Sanding Off Decals

[AguaSki]

I am thinking about repainting my cowl and installing fresh decals. First I need to get the old decals off. I have seen posts about using a heat gun and putty knife. Sometimes a miracle chemical is encouraged to assist in removing the decal. What about just sanding the old decals off using a vibrating sander? Is that too harsh? Seems like it will work to me, but I would like to hear what others think.

 

[redfury]

Re: Sanding Off Decals

sure, you could, but here's the 'rub' on doing so...

sanding a decal is going to do a couple of things. First, the decal is going to sand differently than the material around it. Also, decals are essentially plasticized paper with an adhesive backing. You cut through the glossy decal and the heat created is going to smear the adhesive more than it's going to "cut it ". Plus, unless you are careful, the surrounding surface could get small nicks or cuts/waves in it from the paper riding off the hard to cut through decal and into the surface below it ( unless it's on metal ).

Faster is rarely better, unless you are using a process that is unnecessarily labor intensive ( sanding paint off an aluminum hull vs. stripping it chemically or soda blasting ).

Depending on what you are removing, a decal removing solution might be the ticket, you just need to get it softened up, peel the decal off and then wipe away the left over adhesive residue.

 

[halas]

Re: Sanding Off Decals

Redfury is right on.
In my opinion just start with the heat gun, then wipe off the residual glue with solvent or googone.

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: Sanding Off Decals

Use decal remover and heat on fiberglass. You can remove everything down to bare metal or factory primer on metal with plain ol' nasty oven cleaner...NOT FIT FOR F-GLASS. Read and follow label directions with both products.