Removing decals from aluminum trailer

[lat905]

hey all,

I recently picked up a used enclosed motorcycle trailer. Its older but in nice shape. Only issue is the previous owner applied a bunch of Harley-Davidson decals on the exterior. They are old and ugly, plus I ride a Victory....

I need advice on the best way to remove them without damaging the trailer. Some are on polished aluminum pieces and some appear to be painted surfaces.


Thanks!!!!

 

[mattblast]

Use steam. Best option is to use a wallpaper steamer if you have one. If not you can pick one up for about $50. The steam heats adhesive to loosen it then the sticker will easily peel up.

An alternative is a heat gun but be careful not to use too much heat or you will scorch the paint.

Once removed use lighter fluid or naphtha to remove any lingering adhesive.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Even without damaging the paint, you'll probably still see the effects of the decals being there for a long time.


Softest to harshest, use only the necessary force/means needed to remove the decals.

 

[mattblast]

You can remove the ghosting of old labels after removed using “Ghost Off”. Available at any sign supply shop.

http://www.crystaltek.us.com/crystaltek-ghost-off.htm

I’ve never used it myself but hear good things about it.

 

[MarkG]

I've been in the sign biz for 30 years or so and I use a heat gun, coupled with common sense and experience, followed by paint thinner to get the residual adhesive off. Many times, even on old stickers, if you can keep the right amount of heat on it with one hand while pulling the vinyl off with the other, it MAY come off in nice big pieces! There's a 'sweet spot' with the heat----too hot and it doesn't have the strength to pull off (vinyl gets too hot/soft), too cool and the adhesive won't let go. Depending on how brittle the old sticker has become, it may come off in bigger chunks or little chunks, and either come off cleanly or leave almost all of the adhesive behind! Which of these combinations it is will greatly determine how you enjoy your day.....

 

[mattblast]

I've been in the sign biz for 30 years or so

You have me beat. I’ve been in the sign business only 29 years! Did leave the industry for 18 months and came right back.

Give a steamer a try. It hits the sweet spot of temp to allow it to soften adhesive without making vinyl too soft to pull.

 

[STClurker]

Eraser wheel works great, I believe Napa has them. I've used it for taking decals ofd and it's amazing how wellbit works

 

[niget2002]

Sell the victory and buy a Harley

(someone had to say it)

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[brewchief]

I've stripped decals off of a bunch of service trucks over the years, with the right amount off heat you can get some decals to peal pretty decent, other decals won't come off clean no matter what, the older and more sun baked decals come off a lot harder. We have found the easiest way is to drop the truck off at our sign guy and let him deal with it, we can get a 12' van with decals on the sides and front and rear stripped for a couple hundred bucks.

 

[BigEd]

I've been told that WD-40 works well.
No personal experience though.

 

[lat905]

Sell the victory and buy a Harley

(someone had to say it)

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

I knew that had to come at some point...LOL.

HD's are just too small for me. They all feel like I'm sitting on top of the tank. I really wanted a Street Glide until I rode one...

 

[lat905]

Thats for the advice guys.

I'll try some heat and see how far I get.

 

[Garett]

Ideally you want heat on it so the adhesive comes off with the sticker.

If your stickers are old and break apart it'll be a pain to remove.

I just spent 6 hours over 2 days removing the old vinyl wrap from the hood of my ex sheriff suburban, I used goo gone after trying wd40 and winded with ammonia. The goo gone worked the best and is paint surface safe, if was still a ton of manual labour.

 

[barks]

Decals or stickers?

 

[maxpat82]

Regular hair dryer will do the trick to soften the glue and peel the sticker.

What you don't want is to remove the sticker and leave the glue there. it's a PITA to remove.

To remove the glue residu (whatever you do, it's 100$ sure there will be residu at least around all the edge), you just take your favorite degreaser (diluted a bit) and scrub with a cotton rag.

Like other have said: if the sticker have been there for a long time, you will still see the " sticker imprint" in the paint or any other finishes of the trailer

 

[dthor68]

The quickest and most harmless way would be to use an eraser wheel in your drill. Just google "removing stickers/pin-striping from car" and click on videos. There are several companies that make them. Although the 3M unit is probably best, the others are just as good and half the cost.

 

[dthor68]

Ideally you want heat on it so the adhesive comes off with the sticker.

If your stickers are old and break apart it'll be a pain to remove.

I just spent 6 hours over 2 days removing the old vinyl wrap from the hood of my ex sheriff suburban, I used goo gone after trying wd40 and winded with ammonia. The goo gone worked the best and is paint surface safe, if was still a ton of manual labour.

Old stuff comes off easy with an eraser wheel! They also make something that works well for removing wrap, forget what it is called?

 

[bwringer]

Good idea to remove the stickers.

I've never understood the burning need some people have to advertise what sorts of goodies might be inside their trailers.

Unless a territorial Rottweiler lives in it 24/7, anonymous and bland is best...

 

[Firebrick43]

Good idea to remove the stickers.

I've never understood the burning need some people have to advertise what sorts of goodies might be inside their trailers.

Unless a territorial Rottweiler lives in it 24/7, anonymous and bland is best...

I have come to the understanding that I will never understand the things people do to thier vehicles. Along with Harley stickers many around here have the browning name or buck mark in their back window.(or glock stickers) I will ask what model of browning they keep in their truck and just get a dumbfounded look? Full half don't know that browning is a gun manufacture??? A few have removed them when they realize that I deduced they are CCW and have one possibly in the vehicle

Hell the other day I saw a low rider jeep and a dodge caravan with a fake hood scoop and fake carbon fiber vinyl along the rocker very poorly applied.

 

[Worsedog]

If you end up trying the eraser wheels be very careful. They work wonderfully on properly applied and cured automotive paint, but many of the pre-painted aluminum panels that trailers are built out of have very soft paint on them.

You don't want to know how I know this.

 

[hippie2cams]

I don't care how you remove your stickers they are going to show that they were there because the vinyl or paint won't be faded where they were applied

 

[Dirtydan69]

If you end up trying the eraser wheels be very careful. They work wonderfully on properly applied and cured automotive paint, but many of the pre-painted aluminum panels that trailers are built out of have very soft paint on them.

You don't want to know how I know this.

I’ll second this statement. I had poor results on an improply painted and cured used truck. Worked great until I hit the passenger door.

 

[niget2002]

I knew that had to come at some point...LOL.

HD's are just too small for me. They all feel like I'm sitting on top of the tank. I really wanted a Street Glide until I rode one...

I'll give you that. HDs usually take a little work to get them the way you want. I think they build them for the average sized person.

My dad is 6'6" and rides a street glide. He had to put a different seat, adjust the handlebars and get a taller windshield. He's on his 3rd street glide, so each time he trades one in, he puts the stock stuff back on. HD keeps coming out with a new shade of red every 3 years or so that he just 'has to have'. I think his last bike had 80k miles when he traded it in.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[johnnyradiant]

I've been told that WD-40 works well.
No personal experience though.

I've used WD-40 with great success over the years. It's a good tool, the problem is it doesn't work with all adhesives. It is generally safe to try on most things though, so it is often a starting point. Heat guns and steamers are things you need in the tool belt too. On a non-treated surface, if WD-40 didn't do anything right away I'd likly grab my heat gun next.

 

[4xdog]

3M makes a limonene-based adhesive remover that’s fairly gentle with surfaces and if you’re not in a big hurry does well with residual adhesive. It’s not so volatile that it leaves right away, so one can spray, let soak, and come back ten or fifteen minutes later when the adhesive is softened. Even with this it may take several rounds to get off some old remnants.

Here's a technical data sheet:
https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/224566O/adhesive-remover-citrus-base.pdf

 

[Parrothead]

Eraser wheel works great, I believe Napa has them. I've used it for taking decals ofd and it's amazing how well it works

This is what I use to remove old pinstripes from cars (I hate pinstripes). Works great!!!

As others said, be careful of soft paint however.

ABN Rubber Eraser Wheel 4” Inch Pad & Adapter 1-Pack – Pinstripe, Adhesive Remover, Vinyl Decal, Graphics Removal Tool https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018WG2XYE/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Don’t even need to leave the couch.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Use steam. Best option is to use a wallpaper steamer if you have one. If not you can pick one up for about $50. The steam heats adhesive to loosen it then the sticker will easily peel up.

An alternative is a heat gun but be careful not to use too much heat or you will scorch the paint.

Once removed use lighter fluid or naphtha to remove any lingering adhesive.

Heat gun and naptha for me. Then you'll have to polish the rest of the aluminum & compound the painted areas to match the protected spots where the stickers were.

Tommy

 

[jsaw]

Castle Chemical , a company local to me makes a citrus based cleaner called Big E. We have used it to remove decals , stickers, and vinyl graphics. Put some on and let it sit for a few minutes, and the adhesive comes right off It works better than anything else we have tried. Im sure other companies must make similar products

 

[Miss the Pontiacs]

I purchased a leased vehicle from a buddy of mine. He kept in great condition and the price was right. He had gotten a repaint on warranty, I didn’t like the sound of that but again good value for the money. The dealership pulled their press on tag off the car but didn’t have the brains to clean off the glue residue. You could see it through the repaint.
I would think some WD40 and some elbow grease would have done the job.

 

[Falcon67]

The quickest and most harmless way would be to use an eraser wheel in your drill.

This. Having owned several enclosed trailers if you use pretty much ANY solvent on the trailer you WILL take the paint off. They do not - apparently - do a very heavy application of paint on any of the box trailers. That includes the new $24,000 unit sitting in the driveway. Simple Green is about the strongest thing you can put on them and you better not let that sit long.

 

[StormcrowAz]

I just went through this exact thing last week. Removing a Harley sticker from my cargo trailer. Previous owner's sticker, no idea how long it's been there. Used a heat gun and was able to peel most of it off in big pieces without much difficulty. Left behind the sticky residue which I attacked with Goo-Gone with mixed results. Seemed to take most of it off but still left behind a slightly tacky surface. Been working on installing a window A/C unit and you can see here where dirt/dust has collected where it used to be.

20180526_135951

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Goo-gone is garbage. It will remove adhesives for sure, but it will also very likely ruin any underlying paint.

Tommy

 

[aczr2k]

Rapid Remover is what I have used, worked great no damage to the paint. Heat didn't work very well vinyl was old/dry and cracked.

http://rapidtac.com/rapid-remover.html

 

[tthornto]

The lazy solution is to get a bigger sticker and put it over the top of the Harley one. You might see the outline of the decal underneath when up close though.

 

[lat905]

I don't care how you remove your stickers they are going to show that they were there because the vinyl or paint won't be faded where they were applied

I'm aware. There is already some of that from previous signage on the trailer, apparently one of the previous owners was a business of some kind. I may go back and paint it at some point.

But for the price I paid, I'm not mad

 

[lat905]

so, some of the stickers came off pretty good with heat. A couple just wouldn't budge, so I used an eraser wheel on those. Still gotta go back and clean off residue, I got the 3M adhesive remover for that.

Thanks for the advice!!!

 

[rburke65]

I think @ good hair dryer and/or a heat gun.

 

[Falcon67]

I think @ good hair dryer and/or a heat gun.

I'll post pics if you like of a heat gun sticker removal and the missing paint from a race car door. Switched to the eraser and no more issues.