There's still some oxidation and ghost lettering under the poli glow at the moment. Before removing the ghosted decals, the illustration or lettering must be removed. I removed two badly worn and cracked vinyl stripes and could not get rid of the ugly ghost. The stripes were on for 15 years in the tropics. If you have ever seen a Black Bra on the front of a car and years later when they remove it, the paint underneath is in perfect condition and the rest looks like crud. However, the original name of the boat (we're the third owners) is still fairly easily seen as "ghost… The fine grits would not remove the ghost so as a last resort before painting I dry sanded with 320 grit using an orbital sander to get the stripe area down (it was raised relative to adjacent areas) and blend in the color. Re: decal "ghost shadow" Can you post pics? If there’s a name on the boat already, she has the yard remove it (see “Exorcising Ghost Names” on page 96), but preps the resulting surface herself: She washes and de-waxes, then wipes it with denatured alcohol before painting. This would be against the law! Jan 29, 2016 - live. I had the previous owner remove the name and was left with the glue residue outline. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Hold the scraper as close to flat against the boat surface as possible and start slicing across the butt edge of the decal where it meets the boat. Rinse from top to bottom and watch the the oxidation flow away. Privacy Guaranteed - your email is never shared with anyone, opt out any time. Ghosting on boat after removing letters Here's a common issue and that's the ghosting left in the hull after your remove stickers, graphics or lettering. By using our site, you agree to our. With an endless array of vinyl graphics and stickers that can be found on vehicles, many people find themselves faced with the challenge to remove decals. Phantom of the Aqua, a 45-foot sailboat, ran aground after her owner abandoned ship while sailing to the U.S. Virgin Islands.She sat on the beach for six months and soon became a popular tourist attraction. Don't try to do this while the boats in the water, I know this sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised at what some people try to do. If you take these letters off, don't take the boat out without putting new ones on. If that's the case, you can't remove it, … Imagine trying to slice roast beef so think you can see through it. - posted in Sledding - General Discussion: I did the search and read everything, but nothing was mentioned. How do I correct this? You’ll probably notice the ghost lettering seems a bit lighter. To create this article, 17 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. On my boat I used the Garry Dean Gel Coat compound when I changed stickers and had ghosting. wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. Razor blades are EXTREMELY sharp, be careful not to hurt yourself or others. About the only thing you can do to try to remove the ghosting is to either, Compound the hull using an aggressive cutting compound with a … Use some light rubbing compound, then use polish. Just 10 days before Halloween 2017, a ghost ship washed up on South Walton Beach, Florida. How do I put vinyl strips as lettering on the side of my boat? I removed the lettering from my fiberglass boat, but there is discoloring where the letters had been. Removing decals might seem like a straight forward and simple task to the casual observer. Can this ghosting be removed by polishing the paint? This product restores weather exposed surfaces and easily gets rid of ghost sign images from vehicle surfaces. Surf City Garage made a stop on the Welcome To Your Weekend Tour over at Dan's Garage to help remove ghosted lettering from paint, glass and plastic. This article has been viewed 127,148 times. Removing stick on lettering can get a little difficult at times. Then I worked up to 600 wet, 1200 wet and 2000 wet before buffing polishing and waking. Telegra.ph is a minimalist publishing tool that allows you to create richly formatted posts and push them to the Web in just a click. But you can only wetsand so much before you get thru the gelcoat. So I decided to rename my boat, it had vinyl lettering on the fiberglass hull, no paint.I was able to just peel each letter off very easily without use of a heatgun and there was no sticky residue left over at all, but even though all the black is off, all the letters are still there, but the shadow is like a tan/yellow tint and still very visible. You can do it in the process mentioned below: Wash the surrounding area of the sticker to clean the debris. Brandon lays out the lettering and any graphics by hand. Unfortunately, there’s no good way to solve this problem short of repainting your whole boat! The vinyl eraser will remove DOT reflective tape and adhesives as well as vinyl lettering, decals, graphics and pinstripes. Skin may be sensitive to alcohol. Some states require numbers to be displayed in specific ares of your boat. Simply spray onto a dry oxidized surface, wait approximately one minute and then agitate with a soft truck brush. To create this article, 17 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Remove the decals revealing "virgin" (non-faded) gelcoat. Heat up the surface of the sticker then while heating the sticker slowly start to peel back the sticker with your nails or a razor blade once you have it started it is best to use your hands and slowly pull while heating what is still sticking this method will leave no sticky residue. dream. The issue is that gell coat fades dark when exposed to sunlight. % of people told us that this article helped them. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Re: What compound to use on removing ghost shading after removing lettering I removed the ghosting on my Audi (old emblems) using the FG400. The paint underneath has been sealed from the weather and sun. The stripes were on for 15 years in the tropics. Wetsanding usually brings it back to original finish. Technique 1 Scraping: Spray the decal with your mixture of soapy water. Rinse from top to bottom and watch the the oxidation flow away. I removed my decals, used 3M Adhesion remover to clean the glue off. Spoke to the guy at "A Brilliant Finish" and he said the only way to remove it was to sand it off. The problem is the paint has been preserved (where lettering was covering) and the rest wasn't (exposed). GHOST-OFF is a ready to use, non-toxic, biodegradable commercial strength solvent. View All; Fishing Rods; Fishing Reels; Fishing Rod & Reel Combos; Fishing Tools & Tackle Boxes; Fishing Line; Fly Fishing; Fishing Bait & Fishing Lures Rub it into the paint in one direction until it's dry and then keep applying. I used a scraper to get them off, the sticky residue was removed with acetone. For example, in Florida we have to have FL numbers on the boat. Unlike other solid vinyl removal products, it does not “sand” the surface, creating heat and potentially damaging the paint or substrate. The fine grits would not remove the ghost so as a last resort before painting I dry sanded with 320 grit using an orbital sander to get the stripe area down (it was raised relative to adjacent areas) and blend in the color. Ghost-Off is a ready to use, non-toxic, biodegradable commercial strength solvent. Just spray Ghost Off onto the oxidized surface, wait about a minute and agitate the area with a soft brush. I then used hot soapy water to clean then straight hot water afterwards. Follow with some spray wax like Turtle Was Express Shine. Depending on how long the lettering has been applied that you are removing, you may need to repeat the application of Ghost Off—we had to do it a few times. Which side of the sail should the sprit be? I doubt it is faded much at all. Wetsanding and polishing. wet sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper and the polish it out with a buffer. Just spray Ghost Off onto the oxidized surface, wait about a minute and agitate the area with a soft brush. The letters on my boat were old/cracked. We wanted to get our boat buffed out so she looks like new, but the PO applied Poli Glow to the boat prior to us purchasing it. Keep the razor blade parallel to the boat, sliding it between the boat and lettering to avoid scratches. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 127,148 times. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. For raised lettering, heat gun and braided fishing line. this was for the hailing port, which I may change. I got all of the residue off but there is a very faint ghost image in the paint: I darkened the photo slightly to show the outline. Telegraph posts also get beautiful Instant View pages on Telegram. wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. When you removed the boat lettering, what you’re seeing isn’t a discoloration caused by the vinyl, but the rest of the boat itself fading in color. I removed two badly worn and cracked vinyl stripes and could not get rid of the ugly ghost. Mine took less than a month to fade to uniformity. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/56\/Remove-Stick-On-Lettering-from-a-Boat-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Remove-Stick-On-Lettering-from-a-Boat-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/56\/Remove-Stick-On-Lettering-from-a-Boat-Step-1.jpg\/aid77896-v4-728px-Remove-Stick-On-Lettering-from-a-Boat-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"