Repainting a Black Van with decals removed. Do I need to STM to avoid future ghosting

7

777funk

I've got a van that used to be a shuttle that is Black with lots of decals that have been removed. There is no adhesive residue left but it's got sort of a UV haze that has been left around the decals.

I gave it a good buffing and this brought the dead paint back to life and it was very hard to see where the decals were. However after a year it came back just as bad.

I have been told by two body men (one local one on hotrodders) that I need to sand to metal in order to not have the ghosting of old decals come through later on my new paint.

Is this the case?

I was planning to scuff to 320, spray SPI Black Epoxy Primer as base, and SPI clear coat. I wasn't planning to go to metal. But now I'm re-thinking.
 
you need to take it to the metal. even the metal is effected by the decals. 3 coats of epoxy then let it cure for a couple of weeks. sand and epoxy again . dont be surprised if it ghost back some. this is one of the hardest things to deal with.
 
Even the metal is affected? This would really surprise me. But of course I've never had this headache to deal with so what do I know. But even after going to the metal the ghosting comes back?

Is this something other body men on here have experienced? Not to doubt the quote above Shine but I'm sure in all the restorations of old trucks that sat in barn yards for 40 years that have been successful surely there's been worse things that have effected the paint and metal than vinyl decals and have been successfully covered over. I believe the decals were on this van 10 years.
 
It would be a nice experiment to see if you can get the ghosts to stay trapped under the epoxy.

I've had some success covering them up without stripping, but I used coarser grits to make sure the surface was level, and I think I took all the clear off in the area at least.
 
it is not the paint that will ghost . it is the metal .you can prime it all you want but it will come back .
 
metal that is covered by vinyl is not exposed to uv rays and heat the same as metal covered by paint. we went through this in the 80's with the crew cab chevy trucks. at the end of the year they would be down to cheap 2 tone trucks with the 1/2 in stripe. we would sand them to metal and they would still ghost back. try a trans am hood without the bird . same deal. i have stripped the bird off and sanded and primed only to have a nice bird print a week later.
 
shine;16890 said:
i have stripped the bird off and sanded and primed only to have a nice bird print a week later.
Click to expand...

Wow! I'm sure you were pretty upset after all that work. So would you just tell a customer who asked that it just couldn't be done? That's so strange. Obviously you've been through this headache before.

Has anyone had any luck with this? Other nightmare stories to share anyone? Maybe I should just buy a different van!
 
we learned that buzzing the area with 80 grit pretty much took care of it. an the trans am i just removed the decal and hit the paint with 600 thinking i would be good. thats why i knew we had to cut down the tape stripes. sounds crazy i know but i ran close to 10 a day in production so i have dealt with a lot of crew cabs . i have yet to find anyone with a better explanation. i proved it to ppg and dupont in 1983.
 
shine;16893 said:
we learned that buzzing the area with 80 grit pretty much took care of it. an the trans am i just removed the decal and hit the paint with 600 thinking i would be good. thats why i knew we had to cut down the tape stripes. sounds crazy i know but i ran close to 10 a day in production so i have dealt with a lot of crew cabs . i have yet to find anyone with a better explanation. i proved it to ppg and dupont in 1983.
Click to expand...

Wow. That amazes me, but I have yet to cease to be surprised by things I think... hey it couldn't happen and end up saying sure enough after the fact with finishing work. Seems to be par for the course.

I appreciate your experience there.

So 80 grit... by hand, Rotary, or on a DA? I'm new to stripping poly. I've sprayed hundreds of lacquer finishes (mixed my own colors, tried dozens of different brands, sanded and buffed using various methods) and still learning there. I've only used poly a handful of times. With Lacquer I usually strip using a good thinner. CAn't do this with a catalyzed finish. Obviously sanding is probably the easiest bet. What's the weapon of choice to load the 80 grit into? Please don't say by hand... this is a big van! lol;)
 
"you need to take it to the metal. even the metal is effected by the decals. 3 coats of epoxy then let it cure for a couple of weeks. sand and epoxy again . dont be surprised if it ghost back some. this is one of the hardest things to deal with." So true.
I know it is hard to understand, But this is what I have seen time and time again. Plan for it.
 
So if I take it to the metal am I waisting my time? I may actually make it look worse in doing all of this if it comes back. At least it's an old paint job and it doesn't stand out worse than it already looks.

So all the way to the metal and it'll still come back. I'd hate to spend a few hundred in SPI materials and a week of my time for nothing.
 
this is my take on it. metal expands and contracts. over a period of time the edge of the strip or decal has a fine line in the metal. just like a weld patch will ghost in the sun. by hitting it with 80 you hope to cut this line some.
 
I've seen decals preserve the paint which makes for a difference in solvent absorbtion which later shows an outline of the decal area after full cure but I never thought it affected the metal. Learn something new everyday.
 
i've tried to explain this to him bob but he refuses to listen. let him get his advice on hr.com , they seem to tell him what he wants to hear.
for anyone else i have dealt with this for 17 years while running new van production. it does effect the metal . it was not the paint ghosting back but rather the 1/2 vinly stripe that was removed. we had to prove this to the ppg rep and the van company in 84 . they acussed me of painting over the stripe. it got pretty ugly after that .
 
I wish I could find the pic of a 1970 AAR Cuda that we sodablasted years ago. The strobe stripe down the side of the car was removed, and then whole car sodablasted (outside). You could still see where the strobe stripe was.. The car only had 1 repaint and stripe re-applied.

It was a pretty cool sight to see the stripe still on it when the whole car was in bare metal. Did the process as shine has suggested after washing cleaning. Wasn't too critical as the stripe went back on....but that is the ONLY way to get rid of this.

Only other option would be to blast with some abrasive material. Doesn't seem like an option here..
 
shine;16941 said:
they acussed me of painting over the stripe. it got pretty ugly after that .
Click to expand...

Did they get a good Texas ass whopping?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top