I used the 8" 3M eraser wheel with a Milwaukie angle buffer on my 34' rig. Took me about a week to get everything off; not particularly hard but tedious.
Jon
92 Ultrastar
5.9 Cummins, MC16-FD Oshkosh
jauguston wrote: It is a big job. The 3-M decal eraser wheel is probably the easiest way but not easy. The wheels come in several sizes. Bigger is easier.
go to the auto paint store and get a 3m decal remover wheel. it is a cream colored rubber wheel about 3 inches in diameter. it fits in a drill. dont overdo the pressure, or the speed, and it takes the decals off easily. too much pressure leaves a brown mark(burn). i took all the decals off a 39 foot chieftain in a couple of afternoons. not fun but easier than a heat gun. too much heat softens the gel coat, and you can gouge the finish, even with a plastic scraper. i could only find the 3 inch. other sizes appear to be available.
If you have a lot to do I would recommend the 8" wheel rather than a 3" one. A angle buffer will be the right speed. A angle grinder will be too fast and generate too much heat on the surface.
imgoin4it wrote: A little heat, sometimes direct sun is enough, and maybe a plastic putty knife made for that purpoase. May have to go to an auto paint supplier for the putty knife. Then W-D 40 to remove the last of the adhesive.
Thanks so much for your advice. Using your technique with a hair dryer and a plastic putty knife, it took me about 10 minutes to remove the entire decal. With a little finish work with Meguiar's Flagship Premium Cleaner/Wax you can't even tell that there was ever a decal there.
* This post was
edited 04/26/12 02:32pm by viajante *
Before you remove the decal you mite check with the Itasca factory and see if you can get new decal. I have a 1999 fleetwood and i had a stripping company remove the southwind logo and he prepped the old decals ,not remove,then we changed colors,and i got the southwind logo from fleetwood,and he installed them looks like a new rv. My nabor spent $8,000 to have a bodyshop remove all his decals and paint,boy he is not happy (mine cost 1000) and he said mine looks better.
I have a 37' Fuzion and the decals started to come off on one side. Then I had to park it on the opposite side of the house and those started to come off. Got lucky and had a full set shipped to me under warranty, but they don't pay for removal and installation.
It was not too hard to get the dark decals off with a heat gun, but the light colored ones left a lot of decal adhesive behind. I tried everything to get it off (W-D 40, Alcohol like the dealer recommended, paint thinner, etc.) but it was a total pain. Ended up using Goo Gone and it worked well with a razor blade. Can't seem to get every bit of it off and you notice once the trailer gets dirty.
You could see the shadowing from the stickers for sure. I thought since my trailer was not too old and I wash it quite often that it would take years for the shadowing to go away.
I ended up getting 3M Marine Restorer and Wax. I was amazed how well this stuff worked. It is a lot of work, but I was able to do my whole trailer in 2 days and it looks GREAT. The shadowing is still there, but you can hardly tell. It easily took off what remaining adhesive was left from the decals too. My entire trailer looks like glass now.
I am going to leave it that way and not even put the new decals on until I sell it someday.
Total job removing decals and restoring was 3-4 days by myself and cost $40.
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