Out Dammed Stickers, Out!

[esox07]

I know this is an old thread, but I have an aluminum canoe and the previous owner stuck some of those large Fish decals on it. I love to fish, but I was hoping to clean it up this spring and wanted to remove the stickers. They look pretty stout, much more stout than registration numbers or pin strips. Any suggestions for removing them?

 

[joeanna]

I used a heat gun to remove them from my fiberglass boat, a hair drier may also work, then clean the residue off with a suitable solvent, mine had the same bass stickers
.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Heat gun

 

[jbcurt00]

Heat gun

Yep, and a razor blade (CAREFULLY) or rigid plastic putty knife/scraper

 

[BWR1953]

All of the above. :lol:

 

[MRS]

Yes 2 times what they said. But how do you get your trees to grow that way? Would be a lot easier to cut down for fire wood.

 

[southkogs]

As was said - heat gun (hair dryer would probably work). Fill a spray bottle with some soapy water, and get an edge of one of the stickers started. Spray the soapy water under the sticker and then pull and heat at the same time. Occasionally grab a plastic scraper or burnishing tool and work under the sticker with the soapy water.

If the stickers have become real brittle, it may be more of a razor blade fight. But try to avoid that as long as you can.

 

[jbcurt00]

If the stickers have become real brittle, it may be more of a razor blade fight. But try to avoid that as long as you can.

Yep ^^^

Last time I tried to remove that bass sized sticker, it came off in pieces about the size of a jagged little dime.....

 

[esox07]

OK, I have a heat gun and maybe a little Goo Gone laying around. If not, it is easy to find. I will give it a shot.

And yah, you gotta love how that snow sticks to the bottom of the canoe as well as the trees growing upside down.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Paint the canoe. Even when you get the decal off the ghost image is there forever in my experience. By the time I buffed the aluminum out to remove the image 100% I should have just sanded and painted the thing.

Why are the trees growing out of the sky?

 

[esox07]

I have the canoe stored under my deck upside down and I took the photo that way. When I looked at it with the fish upside down, it looked odd, so I just rotated the photo 180 degrees. I was told the canoe has some kind of coating on the aluminum and that it was not good to remove it. I don't know if that is true or not....and on a 40+ year old canoe, I don't know that the coating would be very intact any ways. I don't really think I want to paint the canoe though either.

 

[jbcurt00]

The hazy grey color is the aluminum oxidizing to protect itself.

Unless applied by a previous owner, your canoe has no added coating. Pix dont look like it does to me.

FYI when you remove those stickers dont be surprised they are still visible as ghost/halo images.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Yep, paint it.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I was told the canoe has some kind of coating on the aluminum and that it was not good to remove it.

it called aluminum oxide or white rust.

it will return.

 

[esox07]

I thought that aluminum was hard to paint and won't the paint just wind up chipping off? Canoes are designed to be drug through sand and peppbles and shallow water and such? How would paint hold up to that?

 

[DeepCMark58A]

If you do not use the proper primer yes the paint will "chip" off. Lots of painted aluminum boats out there.

 

[Gyrene]

I have found WD-40 to work better at removing goo than Goo-gone.

 

[Blind Date]

I sure wouldn't paint it because there was a ghost image from the sticker. Big waste of time, money & resources IMHO. Plus your lowering its value by painting it.

Mineral spirits can also be used to remove any adhesive left after the sticker is gone.

 

[dpoff]

I like the stickers. Gives the canoe character!

 

[JimS123]

Hair Dryer, acetone from the local paint store, followed by Aluminum jelly buffed with a green scotch brite pad. The end result will be bright aluminum that looks like new, and the ghost image will be 99% gone.

Been there done that - easy job.