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Vinyl remover chemicals

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CentralSigns

New Member
I'm near beat by this removal job I'm doing now. Most times the 3m drill tool makes it an easier task. This craaaap vinyl has been there much too long, and its a bit too wide. Anyone find any new chemical removers that does the job without damaging the paint. The 3m tool is cooking the paint on a huge propane tank I'm working on, no matter how slow I spin it. Not sure how to remove the spots it leaves. You would think someone would design the perfect removal chemical, it be worth $$$$$$$$. Any new ideas that might help me out before this job gets the best of me.
 
Kottwitz-Graphics

Kottwitz-Graphics

New Member
Wall paper steamer, hands down.

I have found "miracle vinyl removers" are more of a waste of time. They make the vinyl slick, but don't work on the adhesive.
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
as I posted earlier this week...it took me 1.5 hours to remove a mylar decal 12" x 18".... heat gun, steamer, vinyl zapper all basically failed to get this decal off. In the end I had to use the Zapper and it was brutally slow. I suspect the decal may have been applied before the paint on the vehicle had cured if it were in for a paint job as I have never experienced anything quite like this in 25 years.

It would be great to find a liquid vinyl/mylar remover and I might pay any price to avoid going through that process again.
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
Tell the customer the tank needs re-painted. Sand it off and have it painted, then re-letter. This honestly will give you the best results and I am will to bet will take less time than what you are going to spend trying to not damage the paint, and still have faded and or damaged paint anyways. Sometimes it is better to not bend over backwards for a customer trying to save them money, costing you money in the long run.
 
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sagesign

New Member
I had meant to start a thread praising this product, I never did, so I'll sing it's praises here. This is all reflective, that should be a white reflective stripe behind the text. This reflective was 13 years old on a truck that had sat outside all of the time. I knew there was no way in h*ll this would come off, and I would not quote removal. I tried a product from Fellers - Reflective Vinyl-Off (they also make a regular Vinyl-Off), that claims to "quickly and easily remove the vinyl and adhesive". I was pretty skeptical but thought I would give it a try. It recommends the vinyl be warm, so I preheated the area, sprayed it on, and waited. Didn't do much at all. Sprayed it again, let it sit, and then took a steamer to it, and I couldn't believe the difference. I would say this easily cut the time in half. I also tried this on another removal of old vinyl that wasn't reflective and it helped there also. It's not going to magically make the vinyl fall off, but it did soften it, helped remove adhesive, and didn't affect the paint or plastic trim. I will definitely use this in the future, but I think that you must use a steamer to make it effective.
 

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gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
sagesign said:
I had meant to start a thread praising this product, I never did, so I'll sing it's praises here. This is all reflective, that should be a white reflective stripe behind the text. This reflective was 13 years old on a truck that had sat outside all of the time. I knew there was no way in h*ll this would come off, and I would not quote removal. I tried a product from Fellers - Reflective Vinyl-Off (they also make a regular Vinyl-Off), that claims to "quickly and easily remove the vinyl and adhesive". I was pretty skeptical but thought I would give it a try. It recommends the vinyl be warm, so I preheated the area, sprayed it on, and waited. Didn't do much at all. Sprayed it again, let it sit, and then took a steamer to it, and I couldn't believe the difference. I would say this easily cut the time in half. I also tried this on another removal of old vinyl that wasn't reflective and it helped there also. It's not going to magically make the vinyl fall off, but it did soften it, helped remove adhesive, and didn't affect the paint or plastic trim. I will definitely use this in the future, but I think that you must use a steamer to make it effective.
Click to expand...


Here is a link to the company that makes it
http://www.crystaltek.us.com/crystaltek-vinyl-off.htm
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
sometimes between the age of the paint/vinyl and weathering there is just no way to remove the vinyl with out damage. i have done a lot of removals and you just have to let the customer know best and worst case scenario up front. then let them decide what they want to pay for. removal 50% of the time will cost more than the new install because of the labor and tool/chemicals used. if the customer can't understand this when properly explained then i am not sure you want to do business with them. it will be more work and headaches for you down the road. i have seen some posts on here where people just won't do removals because of the problems.<br>i am in the process of doing a trailer for a friend of mine and he acquired the trailer through a trade/barter with one of his customers. 21ft box trailer it was in decent shape but the previous owner used it for his race car and it was not stored indoors. over a million race decals (well it seemed like that many...haha) in addition to his multi layered logo on all 4 sides. i started doing it with the vinyl zapper and it worked ok so because of the time it was taking i hired a guy who works with me part time to do the removal. it became such a mess with glue and took off some paint in some spots. i ended up having to wrap the front, back and i am working on a large graphic to cover the sides (once it warms up a little) luckily this customer is a friend of mine so he is understanding and we are working out the cost but i could easily see any other customer flipping out and making me pay to have the trailer repainted. i guess i couldn't argue since it was damaged while my guy was doing the removal.<br><br>moral of this long story is who needs the head aches
 
DirtyD

DirtyD

New Member
The 3M Remover is to be sprayed on the vinyl itself..It is a very strong chemical and best when only used with baked enamel paints
 
C

CentralSigns

New Member
Thanks for the advice. Trouble with this tank is its 60 ft long and outside in
-15 deg weather. Not only is it a miserable job its freakin cold too. This eliminates any steamers or cold sensitive chemicals. The tank needs repainted anyways the top has pitting from rust, that only adds to the problem. Customer knows it is what it is. So far we have spent 8 hours for a 20 ft decal and we are close to half done. We repainted the other tank in another lot last year and painted the logo on it, I agree sanding and repainting is much easier, but last tank cost them $6 K, and not sure they are ready for another hit again this year. They were just absorbed by a bigger company and we have changed out the logos on the whole fleet
 
Mosh

Mosh

New Member
Thanks for the advice. Trouble with this tank is its 60 ft long and outside in
-15 deg weather.
Click to expand...

If this job came to my shop it would wait for warmer weather, like April warm.
Ask the customer if they see any exterior painting going on this time of year. No wonder you are having problems, just too cold to do this type of work.
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
CentralSigns said:
Thanks for the advice. Trouble with this tank is its 60 ft long and outside in
-15 deg weather. Not only is it a miserable job its freakin cold too. This eliminates any steamers or cold sensitive chemicals. The tank needs repainted anyways the top has pitting from rust, that only adds to the problem. Customer knows it is what it is. So far we have spent 8 hours for a 20 ft decal and we are close to half done. We repainted the other tank in another lot last year and painted the logo on it, I agree sanding and repainting is much easier, but last tank cost them $6 K, and not sure they are ready for another hit again this year. They were just absorbed by a bigger company and we have changed out the logos on the whole fleet
Click to expand...

Who works outside in -15 degrees? insane!!! tell them to wait till spring...
 
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CentralSigns

New Member
I wore jeans the one day with longjohns. Big mistake got frostbite on my knee where it was leaning against the latter all day. Couldn't figure out what I did to get such a sore knee, till I looked at it closer. Sore knee for a while, now I wear snow pants, mitts and stop every hour to warm up for 10 min. You wait till spring guys are wimps. Got to get it done while the sun shines, if you don't do it someone else will. Plus all the rest of the work makes it all worth while. -15 is warm try working at -35, I lived in the north where it was -30 for 4 months and you could bet on -45 for at least couple weeks each year. Now thats cold. Impossible to work with vinyl below -20 it just rips, premask and all.
 
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