Paint over cracked decals.

^^Thanks good info. I need to get off my rear and just do it. Our 5th is OK. The cabover has some decals cracked and faded.

I don’t think I did anything special other than a couple cleanings with TSP. The trick is to go by your local automotive paint dealer and buy a few rolls of striping tape to make the designs crisp and even. I think I used mostly 3/8” tape. After it dries shoot on a clear enamel with your $20 harbor freight spray gun.

^^^Dang man, that looks good. So tell us more! After you steamed the decal off what prep did you do before painting??

Several years back, I removed and repainted the decals on our old 2004 Sandpiper. Using a wallpaper steamer and outlining the shadow, repainted the graphics with Krylon.

^^^^^^^^That would be the way to do it, then you could paint where the decal used to be.

Peel them with a razor blade scraper.

I painted over cracks a couple of years ago and would do it again. I have painted a stripe and also have painted just the cracked decal itself. IMO what looks worse, is crack left alone that is peeling off the decal.

I have used an artists brush and also spray can depending on the size of the job. Sure it would look better to pay thousands to have the stripes professional redone. But my rv is 13 years old, and I am not going to spend thousands to have colorful whirls and swirls redone. I fear to remove the stripes on my old rig would leave ugly shadows and reflections where the stripes were. I bought my rig new in 2005 and it still looks nice today.

This is my 2 cents for my rig.

Over the years I've read different responses to your question.

Some said you can't paint over the cracked/faded decals because of the years of wax and cleaners being applied. (I tend to agree with this theory)

Some said they have painted the decals with no problems.

I took option 3 and learned to live with the cracked/faded decals.

Is there a small section of the decals you could paint as a test and see how well it holds up?
If you do, let us know how well it held up..

You are not going to be happy with the results if you paint over cracked decals.

Strip the decals, mask and paint over them. Time consuming, yes, but its the only way to do it and not look like some s$%/ job. Any good auto paint store can make up some rattle cans of automotive paint in any color you want.