After my attempt to paint over the grungy green wallpaper in my travel trailer was a disaster, I’ve decided to strip all the stickers off the bus! In case you’re still wondering if this is a necessary step, here are more reasons why you should rip off all those decals!
- You’ll see the raised edges of painted over decals
- If you’re nitpicky like me, this will forever bother you. If you’re not, see reason two.
- Paint isn’t meant to adhere to decal material
- The paint you’re going to use on your bus is going to crack, peel, or bubble after it’s applied to the decals’ surfaces. If you don’t care about the look of your bus see reason 3.
- RV parks have every right to turn away your skoolie, so don’t give them a reason.
- Understandably, RV park owners are picky about their residents and try to steer clear of the rift raft. Skoolies already have a bad reputation with RV park owners, so help change their perception with something presentable.
- Once you have the right method to remove decals, it’s a simple, fast and satisfying process.
- I’ve tested all the options so you don’t have to!
Attempt #1: Decal Eraser Wheels
These eraser wheels go by many names like the 3M Strip-off Wheel, the Wheezy Wheel, or the Wonder Wheel and range around $12 to $25 (knock-off vs brand name). The way these wheels work is that they attach to a drill and gently rub off any decals without removing the paint.
After watching a couple of Youtube videos preaching the wheel’s ease of use and showing it’s magical abilities, I was sold and ordered the $12 Wonder Wheel with Amazon Prime next-day shipping.
After using the eraser wheel, I found out that like everything in life… it has its pros and cons.
While the eraser wheel works great on bumper stickers and vinyl bus numbers, it does a terrible job of taking off the incredibly sticky reflective tape that’s all over the exterior.
While I was using the eraser wheel on reflective tape and decals, the wheel needed more effort and force to get the job done causing the wheel to disintegrate fast. To be fair, this reflective stuff is in a league of its own by being thick and EXTREMELY adhesive!
Since I was convinced at the time that the wheel was the way to go, I tried using the eraser wheel to remove the entire baked-on reflective school bus decal at the front of the bus. It was a bloody mess! (okay, more like a giant eraser exploded kind of mess)
The decal’s crazy strong adhesive caused smearing, the wheel was ground down to the adapter, the burning rubber smell made me gag, and the extra applied elbow grease caused my arms to go limp.
On a positive note, my 8-year old niece was very entertained while using the wheel!
The Verdict: 👎 Thumbs down! At least for use on a school bus.
Attempt #2: Heat Gun (or Hair Dryer) and a Putty Knife
I originally didn’t like the idea of using a heat gun because of three reasons:
It could…
- melt the paint
- warp metal
- burn my hand
But I wasn’t about to buy another wheezy wheel and my mother-in-law had a heat gun I could borrow.
What I did was set the heat gun to a medium-to-low heat setting – a setting that I’m sure could be achieved by your old hair dryer’s hottest setting. I then waved the heat gun briefly over the reflective tape while sliding the putty knife under to lift the tape up.
Oh… how satisfying this was.
*** Note: Avoid letting the tape’s sticky side touch the bus. It’s still super adhesive and you’ll just have to remove it again.
***Note: Avoid the tape touching you. It’s a damn pain to get off your fingertips.
While most of our stickers were baked-on from the bus being in business since 1997, we did find a couple of stickers that could carefully be pulled off by hand. We just used the putty knife and gun to lift up an edge to get us started.
The back school bus reflective decal came off in almost one whole piece with some persuasion.
Although the heat gun and putty knife were an effective method to remove the reflective tape and decals, we were still left with the nasty glue underneath!
The Verdict: 👍 A big thumbs up! We were able to remove all the reflective stuff in about 40 minutes! But… this only does half the job.
Attempt # 4: Vegetable oil
I wanted to use a safe and convenient substance to remove the adhesive, so I looked to the interwebs for the answer and read that vegetable oil was a good choice.
After rubbing it on and waiting 30 minutes…. Nothing happened… nothing at all.
I’ve heard that coconut oil works better, but this adhesive is some extremely tough stuff. If you decide to try coconut oil comment below to tell us how it works.
The Verdict: 👎 Thumbs down! I guess it was worth a try.
Attempt # 4: Goo Gone Gel in the Spray Bottle
Strong adhesive apparently needs something strong to remove it. Someone recommended WD-40, while I was on the fence about using the toxic substance for such a big project. I ended up using Original formula Goo Gone Gel for the glue removal which seemed like a better choice at the time, but after reading the Safety Data Sheets (SDS) I’m not so sure anymore.
*** Maybe later I’ll do a comparison based on the Safety Data Sheets and personal tests.
Whichever solution you choose (I’ve heard WD-40 is more effective), remember that their both chemicals and should be respected as such.
And just because Goo Gone has a pleasant orange smell shouldn’t deceive you. According to the SDS, Goo Gone is considered an aspiration hazard meaning it can cause inflammation and/or permanent damage lungs. The SDS also notes that it can be irritating to eyes and skin.
So for a project of this caliber, I say suit up! Since I knew I’d be handling Goo Gone for a long amount of time and be working so closely with it, I wore safety goggles, gloves, and a respirator.
Now that the safety PSA is out of the way, how did Goo Gone perform?
Goo Gone spray gel was very easy to apply. Being a “gel” it did run more than I expected. I had a lot of surface area to cover and with the directions recommending that I apply it liberally, I ended up using the whole bottle.
After waiting 30 minutes, I pulled out my trusty putty knife and started scraping the glue away.
Like taking the tape off with the heat gun, this too a very satisfying process albeit somewhat grosser. Big metallic gluey clumps were consistently scraped off so have a paper towel on hand to collect, look at in “awe”, and then properly dispose of.
After scraping off what you can, wash the areas with hot soapy water (I used Dawn).
DA DA DA DUM! The results!
Although I got most of the adhesive off, you can still feel a very thin layer of glue. I think if I was to do this step over, I would have tried WD-40 or Goo Gone Pro-Professional Spray Gel.
Since I have no desire to do this again, I’m going on the assumption that the sanding process before painting the bus will remove whatever is left.
The Verdict: 👌 Kind of worked!
Let me know in the comments if this guide was helpful? If you already went through the process of removing school bus decals, tells us your story! l love hearing from my readers!
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