Taking off 40 year old decals

[John]

I am hoping someone can help us out. We have decided to restore our travel trailer. The decals (pin-stripping) are sun rotted and dried into the grooves. We tried sanding them off but it is very difficult to get into the grooves. Some are peeling and you can pull the small peel which feels hard, like metal, but you can't peel past the little part that is already peeling. I am trying to figure out the best way to get them off. Our ultimate goal is to paint it two toned and forgo decals in the restoration. Any ideas? Thank you!

[Lakota Wolf]

Those old school decals can test your patience,, Others have been succesful using a heat gun to help soften them to get them to peel up. To me, that is one of the hardest things to work with.

[John]

Yes, definitely been slow moving to date. I'll look into the heat gun. I was hopeful there was some miracle product that would take them off with ease. Glad it's a small camper but they are on all 4 sides. Thanks for the speedy reply!

[Lakota Wolf]

Acetone has been tried but not very good results,, tends to damage the underlying metal,

I wish there was a wonder product like *Wonder remover by Ronco,, wipe on wipe off,, But thats only on TV,,,

[Russell E Johnson]

When I took the ones off my 84 Southwind I used a heat gun to soften the glue and a plastic scraper to peel them off then used GooGon to remove the glue residue. Just took a lot of patience and elbow grease. The toughest ones I used an eraser wheel on an electric drill. Did a good job too, but you still have to use the GooGon to remove the glue residue.