Another Cleaning Question

[mhancock]

I have a trailer that I need some advice about how to clean something off of it. The trailer was lettered in various places with vinyl when I got it. It was not wrapped but did have a lot of different advertisement on it. I am curious if there is any way to clean off all the crap that was left after the decals were removed. I had a very small amount of some type of citrus based solvent that worked great but there was not any contact info on the bottle. I used the small amount that I had pretty quickly and wish that I could find about another gallon of it....lol. I think that it may have been someone's home brew instead of a mass produced product. I need to get the sticky off and then I need to find a way to get the paint to somewhat match the rest of the trailer if this is possible. I had a local truck shop give me a product made by Great Dane that is supposed to remove decals but I am afraid that it will take the paint off of the aluminum trailer skin too. It will actually bubble up the sticker and then you scrape it off with a razer blade. I tried it on a small less visible spot and unless you are super careful, you will take the paint right off. This is not what I am looking to do.

The trailer is not that old. It is a later model Timberwolf, white in color, extra height, extended tongue, and polished stainless around the entire bottom of the trailer. It has the potential of being a really nice trailer. I would just like to do everything possible without having to find someone to paint the entire trailer just because it had decals on it. This is an expense that could be used somewhere else since the looks of the trailer are not going to help win any races. I would however like for it to look nice as that always helps when promoting all of the sponsors that support our team.

I will try to post some pics if needed to help figure out what is going to be my best bet.

[Driven2xs]

Signwarehouse.com

Vinyl Graphic remover

Citrus based
Safe for paint




DO NOT BUFF the paint, or you will strip the cad plating off the screws. Rust within 1 season.


Plan on ghosting, from the paint fading where the stickers ARENT.

[Jason Reiss]

Goo Gone or Simple Green...

[totalchaos]

wax and grease remover with a plastic razor blade or an earser wheel on a drill. as said ealier where the stickers were will be still visible.

[mhancock]

wax and grease remover with a plastic razor blade or an earser wheel on a drill. as said ealier where the stickers were will be still visible.

Is there any way to eleminate the ghosting where the decals were? I am really not very pleased with the way that looks. I had considered adding some decals of my own to cover these areas but don't want to get into DOT problems. We are towing this trailer with a 36' Motorhome (Standard class A not the big truck style) and don't want the DOT stopping us all the time. I have heard that any time you decal the trailer you are asking for problems with this. Any help or advice?

[Greg2]

Goo Gone or Simple Green...

x2 on Goo Gone.

[Bubstr]

3M makes an industrial cleaner in a spray can that instantly dissolves the adhesives for decals. It has a citrus smell and not too good if you plan on any paint work in the near future. 3M and Astro make a rubber eraser that will take it off too. They fit in your drill and leaves finish intact. Just keep it moving

[mhancock]

These are a few pictures of what I have to work with. You can see the ghosting of the decals that have been removed in the photo of the trailer by itself. The decal that you can see is all that is left to remove and then it is time to start trying to see if I can make these areas match the rest of the trailer. If I can't get everything the same color, I would like to at least get it closer than it is right now if possible. I don't really want to have to go through the trouble or expense of having to paint the entire trailer but I just haven't found anything that works very well. I haven't used any type of buffer on the trailer so everything that I've done so far (which is very little besides using a razor blade to remove the decals) has been by hand with over the counter automotive cleaning products. I did test a small spot that had a decal and it didn't clean up very well with anything that I tried using.

I used an an orbital buffer on a small portion of the stainless trim on the door of the trailer to see how well it would shine up and that worked great. There are no fastners in the stainless so I figured that there was no chance of causing any damage. I was unable to get a good photo of that side of the trailer because of where it's parked at our farm house. There are a few small trees that were blocking where I needed to be standing to take the photo.

Any and all advice on how to make this trailer look nice again would be greatly appreciated. I just hate for such a nice trailer to look so neglected like it does right now. I am also open to any suggestions about how to go about cleaning the fiberglass on the motorhome too. I am assuming that any type of automotive wax will work on this application. Would it damage the finish to use some type of buffer? This is our first motorhome or transporter with FRP sides and I purchased this complete unit used. I would like to make it look more presentable because it will be pitted along side of my sponsor's toterhome and trailer and he keeps his rig looking basically spotless all the time...lol

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r117/marshallhancock/Motorhome/Motorhome_29.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r117/marshallhancock/Motorhome/Motorhome_31.jpg
If you look close at the photo above you will see the stainless on the door that I polished. I think that just polishing it out all the way around the trailer will help the looks of the entire trailer a lot.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r117/marshallhancock/Motorhome/Motorhome_33.jpg