Decal Removal
The outside of our fiberglass camper has never been much to look at. White with faded and cracked silver, green, and blue vinyl decals. We recently resealed our roof and while checking the outside seals we noticed that not only did the vinyl look bad, it was holding water in some places. We’ve considered removing the decals since the day we purchased the camper so this wasn’t too big of a deal.
One overcast day between kid’s doctor’s appointments I grabbed my razor and started off removing the less damaged decals. For the most part they peeled off in fairly large pieces. It took about an hour to remove the majority of the passenger side of the camper. What we were left with was dirt, glue, and some major ghosting.
The following weekend we decided to really attack the exterior. We planned to finish removing the decals with a razor blade. It worked well for 90% of the decals.
There were some decals that just did not want to come off. For the dealership applied stickers we used an adhesive eraser wheel. For the factory vinyl we used our heat gun to loosen the adhesive enough for the razor to slice under.
Next we needed to remove the adhesive residue.
We wiped a Goo Gone soaked paper towel over each location where a decal had been and then scraped away with the razor.
The result was leftover ghosting that I am hoping will look better once we give the camper a good washing and polish.
Our next exterior hurtle is figuring out what we should do next. Paint, leave it blank, or design custom vinyl to apply. Helpful recommendations are welcome.
2 Comments
Karen Welch
June 25, 2018 at 4:47 pm
Imagine the mural you could have! Ha!
My concern with painting is that you’ll still be able to see the ghosting residue from the old decals more visibly under the paint. I’ve never done anything like this, especially not on fiberglass, so I’m curious as to what method you’ll use to determine if this will happen? Do you just test it out or sand it down before or something else?
I’m loving all you’ve done so far and so glad you’re doing this blog! 🙂
In The Trees Designs
June 26, 2018 at 5:05 pm
Thank you Karen. We really appreciate the support. If we painted we would likely use auto/marine paint and a spray gun. I just ordered oxidation remover polish and am hopeful that could help with our ghosting issue.