Removing Decals?

geardad said:

I just got a great deal on an older Trek hybrid. This bike is going to be my main bike, and I want to make it less attractive to thieves by taking the Trek decals off.

Anyone know of a safe way to do this? Safe as in, doesn't harm the paint which protects the steel frame underneath?

thank you!

geardad

TWO methods come to mind ... you may find neither satisfactory:

* the back edge of a plastic picnic knife ... the plastic is presumably softer than the paint -- tedious, to be sure ... or you could just scrape away as much/little as you wanted to ...

* I found that FORMULA 409 cleaner has unexpectedly dissolved some water transfer decals when sprayed on the general surface -- I stopped using it for cleaning things which mattered!

hmm...those sound like a couple of promising ideas..thank you!

gear

[When you begin to get the decals to come off spray some WD-40 on them. It works wonders on dissolving the adhesive and won't harm your paint; then slowly peel them off.

I have not tried but I have read that if you use a hair dryer to soften the adhiesive before trying to scrape with a plastic knife may work.