Removal of decals

[a4cruiser]

I was thinking about removing the Katana decal things from both sides of the bike, but I don't really know how to go about doing it. Has anybody done this? Is the bike painted under the decal? Is it held on by screws or some glue stuff. I was wanting to give it a more "cleaned up" look. Any advise would be appreciated.

[WildKat]

Yes the bike is painted under the decal.. tons of us have removed the decals..

easiest way..

Hair dryer, use it to heat up the decals and then SLOWLY pull them back starting at front and work your way back keeping the hair dryer on the decal to make sure the adhesive stays hot and comes off easily with the decal itself. If you dont sometimes the adhesive will stay on the bike and the sticker it itself will pull off.

It happened to me with one of them, and lemme tell ya, that adhesive on the back of those decals could hold a freight train over a cliff for a year !!!

then just use some goo gone.. not goof off... and a soft rag or cloth and the goo gone will take off the adhesive without stripping off your paint. I dont recommend gasoline unless u absolutely have too which you shouldnt really need it anyways, but only in very small amounts so it doesnt eat off your finish.

also if you do a search of the forums for decals, you'll find some good info.

[Jax]

I'm going to chime in before Lou does...Grinder, Flame Thrower and some kerosene...that'll get the decals off....

[a4cruiser]

Hey thanks a lot. I was also thinking about taking off the 600 stickers. Should I go about that the same way????? I could probably just peel those off with the hairdryer also. 8)

[cancun black dog]

Took mine off of my 05 600 hairdryer and 3m adhesive remover took about 30 minutes to do all of them!

[a4cruiser]

I just removed one tonight. Pain in the a$$. I guess its just too cold. Used goo gone, whicjh only helped a little. I'll try the 3m remover stuff mentioned in the post above, and see if that is any better. Plus Wait untill it warms up a bit.

One other question. I guess I messed something up, scrathed or maybe the some glue is still on there, because it looks faded compared to the rest of the paint on the bike. Do you think I might need to repaint?

[WildKat]

the 600 and 750 stickers seem be more of a pain to remove than the stock kat emblems.. I kinda like mine on there so I havent tried to remove them personally yet.

[a4cruiser]

It was very difficult for me because i guess it was just way to cold outside. I'll wait untill it gets warmer out to get the other kat decal off.

[cancun black dog]

Just make sure you heat them up good and then start removing it will not work with just one try you have to heat it up several times!!! My 600 stickers were the hardest to remove! Then use the 3m remover and a soft cloth comes right off!! Mine looked a little faded but that was just the remover, I then used some Meguiars next generation wax and now it just shines!!!!

[durtyspeed]

I just pulled mine off, then used adhesive remover. It says it is specifically for removing stickers. Worked great.

[goose491]

It was very difficult for me because i guess it was just way to cold outside. I'll wait untill it gets warmer out to get the other kat decal off.

Why don't you pull the panels off the bike and bring 'em inside?

I recently did just that and pulled all my stickers off (Ontario winters are cold btw)

Hairdryer was all I needed and if it's done right, there will hardly be any gunky-goo left. The first one I did was a pain in the ass but then it got much simpler.

Using the hairdryer to heat up a corner or edge, pick at it with your fingernail just the tiniest bit at a time until you have a whole side or edge lifted. Then peel the decal upwards at about 90degrees to the plastics while moving the hairdryer to heat up the decal in front of where you're going. You'll get used to seeing when the glue seperates from the vinyl and wants to stay with the plastic. When that happens, either stop and heat it a bit more before continuing, or simply come at it from another angle.

It'll get a little hot on the fingers... but there will be much less scrubbing afterwards.

Good Luck!

[a4cruiser]

Yeah I should have done that. It was just way to cold and the hairdryer and spaceheater just wasn't enough.

[seypea]

Hardest one for me was one on swingarm, just didn't come off good, so I had to cover it w/ my Yoshii sticker

[DreKat]

when using the Goo Gone spray the decal and also spray a cloth with Goo gone as well. I spray the cloth until it is dripping wet.