[deadbodyman]

anyone ever had to remove vinyl from a van ???its covering the whole body .I tried to pull some off around the wheel opening and it seemed to come off ez enough but before I take on the three vans I was hoping someone could tell me what to expect ...I've done plenty of stripes and they can be a PITA ,this stuff dont seem the same

[boatbob2]

Hi,ive had good luck,by using a heat gun,just hold the gun far enough away,that the stripes get soft,wear gloves.

[matts37chev]

heat, lots of it, makes glue come with the vinyl decal and also makes it more flexible

I used to change giant vinyl decals quarterly on Texaco s' tankers
and we had some big graphics on my son s' race ATV

[MARTINSR]

I will bet you will be damn good at it after one panel. I have found that every material is different. Some, the more heat the better, others that heat only allows the plastic to pull off the glue leaving the glue on the panel which is a MUTHA to clean up.

One thing that has worked wonders for me is to stretch the material longer as I pull up and off. I have had wonderful experience with this method.

I do know one thing, you had better have a Time and materials estimate on this one. Giving a fixed priced could bite you BIG time. This could be a HUGE job making stripping the paint and repainting look good about half way into one.

Brian

[ogre]

Originally Posted by deadbodyman

anyone ever had to remove vinyl from a van ???its covering the whole body .I tried to pull some off around the wheel opening and it seemed to come off ez enough but before I take on the three vans I was hoping someone could tell me what to expect ...I've done plenty of stripes and they can be a PITA ,this stuff dont seem the same

you can't post a thread like this without throwing some pictures to back it up.
there has to be a story here too

[MARTINSR]

"Wrapping" a company car is getting more and more popular. The "Story" no doubt is they are selling the vans!

Brian

[swvalcon]

Before I retired and started my back yard shop I worked for several years at a large truck dealership in the body shop. We had to remove decals like that all the time on truck trade ins and lease returns. We would use a small butane torch like you get at home depot to soder pipes together. You can control your heat better with them then a heat gun. Although a heat gun will work just takes longer. When your doing a 24' x8' van body side you want it to go as fast as possible.Heat the decal get your finger nail under a edge and pull off as much as you can at a time. Before your done your fingers will be sore and finger prints almost gone. Good luck.

[cyclopsblown34]

Our company trucks are all wrapped. You ought to see the scratches that are telegraphed through the vinyl. The shop that did it screwed up lots of paint jobs on new trucks.

[Old Fool]

Years ago I removed some vinyl decals on an AMC Pacer woodie wagon.

I used a steam cleaner to heat the panel , worked quite well. Had some adhesive residue left behind ,but nothing a quart of naptha and a couple rags didnt take care of.

[ogre]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

"Wrapping" a company car is getting more and more popular. The "Story" no doubt is they are selling the vans!

Brian

i read ''wrapped in vinyl'' and assumed naugahyde
i had flash backs to the 70s van craze
when you assume...

[deadbodyman]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

"Wrapping" a company car is getting more and more popular. The "Story" no doubt is they are selling the vans!

Brian

Yes ,actually this company bought the vans from an electric company and have 7 days to get the old companies name off the vans..Even the windows have the crap on them ..it seems to peel off pretty ez, what little I tried of it,nothing like stripes where you need to get them started with a razor then razor scrape and pull at the same time.....I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever removed it before.. it really dont look like it'll be too hard ..

[swvalcon]

Deadbodyman. As I said in earlier post I've removed tons of these decal jobs when I worked at the truck dearship plus put some on. Use a small butaine or propane trouch and warm the decal then pull it off. I would take a propane trouch and warm the decal. Just kind of run the heat over the decal and dont get it so hot it melts but it will be real warm to the fingers when you start to peel it. Thats where the sore fingers come in after awhile but its part of the job. Pull the decal with one hand and let the trouch burn in the other so your not always relighting it. The newer ones with the built in lighter work the best.If you get it to hot you will mark the paint. We had to remove decals from 24-26' van body trucks and it was a weekly thing.What you've got there is easy. Try it from the top of a 14' latter. Those vans you should be able to pull in less than 8-10 hrs complete. The most we ever got to do a big truck was about 20 hrs and that was if it was wrapped all the way around including the roll up door. And they would suck up the heat and pull the paint more times than not.

[deadbodyman]

The worst one I ever did was a pepsi delivery truck with those roll up doors,and I was a young guy then,so I can feel your pain Swvalcon .The only reason I'm even considering doing this is because these are the electricians that rewired the shop when the power pole went through the roof,They did a bang up job and got us back to work quick...I guess I should expect the worse and hope for the best.....when they come in I'll let you guys know how it went ,just in case someone gets a deal on a commercial vehicle thats been wraped....

[dtracy]

I've had a little experience with this and I found that if you could heat from the backside of the panel the decal would almost fall off. Be careful not to overheat the panel as it could soften the paint. Otherwise, it worked very well for me.

Dave.

[DanTwoLakes]

Originally Posted by swvalcon

Before I retired and started my back yard shop I worked for several years at a large truck dealership in the body shop. We had to remove decals like that all the time on truck trade ins and lease returns. We would use a small butane torch like you get at home depot to soder pipes together. You can control your heat better with them then a heat gun. Although a heat gun will work just takes longer. When your doing a 24' x8' van body side you want it to go as fast as possible.Heat the decal get your finger nail under a edge and pull off as much as you can at a time. Before your done your fingers will be sore and finger prints almost gone. Good luck.

I've got a heat gun from DeWalt that has digital heat settings, and the heat stays exactly at the right temperature. Model number D26960. It came with 3 attachments, one has a wide and narrow opening. I think the kit was $75.00.