Kitty-B-Gone

[rhagan]

In the process of de-commissioning my van, I had the joyful experience of pulling off all the decals. Here are some tips I used that others might find helpful. First I used a hair dryer to heat the letters off and then used my thumb to lift the edge of the letter off and then peel it off the rest of the way. That worked great until the next day and my thumbnail was VERY sore. Soooo, being a toolmaker by trade, I thought to my self, "Self, what tools can I use instead of a thumbnail?" I got a 6 inch scale (ruler). I use the kind that is 6 inches long and about a half inch wide. The kind with a radius on one end. I took a sharpening stone and stoned off the rough edges. I would use the rounded edge to GENTLY lift an edge of the decal. When the edge was barely lifted, I use a pair of Craftsman "mini" angle pliers, Cat. #45665 and grabbed the loose edge and pulled it right off. Then, I use De-Solv-It contractors solvent from Tru Value Hardware to wipe the glue off the van. Later I took it to the car wash and washed the van, and it looks like new. Hope this will be of help to someone. Drive Safely.
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[LDB]

Does the solvent you used prevent the shadow we see on most cargo boxes?

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA Life Member 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 5508, 5509, 5641
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
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Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Robsdad]

They also make a double edged plastic razor blade that can be purchased at any sign maker that deals in vinyl. Took some off of a trailer using them and it worked really well. The D Solve it works great to. Bought at Tru Value. LDB it will take the shadow effect off but requires a little elbow grease. Stay safe!
Robsdad

 

[Dreamer]

Thanks for the tip guys, I'm sure a lot of folks will appreciate the tip. How many times do we see trucks with the 'left-overs' from the last 2 companies!



Dreamer
Forums Administrator


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[theoldprof]

My signs were only on for about two years so not much fading was going on with the paint. I think a lot of the shadows are from the paint being fades.
Drive Safely
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[slfisher45]

An Exacto knife works better than razor blades and Goo B Gone works well also.

 

[joebob1_30132]

Come on fellas ..if you had signed a panther contract ..They would have done it for you. what a deal... $250.00 ..hey that s really nice of them offering that little service ...For that small fee (in ContrAct) who would want to waste there time fooling around with stickers. or waiting for descent load offers or what ever Da BIG Cat" on the prowl got going over there in Seville....

 

[slfisher45]

Didn't I read that you quit driving?

 

[theoldprof]

Yep, I is retired. Nothing to do but lounge around the house and stare at the Honeydew list.

Drive Safely:
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[dukesadog]

We used to own a decal removal business before selling it and moving to Florida. We stripped all 50+ Amway trucks in Ada Michigan without any residue or "ghosts" in 5 days. I think this is when they sold their OTR division down the river to the lowest bidder.

Anyway this is the easiest way to do it. Go buy a wagner wall paper steamer 45.00( what we used) if its windy and cold a heat gun is useless.
Put the steamer plate up there and let it sit on full steam for about 1 minute, you can have a helper hold it there.

Start all the corners with a carpet cutter blade ( saves the finger nails) you should be able to pull off large sections of decal and just follow behind the steamer plate.

Here is a secret the sign companies dont want you to know. You can "use" the orange based adhesive remover that costs 60.00 per gallon or you can use some unleaded gasoline on a rag. That stubborn glue will vanish before your eyes and it doesnt harm the paint. 90 % of the sign shops use the gas method and then just charge extra for the orange stuff to apease the EPA.

You could buy the fancy erasers that fit on a grinder but they make more of a mess than you had to begin with and its noisy.

The rag doesnt need to be soaked with gas, semi dry will work just as well. Do not smoke! while doing this.The reason Laquer thinner or Acetone doesn't work is that it evaporates before it gets on the surface.

Any Ghosts left over can be buffed out with a low speed buffer and a cleaner wax.

Signbusters Inc.
Grand Rapids MI.

 

[theoldprof]

D dawg.

Being cheap by nature, I used gas first. It didn't seem to take the residue goo off. Maybe I was using the cheap $3.06/gal instead of the $3.16 stuff.
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