A big mistake

[moondog]

Well,

About six months ago I installed a new front on a Dixie I've got sitting here. Instead of pulling off the protective overlay, I left it on thinking I'd just remove it after I located the machine. So I went to clean the machine up a little last week and test it out for a possible location and found that the plastic has completely dried out and doesn't want to release from the new front. If I do get some of it to come off it's only in tiny pieces.

I kind of hate to scrap a new front - especially since this one as it was a pain to install (not really a one man job). Any ideas on how to get this crap off without destroying the front?

[bullyfrog]

If it's anything like automotive decals, soak it in a soapy water solution. Test a small area, use a spray bottle and saturate it. That should help release the backing. You may have to re-wet it or let it soak in some.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

[moondog]

If it's anything like automotive decals, soak it in a soapy water solution. Test a small area, use a spray bottle and saturate it. That should help release the backing. You may have to re-wet it or let it soak in some.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

Yeah,

I was thinking about slapping a wet towel up there for awhile

[mission vending]

When peeling vinyl I use a hair dryer on warm setting to soften vinyl to make it more flexible and loosen the adhesive, might work for this.

[Square]

Try warm soapy water first,

but I would use Rapid Remover it's made in the USA and available at any good sign supply shop with a felt tip squeegee so you don't scratch your display (you can make a felt tip squeegee with the soft side of Velcro), I'v redone a lot of fleet vehicles but the protective sheeting is not as thick as vinyl so just go slow.

Even 'goo gone' should work

[reel]

Did the glue remover work ok?

[AZVendor]

Do you have this machine out in the sun? If it is indoors, it shouldn't be hard to remove the front protective sheet unless the sign was super old or stored in a hot location before you bought it. These signs can be stored for months or years in a cool location and the plastic is still removeable. As Mission said, a hair dryer or even swipes with a heat gun should release the adhesive so you can get it off. You will probably have some adhesive to remove and you can use an orange cleaner as long as you test the lexan first to ensure the cleaner won't melt the surface. Now if you are speaking of the coating on the inside of the sign, that is not to be removed on newer signs.

[moondog]

Do you have this machine out in the sun? If it is indoors, it shouldn't be hard to remove the front protective sheet unless the sign was super old or stored in a hot location before you bought it. These signs can be stored for months or years in a cool location and the plastic is still removeable. As Mission said, a hair dryer or even swipes with a heat gun should release the adhesive so you can get it off. You will probably have some adhesive to remove and you can use an orange cleaner as long as you test the lexan first to ensure the cleaner won't melt the surface. Now if you are speaking of the coating on the inside of the sign, that is not to be removed on newer signs.

Thanks guys, that should give me some more options if the wet towel doesn't work. And yes, I did leave it in the sun - kept telling myself I'd throw a tarp over it but never seemed to get around to it

Ps. No, it's the outside protective coating, not the inside graphic material, that's shot.

[Walta]

This is the one and only thing I find WD40 is good for “cleaning plastics”.

Walta

[dogcow]

harbor freight sells a thing that i use to remove side art and decals off arcade games

its basically like a soldering iron with a razor blade attached. that will do it assuming you go slow

and dont gouge the plastic make sure to let it get real hot first. ive used it on decals that have been

out in the sun and were super baked on.

[moondog]

harbor freight sells a thing that i use to remove side art and decals off arcade games

its basically like a soldering iron with a razor blade attached. that will do it assuming you go slow

and dont gouge the plastic make sure to let it get real hot first. ive used it on decals that have been

out in the sun and were super baked on.

Thanks Dogcow,

I'll check that out - I've got a couple of soda machines that need to have the old graphics removed (it's usually a golpher doing this by hand)

[dogcow]

if ur doing a lot of work with it, what you gotta do is go to radio shack and buy a soldering iron and remove the tip

then put the harbor freight tip in the radio shack iron. it fits perfect. the problem is the harbor freight iron does not

stand up good to repeated use its so cheap if u press hard on it will break after a 2 uses or so. i did this and the

radio shack iron has stood up for over a year, i was buying these harbor freight irons once a week until someone

told me to use one from radio shack. its a brilliant invention its just too bad they didnt think to use a quality part,and im shocked nobody else makes a better quality one because it works so well

[moondog]

if ur doing a lot of work with it, what you gotta do is go to radio shack and buy a soldering iron and remove the tip

then put the harbor freight tip in the radio shack iron. it fits perfect. the problem is the harbor freight iron does not

stand up good to repeated use its so cheap if u press hard on it will break after a 2 uses or so. i did this and the

radio shack iron has stood up for over a year, i was buying these harbor freight irons once a week until someone

told me to use one from radio shack. its a brilliant invention its just too bad they didnt think to use a quality part,and im shocked nobody else makes a better quality one because it works so well

No problem - if I get anything I buy at Harbor Freight to work more than a few times, I consider myself lucky. It's a great place to buy those odd job tools you'll probably only use once.