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Old 07-11-2021, 02:13 PM   #1
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"School bus" lettering

How did you guys go about removing them without the yellow paint ripping and coming off with the letters? Feel i might have to do something extra when it comes to finally painting my skoolie because of this
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Old 07-11-2021, 02:23 PM   #2
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I used a heat gun and a putty knife, followed with lacquer thinner and scotch brite. Others swear by the eraser wheels you can pick up at auto paint suppliers
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Old 07-11-2021, 02:57 PM   #3
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Forgot to mention I used exactly that, heat gun and puddy knife. Some letters came off smooth on the other side and here and there but no matter how much heat I let hit it what you see in the pic happens.

Thanks!
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Old 07-11-2021, 02:59 PM   #4
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I used a razor scraper to remove the lettering on the "new Crown" as they were stick-on letters. I used an orbital sander to touch up the paint surface and then painted over that. The old Crown has painted lettering so probably will use orbital sander for that.
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Old 07-11-2021, 03:00 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danjo View Post
I used a heat gun and a putty knife, followed with lacquer thinner and scotch brite. Others swear by the eraser wheels you can pick up at auto paint suppliers
Everything, Danjo suggested, yes.
Yours may need heat. (I see you tried heat)
Probably use multiple methods, depends on the decal. The plastic blades worked well on all of my reflective tape & bulkheads. Used the PinForce wheel on most black lettering. Mineral spirits & acetone worked on the glue, but slow. Xylene works better. Replaced plastic blade frequently.
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Old 07-11-2021, 05:30 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by adic27 View Post
Forgot to mention I used exactly that, heat gun and puddy knife. Some letters came off smooth on the other side and here and there but no matter how much heat I let hit it what you see in the pic happens.

Thanks!
Too much heat? Well, anyway, you’ll just need to fill that back in with primer and sand back to level. Not really too bad
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Old 07-11-2021, 06:52 PM   #7
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I don't think I've ever seen school bus lettering peel off the paint behind it - it suggests that maybe the entire bus paint job did not adhere very well to that galvanized material. What happens if you take the heat gun and putty knife to an area that was not underneath lettering?

Maybe they applied the lettering before the paint had completely cured, and that caused adhesion problems only underneath the letters?
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Old 07-11-2021, 08:23 PM   #8
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Get a Whizzy Wheel...basically what DeMac has in his photo, above. I've had success with those when heat and scraping failed to remove things, without paint damage. The Whizzy Wheel won't damage the paint beneath.
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Old 07-11-2021, 11:20 PM   #9
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Heat gun, razor scraper and acitone on a rag is all I've every needed.
(Wear gloves when using acitone)
Good luck
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Old 07-30-2021, 05:40 AM   #10
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I used one of these. Worked fantastic. Kinda peeved I messed up the paint on a few letters before I found it.


https://www.amazon.com/Adhesive-Remo.../dp/B0922LTMNC
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Old 08-08-2021, 07:29 PM   #11
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Whizzy Wheel

I used this product on the school system lettering on all sides of the bus. I recommend it. I also used goof-off to remove the adhesive.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rossvtaylor View Post
Get a Whizzy Wheel...basically what DeMac has in his photo, above. I've had success with those when heat and scraping failed to remove things, without paint damage. The Whizzy Wheel won't damage the paint beneath.
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Old 08-18-2021, 05:12 AM   #12
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Hot pressure washer. Blows them right off, and the paint too if you are too close. Enough practice and you will find the perfect distance. It makes a mess, but I have tried all of the other ways, and this is the fastest with the least amount of paint loss.
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Old 02-05-2022, 09:02 AM   #13
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Hot Nevada Desert?

Decided to comment after reading all the above posts...bought my Thomas in Las Vegas from the school dist.

We tried every single of the above over the course of two days and were able to remove a couple of the decals (the wheel was most effective but was slow even for it).

We ended up having a local mobile sandblaster company come in...it took him well over an hour to get them all off. We had to primer the area after which decidedly doesn't look good, but it was highly effective and would do both again.

The only thing I would do differently is to do it first thing, because we waited till the windows were removed and the sandblasting media got into everything.
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