I have surveyed the How To.. section and used the search function, but am unable to find an answer on this.

When dealing with a factory body panel that needs to be refinished- how do the decals behave?
Are they just like they were paint, meaning, do they take sandpaper and sand off, or are they sticky and soft once you get past the clear coat?

Do you have to do a special step to remove them to prepare for paint?

 

Any that I have removed from plastic panels have not been under any clear coat and I just used a solvent to help remove them from the panel and didn't reuse them. As for the gas tank, those are under clear coat and after you remove them you need to bring the paint down around them to counter them missing.

Sanding them will just make a mess, so just get under a corner with a razor and take your time trying to peel one up. The solvent I mentioned was a "Bumper Sticker Remover" that I can't find anywere! Stuff works great and doesn't effect the paint like everything else I find.

 

Yeah, be aware of THAT. Just about everything out there either takes the paint off, or warps the plastics, INCLUDING GOO-GONE.

 

The ones on the tank are definitely under the clear coat. If you're going to paint the tank, then just sand it all down. I had to get some painting done to my wifes F3 after it was dropped in a parking lot. All of these decals came off by just peeling them off. There was some glue residue left behind, but I used something called Brake Clean. I seem to recall that it didn't bother the paint, but it was going to be painted anyway so it didn't matter.

These are the decals that I took off, excluding the tank.


After painting.


Then the decals back on (new ones).


Notice that there are Frame Sliders on there now...