Removing lettering

[Felony]

I recently purchased a fiberglass boat that the previous owner put huge, ugly lettering down the entire side. What is the best way to remove what appears to be some type of vinyl lettering? The boat is heavily oxidized and I know I will have to use a gelcoat restorer afterwards. Any good suggestions on a good product to restore the faded color?

 

[salty87]

Re: Removing lettering

welcome to the site. there's a search feature that is very handy. heavy oxidation is a common discussion. <br /><br />a heat gun and adhesive remover should take care of the lettering. they might leave a shadow since the rest of the hull is heavily oxidized but that might be better than the letters themselves.<br /><br />for the gelcoat, alot of times rubbing compound and a good buffer are sufficient to bring a shine back. sometimes a more aggressive approach like wet sanding, followed by compounding is necessary. have any pics?<br /><br />trial and error often works best with fiberglass hulls unless you can get manufacturer recommendations. i like 3m heavy duty marine rubbing compound on my hull, seems to work best of what i've tried.

 

[Sea Six]

Re: Removing lettering

I was able to get old vinyl letters off using a heat gun. There was a trick to getting the temp just right because if the letters were too cool they wouldn't come off, but if they got too hot, they melted and were hard to remove. I had to warm them up just right so I could peel them off.

 

[reka12]

Re: Removing lettering

Chapperal: My son and I are in the process of converting a little tiller fishing boat to a center console. The gelcoat was beyond repair or restoration so we decided to fix the cracks and puncture wounds, apply 5 barrier coats of epoxy, 4 coats of paint and two coats of clearcoat. (With sanding inbetween each of them . The reason I am bringing this up is I had to remove bumper stickers, the vinyl registration numbers, fishmeasuring stickers and the like. I was tempted to go ahead and grind the vinyl number off but as a test I used some left over gasket remover from a previous futile ob motor repair. The vinyl registation numbers melted right off after a few minutes and there was no harm to the gelcoat. I know that these stickers had been on at least for close to 20 years (last registration was '86 and the boat is a '70. Give it a try on a small inconspicuous location. It may save you a ton of work.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Re: Removing lettering

If you have access to compressed air, there is a little pneumatic rotary tool that uses rubber wheels. The wheels remove stickers etc like a pencil eraser. Not a very expensive tool from any auto body/paint supply store. It is used for pinstripes etc on automotive applications. For a one-time small job, the heat gun may be cheepest, but if the job is bigger, or if you encounter this often, the rubber wheel is fastest. Note: follow the tool instrucions re. regulsted air pressure.

 

[umblecumbuz]

Re: Removing lettering

Hair dryer works just fine for me. Patience, and they stretch a bit and peel off.