So I bought a Snap-On box about a month ago, its an 80th Anniversary Edition. Thats cool and all, I just wasn't digging the decals. I had read a few horror stories about how much of a hassle they were to remove and found a good thread on it by 67427vette here.
Needless to say, I thought I would have to pay my dues and spend the hours to get my box decal free. I dug out the heat gun, and figured since it is a work box and not a show queen I would go ahead and push it a little and really heat up the decal, if I torched the paint... well, then I would just live with it.
My decals have a mylar (sp) type plastic film over the graphic itself. It is a hard plastic and had some rigidity to it. I started on the front of the box lid and heated up a 4" square section to where it was too hot to touch. Once it was just tolerable I grabbed the corner and it started to come up in one sheet. I repeated this step until I got about half way, then, the mylar seperated from the graphic in one swift motion. Bummer. I repeated the heat and pull from the otherside and in about 8 minutes I was here...
Here you can see how the decal seperated
I had learned my lesson and it was this... take my time and heat up the adhesive until it was hot, then start tugging. So, I dove into the top section which is substantially larger. Here is the before shot...
I started by pulling up both corners...
Then I worked the corners into a vertical line...
And after about 15 minutes of work I had worked myself across the entire decal with just about an inch to go...
One thing I found is when I was using the "correct" amount of heat I wouldn't even get any residue from the adhesive, so everytime it started to leave some, I would stop tugging and reapply the heat. This is all the adhesive I had to deal with after pulling the decal...
Once I got the decal on the lid interior removed, I moved onto the bottom drawer that had one as well. I had that one off in no more than 4-5 minutes max... it went so fast I forgot to take a pic
So I needed to get back to the one spot that seperated from the plastic layer.. and man I can sympathize with 67427vette, this little 8" section took about as long as all the other sections combined! I would heat up a small section and then work it with a plastic scrapper and try to "smear" the decal against itself. It seemed to work fine and the paint (powder coat?) is just fine and looks as good as new...
I cleaned up the residue with a little goo gone and ended up with this
...
All in all, I like it without the decals a lot more, I know it is just a personal preference. In fact, I was able to save the decals since they came off in a one piece, I may try to mount them to a piece of hardboard and see if some collector would want them.
Anyhow here is where she sits now... so clean!
Needless to say, I thought I would have to pay my dues and spend the hours to get my box decal free. I dug out the heat gun, and figured since it is a work box and not a show queen I would go ahead and push it a little and really heat up the decal, if I torched the paint... well, then I would just live with it.
My decals have a mylar (sp) type plastic film over the graphic itself. It is a hard plastic and had some rigidity to it. I started on the front of the box lid and heated up a 4" square section to where it was too hot to touch. Once it was just tolerable I grabbed the corner and it started to come up in one sheet. I repeated this step until I got about half way, then, the mylar seperated from the graphic in one swift motion. Bummer. I repeated the heat and pull from the otherside and in about 8 minutes I was here...
Here you can see how the decal seperated
I had learned my lesson and it was this... take my time and heat up the adhesive until it was hot, then start tugging. So, I dove into the top section which is substantially larger. Here is the before shot...
I started by pulling up both corners...
Then I worked the corners into a vertical line...
And after about 15 minutes of work I had worked myself across the entire decal with just about an inch to go...
One thing I found is when I was using the "correct" amount of heat I wouldn't even get any residue from the adhesive, so everytime it started to leave some, I would stop tugging and reapply the heat. This is all the adhesive I had to deal with after pulling the decal...
Once I got the decal on the lid interior removed, I moved onto the bottom drawer that had one as well. I had that one off in no more than 4-5 minutes max... it went so fast I forgot to take a pic
So I needed to get back to the one spot that seperated from the plastic layer.. and man I can sympathize with 67427vette, this little 8" section took about as long as all the other sections combined! I would heat up a small section and then work it with a plastic scrapper and try to "smear" the decal against itself. It seemed to work fine and the paint (powder coat?) is just fine and looks as good as new...
I cleaned up the residue with a little goo gone and ended up with this
...
All in all, I like it without the decals a lot more, I know it is just a personal preference. In fact, I was able to save the decals since they came off in a one piece, I may try to mount them to a piece of hardboard and see if some collector would want them.
Anyhow here is where she sits now... so clean!