Vinyl decal residue removal

Ok fellas, I've finally got all the decals,numbers and pin stripes off the boat. The pin stripes was easy compared to the big wide,cracked up tracker graphics. Another thing I thought was odd is that the actual tracker name was in/ on the same stripe but the letters were way harder to get off than the material around the letters. Now on to my next question. Almost all of the places where the graphics were has a lot of tacky residue left. What is the best thing to remove it ? I guess it's the adhesive from the vinyl... Thank you for helping. I had the best results with the heat gun and a plastic scraper, I'm thinking it mighta been a old ice scraper, I picked it up at a flea market, had some Datsun dealers name on it so you know it was old. It did good till I heated it up and it started to melt, my dog came up and I started petting the dog and didn't realize the gun was blowing on the scraper.

I've had good luck on decal glue with both 91% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol and acetone, depending on what glue was used.

I suspect a lot of solvents will do the trick, but in my experience, those work without being too noxious. Acetone can be hard on acrylic paint and epoxy, so consider the substrate when choosing a solvent.

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you can find Zep chemicals Big orange that's what we used in the vinyl graphics company that I worked for.

I usually use lighter fluid but that's only on very small areas. Cuts through it like butter.

I used mineral spirits on paper towels and changed the towel frequently. Mineral spirits doesn't evaporate as quickly as some other solvents. When you think you got it all, wash it with Dawn to remove the residual. If you boat was like mine, the area around the graphic had faded and the outline was still there after removing it.

Good Luck =D>

Last resort is Gasolene. It cuts even the baked on hard goo.

goo be gone and a scraper

For anyone that's reading for future projects, (I haven't used this specifically, but have heard it works wonders) removing stickers etc. https://googone.com/products/sticker-lifter/

For cleaning the residue:
Goo Gone is less chemical harsh smelling that Goof Off, works great - https://googone.com/products/sticker-lifter/

and Goof off works well, kinda chemically smelling tho - https://www.goofoffproducts.com/

Both of the above I've used on fiberglass with no ill effects. The ONE drawback I found however, is that it DOES do a great job of cleaning the FG. Which means, in a case like this, you're gonna see the area you used the chemicals on as it brightens up the glass.... may end up doing the whole boat LOL

I have had good luck with WD-40 in removing adhesive residue on most of the decals I have had to remove. I have come across a few decals that WD-40 would not work on and tried Goof-Off and still had difficulty removing the residue. I found that brake cleaner worked well at removing the residue from those.

I finally found something that worked. XYLENE. A lady at sherwin Williams told me t was a slow evaporating product that was stronger than lacquer thinner. So I tried it. Regular paint thinner wouldn't cut it. This stuff did the trick, it would get he old sticker glue somewhat " gummy " and I used a bondo spreader to scrape it. The residue would dry back pretty quick, just had to somewhat work in small sections and somewhat fast. The xylene worked far bette than anything I tried. Hopefully now I will do a bit of sanding and prep for a new paint job.

Bear, if the Xylene is working, keep at it.

As KMixson said above, WD 40 works wonders on sticky stuff. You might consider hitting your area with the Xylene, and following with the WD40 to clean up the drying remains.

richg99

Eucalyptus oil is the best stuff, then tea tree oil.

They remove sticky residue like nobody's business. A product called goo off is also brilliant, its in an aerosol can.