Tony B
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What is the best way to remove vinyl lettering from a fiberglass boat?
Vinyl Lettering Removal
- Thread starter Tony B
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
RickB
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Heat Gun
HopCar
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3M Stripe Remover Wheel (Vinyl Eraser)
3M-7498 STRIPE WHEEL W/ARBOR - Amazon.com
Practical Sailor Mag liked it
3M-7498 STRIPE WHEEL W/ARBOR - Amazon.com
Practical Sailor Mag liked it
SomeSailor
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Yep. The wheels rock. You can usually make pretty quick work of them with a heat gun or hair dryer. A plain rubber eraser from Staples or the likes will work the same as the wheel on a smaller scale.
Blue Heron
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Heat Gun and slowly peel off
Tom.B
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Depending on its age, heat gun is the easiest, cheapest, and safest way to start. If it doesn't work then perhaps, move to other chemical methods. A heat gun worked fine for our 5 year-old lettering.
SomeSailor
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The wheels actually work very well. I do graphics as a side business and have used them many times. They won't hurt gelcoat at all, they just wear quickly and are often more expense and trouble than needed for a boat name.
They are just soft natural rubber and can't hurt gelcoat as long as you keep the RPMs down.
They are just soft natural rubber and can't hurt gelcoat as long as you keep the RPMs down.
Great Laker
Senior Member
Let the sun heat the lettering and gel behind it up, and use your finger nail to peal up a corner and slowly pull it off. If no sun, use a hair dryer to heat it up. Simple!
The first answer (a heat gun) was the best answer. Just yesterday I hellped a slip neighbor remove vinyl lettering from his dock box with a heat gun.
The mistake I see first timers make (and he was making it) is to not get the surface hot enough and to not heat a big enough area.
If the lettering tears or is hard to remove or the adhesive remains on the gelcoat, it's not hot enough. And don't just try to heat one letter, pull it off and move to the next. Heat several inches towards the next letter or section.
It takes a little practice but it works well.
The mistake I see first timers make (and he was making it) is to not get the surface hot enough and to not heat a big enough area.
If the lettering tears or is hard to remove or the adhesive remains on the gelcoat, it's not hot enough. And don't just try to heat one letter, pull it off and move to the next. Heat several inches towards the next letter or section.
It takes a little practice but it works well.
BruceK
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Heat guns are great for bubbling and removing paint so take care applying heat to sticker letters on a painted fibreglass surface.
Eucalyptus oil will remove glue residue from labels,price stickers,etc, probably easier to buy in Australia than USA, we have all those trees. BruceK
Eucalyptus oil will remove glue residue from labels,price stickers,etc, probably easier to buy in Australia than USA, we have all those trees. BruceK
Boydster
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I work in graphics full time, those suggesting heat followed by a solvent are correct, can't speak of the wheel system as I've never had need for one. Depending on how long the graphic has been in place, after removal you may see a ghost image due to either uv exposure fading the surrounding area or the constant expansion and contraction of the vinyl may have caused the gelcoat to "swell" a microscopic amount. Either way the best remedy I've found is to wet sand the area (thoroughly clean the area before starting) with 600 followed by 1000 and then buffing with 3M Finesse or Mequiar's. A drop or two of dishwashing liquid in the water is a big help with the sanding, I would also recommend using a rubber sanding block. If yours is a painted hull go very easy. The only downside to this technique is that the sanded/polished area may now likely look a lot better than the rest of the boat! - Boyd
Just to add a little blatant whoring, here's my business site www.stagecraftfilm.com
Just to add a little blatant whoring, here's my business site www.stagecraftfilm.com
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Pineapple Girl
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I used a hair dryer with great success. We have a heat gun as well but I started with the hair dryer out of caution and it worked just great so no need to bust out the big gun. I was actually surprised how easy it was with decade plus old lettering. Do have the ghost image (of the first AND second names) but didn't do anything about it... not that bad compared to the prior boat with the original name scored into the gel coat with lots of cross hatching. 
not sure if they'd used one of those wheel things to remove the lettering or someone got clever with an exacto knife or what...
not sure if they'd used one of those wheel things to remove the lettering or someone got clever with an exacto knife or what...The previous name of our boat was Grand Destiny (Alameda name). The name was beautifully painted on the transom. Shame to sand it off but neither of us like names on GBs that play on "Grand" or "Banks," so it had to go. Someone had cut the flying bridge nameboards down to just hold the nav lights so the name was on the sides of the flying bridge with custom vinyl lettering. We hadn't bought a heat gun yet so we, too, used a hair dryer and it worked great followed by citrus cleaner to get the gum off.
Before Grand Destiny the name had been Christopher Robin (Sausalito name). This had been in vinyl (I assume) letters on the transom on the white gelcoat between the teak transom planks and the caprail. The lettering had been on long enough for the gelcoat to swell (or the surrounding gelocoat to weather off). Whichever, when the light is just right from the side you can just make out the name.
I made new full-size teak nameboard/nav light holders for the sides of the flying bridge and name and hailing port boards to go on the teak transom. So we don't have any lettering on fiberglass now.
Bu every time I see the faint Christopher Robin on the transom I always wonder what the motivation was to give the boat that name. Probably an interesting story.
Pineapple Girl
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The prior boat's first name, that was etched into the transom apparently when the lettering was removed, was "SQUIRREL". This was on a J-42 sailboat.
Hmmmmm...
We have old vinyl lettering on the transom and will be removing it with a new "green acetone" product called Bio-Solv. We're actually using it all over the boat and will be making a couple of product demo videos. One video will specifically be about removing vinyl letters. I'll post it here when it's done.
HopCar
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Warning! Pointless story follows. Back in the late forties a friend of mine and her husband bought a boat named Olad. Olad had originally been named Whistle Binkie. She wanted to change the name back to Whistle Binkie. When she found out the price of gold leaf she decided that Olad was a fine name.
Hi Boydster - Quick reply: I'll start a new thread with an overview video we just made. And thanks for asking!
If I were to guess, my guess would be that the PO had two children, Christopher and Robin.
Or it was their kids' (or their) favorite story (Winnie the Pooh). Or they named the boat for CR's adventures. Or they named it for the fantasy land CR lived in. Or.......
I had forgotten about that story.
marinetrader
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Hair dryer...heat gun gets to hot....may blister your fiberglass if you get to close
RickB
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That's like saying "use a sharp stick, an electric drill may penetrate too deep if you push too hard."
Like any tool, a heat gun takes some thought and practice before you can use it properly. So - don't get to close!
Heat guns usually have at least two settings, "Low" and "High". If you're afraid the high setting might be too hot, just use the low setting.
I tried to point out in a prior post that it works best to heat a broad area, nit just the small spot you might be working on. To do this, you would not get too close.
A heat gun has many uses around the boat and around the home as well. Hair dryers are great for drying hair, heat guns are more suited to "tool" use.
Amen to that. A proper heat gun can be used to remove old brightwork finish, help get plumbing hoses on and off their fittings, dry a damp portion of a teak deck if you need to replace a plug..... long, long list of uses. The Makita we have has a dial on the back for a wide range of temperatures. The technique is to keep it moving and as Ron says, just don't get too close. You can judge how hot the surface is getting and adjust accordingly.
Don't forget shrinking the insulation on electrical connectors.
