel, like washing the car. Then we would peel the backing off the decal and lightly place it on the soapy surface. The soapy water allowed us to slide the decal into position. Once positioned correctly, we used soft rubber squeegees about the size of a credit card and maybe 3/16 thick (not bondo spreaders) to gently squeegee the soapy water from under the decal. It's stuck for good after the squeegee work. This worked well in the '70s, so I'm assuming it will still work.

I'm going to use both tape and soapy water when I put a new trim stripe on this summer. But I'll test a small bit of stripe with the soapy water first to prove it will adhere. Guys like Mainsail may have seen this since he has experience in fine car finishing. Soapy water may not be needed for a small trim stripe. But it could help with a wider hull stripe.

 

[jssailem]

Gene
I set my heat gun on low and vary the distance from the letters as needed. Learned that a little goes a long way. Removed the name "WINDWALKER" in about 20 minutes. The shadow left on the aged gelcoat took longer.

 

[Captain Larry-DH]

Be VERY careful with a heat gun. Hair dryer is safer, especially on foam cored composite hulls.

 

[Knotallthere]

I agree, heat guns freak me out. The rubber wheel/pin stripe removal tool if used correctly won't damage clear coats and worked flawlessly for me on the gel coat. It is also very quick in comparison to other methods in my opinion. In Gene Neill's case consideing the material is heavily cracked it should take it off quicker opposed to small sections at a time.

 

[Michael Davis]

Take care with a heatgun. Too much will melt the vinyl colour right into the gelcoat, then you have to sand.

 

[BigEasy]

Dan,
Thanks for the idea of using painters tape to get a straight run before applying the striping tape. Will definitely do that trick. I have used the soapy water trick previously and that works really well.

 

[deltaten]

Soapy water???
My vinyl guy sez a spritz bottle fulls water with (only) a few drops of "Joy) as a surfactant. " Soapy" water will prolly leave residue that would prevent permanent bond.

Just sayin'

 

[rgranger]

Soapy water???
My vinyl guy sez a spritz bottle fulls water with (only) a few drops of "Joy) as a surfactant. " Soapy" water will prolly leave residue that would prevent permanent bond.

Just sayin'

Joy is a detergent. I could nerd-out and write a page on the difference between soap and detergent (and I would like it) but... in short.... detergent is artificial soap.

 

[NYSail]

Why remove the shadow? I removed old stripes with heat gun, cleaned then used shadow as a guide.