Decals

You asked a question that depends on your skill and energy.Can't answer it.
Me I would have a pro remove them and prep and paint or coat the entire cap and mask and tape and paint the graphics. Probably only two colors, then clear it with urethane or the latest auto paint. You won't have to do anything further to it with two coats for 20 years. My 05 F150 older paint tech still looks new. The put on decals with short life to get it out the door. Most people don't seem to keep the units very long. Graphics and paint fade and it gets traded. Especially the corrugated stuff which is very hard to deal with. I have wondered if planned obselesance isn't the plan o as to sell more units next year and so on. Out here in Arizona I have sen thousands of towables and Mh parked fro a long time. I wonder if they got here and sold as too old for banks, 10 years, to be interested in financing for resale.

I've replaced mine and I hate to say it but it's a pain in the rear to try to do yourself.

First question to answer is do you just want to remove the decals, or to replace the decals. If replacing you need to find replacements or have a sign guy measure the old decals. Then take lots of pictures of the RV and decals so you can see where each decal is.

Now for the fun part. Get some plastic razor blades (looks like a razor blade but it's made out of plastic) and a heat gun. Start to heat a decal and hopefully you can pull the decals off in one piece. You have to be careful though as there is a really fine line between heating the decal enough to remove and heating it too much and it just goes all stretchy and gooey. On some of mine I had to use a lot of goof off to remove the decals and underlying adhesive.

With a corrugated RV, once the decals are off you'll probably want to pay a sign guy to reinstall the new ones. But plan on paying around 1,200 in labor alone. My friend owns a sign shop and helped me with mine. The first decal we tried to install had to bridge over the corrugations. We pretty quickly gave up and he called his subcontractor to come do the work. It took his subcontractor who does this kind of work for a living five hours to do all the decals.

I had a Sunline trailer with aluminum siding that ended up having some decals that needed to be removed. I found WD 40 to be pretty good at helping remove the decals and adhesive residue. I used a hair dryer as a heat gun and plastic putty knives. After removing the decals (white siding), there was some difference in the color so you could see where the decal was, but it wasn't anything that I worried about.

Since I didn't remove all of the decals, I didn't even consider replacing them. With a ten year old trailer, I wouldn't bother trying to replace the decals. But you could consider adding some after market pin striping or whatever is available that would be easier to install on the siding. Or, if you have the skills, spray paint your own striping/design.

It's a pain on aluminum compared to fiberglass as you need to be more careful.
Once removed, vinyl wrap is an option. Even if just a portion, or stripe, or simple pattern.
Although, if left outside, the vinyl is not going to last forever, maybe 5 years?

opnspaces wrote:
I've replaced mine and I hate to say it but it's a pain in the rear to try to do yourself.

First question to answer is do you just want to remove the decals, or to replace the decals. If replacing you need to find replacements or have a sign guy measure the old decals. Then take lots of pictures of the RV and decals so you can see where each decal is.

Now for the fun part. Get some plastic razor blades (looks like a razor blade but it's made out of plastic) and a heat gun. Start to heat a decal and hopefully you can pull the decals off in one piece. You have to be careful though as there is a really fine line between heating the decal enough to remove and heating it too much and it just goes all stretchy and gooey. On some of mine I had to use a lot of goof off to remove the decals and underlying adhesive.

With a corrugated RV, once the decals are off you'll probably want to pay a sign guy to reinstall the new ones. But plan on paying around 1,200 in labor alone. My friend owns a sign shop and helped me with mine. The first decal we tried to install had to bridge over the corrugations. We pretty quickly gave up and he called his subcontractor to come do the work. It took his subcontractor who does this kind of work for a living five hours to do all the decals.

I agree 100% , they are tough to deal with. I think I would rather take them off then put them back on . Getting them to come off without leaving adhesive is also a challenge. I have done a few on my previous fifth wheel, and it was smooth fiberglass .

It was very difficult to get the bigger decals back on smoothly , have to be extremely careful. There seemed to be a fine line between how much soapy water to use to be able move them if needed, and being able to squeege them smooth without a wrinkle or bubbles . I found with the bubbles to leave them alone ,and not try to get them pushed out. Just leave them . With a nice warm day the heat will take care of the small bubbles, or I have stuck a pin in them ,and that helped a little.