Vinyl boat letter removal?

[FilBrown]

It might sound scary but I've tried a real good heat gun with a range from 50 to 300 degrees on a range of settings to try moving vinyl. I've also tried a rubber "toffee" wheel and found that if you spin it to hard or apply to much pressure it will leave a brown burnt tinge to the gel coat.
It might sound harsh but if its used at a low angle to the surface it wont mark the gel coat and takes the vinyl off like wallpaper.

[Jman]

Did our new old boat with the eraser wheel (gum wheel), looks like a giant pencil eraser. Load it into your drill. Using heat and finger nails we managed two letters of the port of call in an hour. Using gum eraser whole thing was gone in 10 minutes. We bought ours on line for about $12.

[Octopussy]

Originally Posted by fkittson

3M eraser wheel. Put it in your cordless drill and go at it. After you have it off A little Thinners will get rid of any remaining glue

I just bought one of these and tried it out. It was awesome. It took the lettering right off. And, it was quick and easy.

I didn't have time to go back over it with solvent, it was freezing out today (and still raining)!

Just wanted to let people know that this thing worked extremely well.

Cheers,
Octopussy

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[carstenb]

Hairdryer and sharp putty knife. Diluted acetone if there is any glue residue. But actually, try some straight shot rubbing alcohol first. Just little and a light touch after the hair dryer.

[Richard_W]

The heat gun or hair dryer to remove the lettering. Any goo remover (just read the label first) would work, or mineral spirits, or diluted acetone. Mineral spirits take a few passes to remove softened goo but are safe on gelcoat, acetone is faster but reacts with gelcoat so be measured and quick.

Do not use anything sharp nor abrasive unless you are planning to do gelcoat compounding, which you might need to do anyway ... the gelcoat under the existing lettering will be shiny new.

[sww914]

I've removed decals from the entire SCE (Southern California Edison) fleet, dozens of UPS trucks, and hundreds of racecars as well as countless other vehicles. I use an Astro stripe eraser wheel in a drill.

[gramos]

I am amazed that no one here has used the simplest , quickest , least risky method for removing vinyl lettering .

Boil the kettle and pour it straight over the vinyl put a fingernail under a corner and peel it off ! no tools required .
most commercial signwriters do it this way .