Advice plese.
Author
Discussion

poptosis

Original Poster:

850 posts

277 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
Mrs poptosis here.

I have a small dinghy that I'm tidying up. Does anyone know a good trick to remove stickers quickly. Its a Topper dinghy so it has a plsatic hull.

The sticker is approx 150 x 3cm along the waterline. The boat is 10-15 years old (I guess) and these stickers look poor. Part of the row is peeling away by itself so I want the lot off. It has just taken me 20 mins to remove 10cm worth of length using a stanley blade but this is scratching the plastic too.

I know you can get adhesive remover but I'm not sure if that would work on this type of material.

Thank you.

paulhol

482 posts

272 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
on our boat we used adhesive remover and one of the plastering trowel type things. be warned though if the sticker has been there a while you are gonna have horrendous sun fading marks

406tm

3,636 posts

284 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
A hair dryer is usually goo for removing stickers

HTH

Dave

406TM

poptosis

Original Poster:

850 posts

277 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
paulhol said:
on our boat we used adhesive remover and one of the plastering trowel type things. be warned though if the sticker has been there a while you are gonna have horrendous sun fading marks


I know, any ideas on how to bring the boat back to its original white shine?

paulhol

482 posts

272 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
poptosis said:
paulhol said:
on our boat we used adhesive remover and one of the plastering trowel type things. be warned though if the sticker has been there a while you are gonna have horrendous sun fading marks


I know, any ideas on how to bring the boat back to its original white shine?


we have t-cutted it countless times and come to the conclusion that you can improve it but you'll never get rid of it

bga

8,134 posts

282 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
poptosis said:
paulhol said:
on our boat we used adhesive remover and one of the plastering trowel type things. be warned though if the sticker has been there a while you are gonna have horrendous sun fading marks


I know, any ideas on how to bring the boat back to its original white shine?

You can get some t-cut like cutting compound (can't remember what it's called) which will take off the very top layer of gel coat. You really need an electric buffer or drill attachment to do it properly.
I used it on a laser hull a few years ago & it came up a treat.

poptosis

Original Poster:

850 posts

277 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
Thanks all.

jon h

863 posts

315 months

Sunday 29th January 2006
quotequote all
bga said:
poptosis said:
paulhol said:
on our boat we used adhesive remover and one of the plastering trowel type things. be warned though if the sticker has been there a while you are gonna have horrendous sun fading marks


I know, any ideas on how to bring the boat back to its original white shine?

You can get some t-cut like cutting compound (can't remember what it's called) which will take off the very top layer of gel coat. You really need an electric buffer or drill attachment to do it properly.
I used it on a laser hull a few years ago & it came up a treat.


The thing with a Topper (my first dinghy, when I was 14) is it is injection moulded plastic, not GRP, so the various products available to sort GRP hulls will not really do the job.
To get the sticker off, us a heat source such as a hair dryer to soften the adhesive. Any residue can be removed by a suitable solvent. Autoglym intensive tar remover works well on cars for this job, but test it on the plastic hull first. Due to the plastic nature of the hull, you could try using a PVC cleaner, sold for use on uPVC windows. For the scratches which are probably on the bottom, I once used a razor blade in a suitable holder. The edges of the scratches become raised, so by running a blade CAREFULLY over the length of the scratch, the raised plastic either side of the scratch can be brought back down to the original level to give a smoother feel.

Jon H