removing vinyl letters

crossram · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 12:30 pm

getting ready to remove the vinyl letters from the last owners boat name and a couple of the faded fw sticker what is the best
way to get them off without using a scraper and scratching the gel coat
can you use a lacquar thinner and a plastic scraper or will thinner the harm gel coat

JeffLW · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 12:40 pm

Try heating them up with a heat gun/hair dryer and peeling them off. Then use some Goo Gone for the adhesive residue.

This has worked for me in the past. The older they are usually the more of a pain in the arse they are to get off.

Good luck.

NiagaraChillin · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 12:58 pm

Of course don't forget this:

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm

Don't wanna get on the badside of Poseidon...

ric · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:41 pm

Heat gun (be careful) and a plastic scraper or old credit card

acguy · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:43 pm

Yes gentle with the heat gun. I had to use it on mine then I also had to wet sand the spot then bring it back with 3m because you could still see the name burned into the gelcoat

Winter Sux · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:24 pm

Do not use a heat gun. Way too hot. A hair dryer will do the trick. Acetone will get rid of any adhesive residue.

schoolsOut · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:53 pm

Hair dryer on a hot summer day did it for me. I remember that as the sun went down and the gel coat began to cool, it became much more difficult to peel the letters off.

crossram · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:09 pm

niagarachillin i guess ill have to get a lot of champ for the ceremony and myself and first mate .Dont want last owners wife's name on the boat

crossram · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:25 pm

thanks for the advise. if warms up enough this weekend i'm going to try and get them off

NiagaraChillin · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 8:39 pm

crossram wrote:

niagarachillin i guess ill have to get a lot of champ for the ceremony and myself and first mate .Dont want last owners wife's name on the boat

Yep, treat it like a big ol' party (cause that's what it is really). We usually try to do as many as possible here in the spring at once. All boats getting renamed head out together to do the ceremony. Good times...

LVChris · **Posted:** Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:26 pm

I did mine last summer. Most of it peeled off once I started, but honestly had to use a magic eraser in the end. I tried acetone, goof-off goo-gone and as plastic scraper, only the magic eraser really worked.

Capt. Hoss · **Posted:** Fri Feb 14, 2014 8:36 am

In the body shop we would use a rubber "eraser" on a drill to get pinstrips off. Don't know how well it will work on gelcoat but might be worth a look in to.

noexcuses · **Posted:** Fri Feb 14, 2014 10:57 am

3M Adhesive remover works very well.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... Z9MF03HXbl

kd4pbs · **Joined:** Thu Sep 05, 2013 10:34 am **Posts:** 350

Heat gun worked great for me; the thermal mass of the fiberglass was so high that there were no issues. Keep it moving; I imagine if you blast one spot for a minute you'll mess stuff up.

FireCapt6 · **Joined:** Mon Feb 25, 2013 8:40 pm **Posts:** 41

If you do not mind a small mess of tiny stickers. I used a pressure washer to remover the old vinyl boat name and then used adhesive remover. The sticker comes off in seconds. I also had to use a compound and buffer to bring back the exposed gel coat to match.

www.iFourWinns.com

removing vinyl letters

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