Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Trailer Update/Removing The Decals

I'm taking a break from our posts about France and I'm back with another trailer update.
We are getting excited for some cooler, camping weather.
We've had a terrible heatwave so camping hasn't been our top priority.

Did you ever get a song stuck in your head? 
That is what happened to my husband during our next project on the trailer. 
"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. 
Merry, merry king of the bush is he. 
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be."

Painting the trailer was difficult but at least it was inside and I could turn on the air conditioning. 


Removing the decals was terrible. 
The trailer had an Australian, Outback, Down Under sort of feel. 
Hence the reason Bill was singing the song. 
I'm not sure why since it was manufactured in Mansfield, Texas. 
It seems like they could have chosen a theme a little more connected to camping in the South West.


After 8 years in the elements, the decals were peeling off in spots. 
I wanted them off. Bill was non-committal about the ones that weren't peeling. 
I am a picker. This may be more than you want to know but if something is peeling off,
I just can't leave it alone. 
Scabs.
Sadly this is true. I hope I haven't grossed you out. 
When we would go out to look at the progress I was making on the inside,
I'd start peeling stuff off of the outside. 
Some of it peeled off with no problems but it was weird.
How well it peeled depended on the color the decal, the area of the decal, and the type of decal.
The bronze color seemed to peel easier than the blue. 
 The Outback scene was almost impossible to get off. 
The front logo on that fiberglass stuff was the worst. 
It also depended on whether the decal had started to peel off on it's own.
 Oddly, those that had started to peel off were harder to get off than the ones that were still firmly attached. 
We went to the internet and looked at YouTube videos but this is a trial and error process.
No two types of trailers seem to be the same.
We saw something about a heat gun. It worked pretty well for most of them. 


Sometimes the glue came off with the decal. 
Sometimes it did not. 


We went back to YouTube for the next step. 
One method, which turned out to be Bill's favorite, was a credit card and WD40. 
There he is humming Kookaburra in his head. Bless his heart. 


I tried Goo Gone. 
I stopped that right away because it removed the bronze paint. Yikes. 
That would have been another can of worms.

I needed a break and a dip in the pool.
I needed to sleep on it.
Some of my best ideas hit me when I'm dozing. 
I woke up the next morning thinking about Sticky Tack
At school we had cinderblock walls. We couldn't hang anything without Sticky Tack. 
It is a blue, sticky stuff available at the office supply. We used it to hang children's art or bulletin board characters. 
If its sticky residue stayed on the walls once the art was removed, we used more Sticky Tack to remove the residue.
I brainstormed about something sticky enough to stick to the decal residue as it was being pulled off of the trailer.
I decided to try duck tape. 


I stuck the duct tape onto the glue residue. 


Then I used the glue gun to reheat the duct tape to soften the residue. 
It worked! 



It was time consuming but I do believe that I got almost every bit of residue off of the trailer. 








We love it. 
The classic shape is highlighted now that all the swoops, swirls, Joey's, and gum trees are gone.
 Thanks for stopping by, 
Katie

For all other trailer updates click on the links below.


Join a great group of bloggers next week for a fall blog tour.



Fall In Love With Texas Blog Tour

Day 1

Day 2 

Day 3 





4 comments :

  1. It looks great. I was going to suggest goo gone, but did not know it would strip the paint. I only used it for sale stickers and candle wax. WOW.

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  2. It's an adorable camper...so glad you got the stickers off...we had the cutest little camper once, a long time ago. I miss it...we had so much fun in it at the beach .... the fishing trips...just pulling it out to a local lake for a long weekend....yes, I miss it...I miss Mr. Sweet...but am so thankful God gave him to me for so long.
    Thanks so much for coming by...and I am wishing I could join your tour again. So much fun last yr...maybe next time.xoxo

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  3. A persistent picker always gets the job done.

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  4. Big job...but it looks great!
    I was just singing that song to my grandson yesterday lol! We were reading a book about Australian animals and there was a kookaburra...funny!

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