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Removing/Replacing Registration Numbers

1K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  sailingdog 
#1 ·
Now that my boat is licensed in Canada I have to remove the old numbers to put the new ones on. Any tips to do this job as cleanly as possible..it is a 2006 so I hope there would be much (if any) discolouration from the previous ones. Just wondering the cleanest way to take the old ones off..

Thanks
 
#2 ·
Depends..

I suppose it all depends on if they are painted on or stickers. If they are stuck on the best way, I find, to remove them is with a hair dryer or heat gun and your fingernail. Heat them until they start to peel off nicely and in one piece. If you get them too hot they'll start doing a sort of melt/rip thing. If they do that just back off the heat. It's a fine balance of heat but once you get it you'll move along fairly quickly. Once removed you can use Goo Gone to get any left over sticker residue off..
 
#5 ·
.... a hair dryer or heat gun and your fingernail. Heat them until they start to peel off nicely and in one piece. If you get them too hot they'll start doing a sort of melt/rip thing. If they do that just back off the heat. It's a fine balance of heat but once you get it you'll move along fairly quickly. Once removed you can use Goo Gone to get any left over sticker residue off..
Like Halekai said, a heat gun works very well. I stripped my entire transom in about 30 minutes with a heat gun. If you do it just right the adhesive comes up with the decal and you will only have little traces here and there to clean up. I went from this:



to this:



with a heat gun, and some 3M super duty compound. Of course my 25 year old green hull will show more discoloration that a newer white boat.
 
#4 ·
If they are painted on like mine were easy off works great. I also used a very fine 600 grit sand paper just on the painted area. When I was finished you could not tell that anything was ever there.
 
#7 ·
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