Removing old stickers

Anyone have a good technique for taking stickers and numbers off a painted fiberglass body? Heat gun, rubber pad on an orbital, alcohol or some combination? If they don't come off clean I guess I could take the opportunity to repaint the body.

Heatgun and peel should get you 95-100% off. If you have some residue left over, I like Goo Gone but pretty much any adhesive remover is the right choice at that point.
-Mark

Hair dryer on low, heated slowly over the entire decal, start peeling as soon as it will. Heatguns are fine, but often easy to get way too hot.

Do not heat too quickly, or too hot. Just hot enough is enough. A plastic scraper can help.

Any adhesive left over should be removed with a “cool” solvent; like Prep-Sol, mineral spirits, alcohol, whatever works. It’s easy to go overboard with xylene or the like, but such solvents are often too “hot” and can ruin paint (or for other readers, dull the gelcoat).

Just go easy all-around. Former sign painter here, so this was a regular task.

Hair Dryer and Goo-Gone. Spray the stickers first and let them sit for a bit, then warm up the edges of the stickers with the hair dryer. I recommend "rolling up" the stickers as you remove them, it provides a little extra strength to the sticker and allows them to stay together a little better during removal. Patience is the key. After removing the sticker, spray the location again with Goo-Gone and wipe the residue away.

Careful to buy "Goo-Gone" NOT Goof-Off...They are to completely different products and Goof-Off will potentially remove paint.

Hair dryer and WD-40. WD-40 is great for removing adhesive and it won't hurt the paint

Thanks everyone! Now I gotta go steal my wife's hair dryer...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hdsporty1988

Hair dryer and WD-40. WD-40 is great for removing adhesive and it won't hurt the paint

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While WD-40 won't hurt the paint, it will give the paint an affinity for dust and grime. After a while it will look terrible.

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