Question re: pinstripe removal results

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
Hello,
Decided to remove the upper pinstripes from my StarCraft (fiberglass, not tin). Got the eraser wheel - thing works awesome. However I'm left with what appears to be the stripes in gelcoat. See the attached photos. It's like the builder formed the gelcoat with uncolored stripes and then rolled color onto them. Is this the way it is? I guess Im left with it looking this way although it's a major upgrade from the ratty stripes.

Another question: using the eraser wheel it looks like I burned some brown rubber stuff into the finish. I hit it with the buffing wheel and a Polish compound. Made the gelcoat shine but didn't remove the discoloration. Wool pad with cutting creme next. Any suggestions on how to remove the discoloration?

Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • photo229190.jpg
    photo229190.jpg
    70.5 KB · Views: 1
  • photo229191.jpg
    photo229191.jpg
    70 KB · Views: 1

GA_Boater

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
May 24, 2011
Messages
49,038
Looks like old, dried out sticker stickum to me. Try some Goo Gone to see it comes off. The discoloration could be in the stickum too. Something cheap to try anyway.
 

ondarvr

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
11,527
The gel coat under the stripes will be identical to what's around it, it may be a slightly different color though. The gel coat under the tape will be the original color, the rest of the boat will have faded.
 

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
It looks like its dried out adhesive but hitting it with the polishing compoound, the buffer and a foam pad polished it to a serious shine. As if it has clear coat over it but its fiberglass so its like its part of the fiberglass and not adhesive left over from stripes.
 

smokeonthewater

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
9,838
yep the stripes protected the gelcoat under them while the rest oxidized... wet sanding and buffing the entire boat may bring it back but the easiest solution is applying a new stripe.


the brown discoloration is most likely where you got the gelcoat too hot with the wheel and it's probably permanent..

be VERY careful wet sanding and or high cut compound! Work SLOW, rinse OFTEN and look close for the slightest hint of color change... the gelcoat may be VERY thin and some spots thinner than others.

I once wet sanded a yellow boat and there were spots that started to show hints of black with only seconds of work. After the first Oh CRAP... progress got MUCH slower.....
 

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
The brown spots are from the eraser wheel. I'll do it more slowly. Hope I can get these out with compound. I have hit this gelcoat pretty hard in the past getting it to shine.

I may just leave it the way it will be when I get the color stripes off. It looks a lot better at this point. Shining a bright light and looking at it from an angle reveals it but at 5' away I think it'll be fine for a boat on the decline.
 

Glavini

Cadet
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Messages
23
Brown spots are from putting too much pressure on boat, not much you can do about it now.
 

smokeonthewater

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
9,838
yeah the eraser wheels works best turning slow.... I was getting frustrated with my first one and having the worst time till I accidentally bumped my cordless drill into low speed and BAM it worked perfect then!

high speed was gumming up and scorching the gelcoat turning it brown.
 

Bonus Check

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Apr 19, 2015
Messages
162
Try a Little Acetone on the area and see if it is adhesive from the Stripes. I removed an area of my stripes to place my registration numbers. The stripe peeled of easy enough but the remaining adhesive had to have a little help with the acetone. It came off so easily with little effort.
 

oldjeep

Admiral
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
6,455
Try cleaning it well with some 3m adhesive remover then follow up with Collinite 920 hull cleaner - mild cutting compound. Also realize that the he underneath is going to look different until you get some wax into it.

Took a couple rounds of the above to remove the shadowing after I removed the huge decals on the side of my mostly black hull.
 

JoLin

Vice Admiral
Joined
Aug 18, 2007
Messages
5,146
yep the stripes protected the gelcoat under them while the rest oxidized... wet sanding and buffing the entire boat may bring it back but the easiest solution is applying a new stripe.
/QUOTE]

What Kevin said. You can probably 'feel' the old stripe, too, because the unprotected gelcoat around it has worn away. My boat was named 'White Star' for 22 years.When the light is right I can easily see the old name under the new, and I can feel the ridges of the old letters.

BTW, a friend turned me on to Easy Off spray on oven cleaner and a Scotchbrite pad to remove the old name and adhesive, and it worked great.

My .02
 

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
OK here's the conclusions. Can definitely "feel" the stripes. They stand above or 'proud' of the surrounding surface. Tried acetone. Nothing.
Used a wool pad with cutting creme compound and made the area shine nicely but not much else happened. It's the topside white part of the hull so I can hit it hard with no color discoloration concerns. Doing this also didn't remove the burn from the eraser wheel so lesson learned on the proper RPM of that thing.
Anyway I'm going to take them off, compound Polish and wax and move on. Ironically this process makes it stand out even more that there were stripes cause it looks so shiny!

I'll post some before and after pics when I'm done.

Thanks to all for the replies.
 

ondarvr

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
11,527
It can be a combination of two things.

As mentioned earlier, the area around the tape can be worn down from waxing, buffing, oxidation and age. The clear over metal flake frequently does this.

The second one is less common, but does happen. Every now and then gel coat under tape or shrink wrap can swell slightly and leave a line that you can feel. It can happen on new boats even after just a few weeks.

The only solution to either one is to sand it down and buff.
 

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
Ondarvr,
It's not metal flake. It's definitely regular solid color stripe. Interesting thought about sanding as that crossed my mind also. Anyway like I said I'll leave it. The boat is 28 years old and is probably a season away from someone going through the floor. I got it for pretty short money with the intention of using it until she's worn out. I keep it clean and well maintained but I can't stop Father Time and Mother Nature so putting in time on this ain't worth it. Too many other projects as you guys probably all know also!!

You can see from the photo I've got half the stripes gone. The back half.

deuces.jpg
 

Attachments

  • deuces.jpg
    deuces.jpg
    85.4 KB · Views: 0

JackBronson

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jun 4, 2012
Messages
170
No Title

It's old but I thought I should close this thread with some before and after photos that may inspire someone down the road to do this same project.
 

Attachments

  • photo236242.jpg
    photo236242.jpg
    86.3 KB · Views: 0
  • photo236243.jpg
    photo236243.jpg
    88.1 KB · Views: 0
  • photo236244.jpg
    photo236244.jpg
    96 KB · Views: 0
Top