How do you remove hull stripes from early 80's hulls?

I have been using a razor but the going is slow and a lot of dirty sticky gunk is still left on the surface. Does anyone know what might make this easier?

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1980 18 foot class A Unicorn catamaran
1977 Super Sunfish (sold)
1979 Hobie (sold)
1983 Hobie 16 Hawiian Sunset (sold)
1981 Hobie 16 Tequilla Sunrise (sold)
2008 Hobie 16 (sold)
2023 Hobie 16
Founding member of the "San Dimas Yacht Club"
John

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/d ... mber=65057



Try this. It's a hot blade decal remover. It will do a pretty good job. You could also use a heat gun and a razor scraper but there will be less gouging of your gelcoat if you use the tool linked above. Sill going to need a solvent specific to the tape adhesive to remove the gunk. Acetone usually does it.

I don't like using a razor to remove the stripes because of the gouging problem.

Nasty solvents, a plastic scraper and lots of time.

(nasty solvents and heat guns do not mix)

try a hair dryer.. peel slow.... and then solvent (GOOF OFF) to remove the sticky gunk....

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•Present boat -1998 Hobie 16 Solana Sails furling jib[/size]

rubbing alchol gets the residue off as well...i just rubbed it on the stripes and went at it with a razor on my 14t and it came off perfectly

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1981 Hobie 16
1982 Hobie 14 turbo (sold)
1996 SeaDoo GTI
1999 Hunter 340

Warning, if you peel the stripes off of hulls that old, the gel coat under the stripe will be whiter, for years and years.

Sometimes a powerwasher will take them off. You will need to use fiberglass polish (works like a wax) to shine them up afterwards. I am debating doing this on one of my boats due to the problem mentioned above (lighter colored hull under the stripes).

I just did this on a yellow '81 H16.

I used a heat gun from Harbor Freight (not the one linked above, this one instead: http://www.harborfreight.com/1500-watt- ... 96289.html). Once you get the right technique it will take most of it off.

Then I used goof off which worked great.

The color differential was actually not that bad, and now I kind of like it. After I polished my hulls (with this: http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=10387) the color was much closer, close enough to live with anyway. Pound for pound it was definitely worth it that's for sure, considering the effort I put in and the result I got.

Good luck!

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'81 H16

If it ain't a blowin', I ain't a goin'

+ 1 on a real Heat Gun for removing stripes or stickers

then use Acetone to remove the glue residue. Douche well with Acetone and rub lightly in a circular motion. Glue balls up and comes right off.

Bill's right on the color diff...not so noticable on a white boat, really noticable on a yellow or blue boat. You may consider stripes back in the original location, but especially annoying are the locations of the old registration numbers.

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Sheet In...Max Out
www.fleet297.org
sailflatlands at gmail dot com