stickers

[mikeyo]

hi i ordered new stickers for the front and back from the club. the big ones. how should i go about taking off the old ones and putting the new ones on right? thanks.

[Andy Illes]

I did mine and the new ones make a huge difference... they look great.

Use a hear gun or hair drier to heat a corner of the old decal, then get under it with a sharp chisel and follow the heat.  I was lucky, mine both came off in one piece.  I did had some adhesive stay on, and you HAVE to get it off, or it wil show through the new decals.  Lacquer thinner on a rag worked for me.

To apply the new ones after the surface is absolutely clean, apply a soap/water mix to the surface... remove the backing from a new decal and apply it over the outline of the old one.  The soapy water will let you slide it around to get it just righ.  Then use some sortta fairly stiff squeegie and working from the center out, just "wipe" the decal down, moving bubbles, etc out.  The soapy water will dry and you'll have perfect decals...

Do NOT try to apply the new decals "dry"... it'll be fulla wrinkles, bubbles and just plain look like crap.  Good luck.

[dig]

Andy nailed it. I did mine yesterday, and I took a bunch of pictures during the process. I am still resizing and writing notes, but should have them up in the next couple of days.

The only thing I did different was I used a razor blade and gently scraped the decal up. Then I used some solvent to get the rest of the dried-on stickey stuff off. The heat gun / blow dryer is a good way to go, but I was worried that I would warp or bubble the fiberglass. Not sure how real that is, but I need to minimize possible mess-ups because of the way I do things


--dig

[Shayne]

Taking the old ones off -
A hair dryer to heat it up will help get the sticker off in as few pieces as possible.  Then use Goof Off or WD-40 to get the sticker goo off.  Then I use denatured alcohol to get the oil residue and the remainder of the sticker goo off.


To put the new one on -
Put some water in a spray bottle with a couple drops if liquid soap.  Get the area for the sticker good and wet.  Pull the backing off the sticker and lightly apply it to the wet area.  The idea is to let it 'float' there so you can position it to be exactly where you want it.  Straight etc...  Once you hve it there, start from the center and squeegee the water out from under it.

[Shayne]

hahaha.. hows THAT for service?  

[mikeyo]

thanks for the prompt and ingenious sticker solutions!

[Andy Illes]

Always a day late and a dollar short, huh Shayne???      

Not to worry about getting things too hot.   WAY before you can do any kind of damage to the fiberglass, the old decal'd lettcha know.... it'll start curling into all kinds of interesting shapes, melting apart, etc.  Guess how I know?   :oops:   Just heat a corner till you can just start lifting it, then just move the heat along as you're pulling the decal away.  About 99% will come off, leaveing just little chunks mostly around the edges.... that's where you start chiseling/razoring, again, with a little heat.

I prefer lacquer thinner to get whatever goo's left is it doesn't leave any kind of residue, and you can go right to applying the new decal.

[bigray]

And for those of you who have seen folks riding around with the rear window tinted and the tint has more bubbles than a ruffle potatochip has waves.......they didn't used soapy water when trying to tint their window at home in the drive way.

Another tip is when you are doing a large window, position the tint to the outside of the window you are tinting. Use some scotch tape to keep it in place and make the necessary cut.  Make things a whole lot simpler.

Also, if the window is concaved. Use a hair dryer to mold it like the window once you have it in place with scotch tape.

Just tips I've picked up here and there. Hope it helps!

It's easily. I tinted my back window and one of my side ones. I haven't had time to do the others.


Keep saying I'll do it while I'm camping and the kiddo's are sleeping. YEA RIGHT!

[dig]

I finally had a chance to go thru my pictures. You can see what I did here - http://www.fnsweet.com/pics/rv/decal/index.shtml



--dig

[hloxford1]

Followed all of your suggestions to remove old decals using hair dryer and razor and even followed directions on using soapy water and squeege to apply new ones.
Took less than 30 minutes, as I assembled all supplies needed first. No running around and searching for "how To" info.
Thank you for all the great help.
Hannah