restoring gelcoat / saving decals on old challenger 1800

[JoshMurrah]

question for the hive! I am the proud new owner of a 1997 Challenger 1800 in pretty bad shape - I need to sand/cut/wax the gelcoat pretty heavily.

The decals are long out of stock for the 1800's and I couldn't find aftermarket decals.

My question is - is there any way to save the decals? Can I try to cover them with blue tape to avoid sanding them? Should I just admit defeat and remove them before restoring the gel coat?

Thanks!

 

[burtshaver2021]

Hi Josh, yes you can cover them with blue painters tape, the blue really is much better than the green. Wet sand starting with 800griit and move your way up to 2000 grit or higher, I wish pit onto the mequires line for cutting and polishing so I use the heavy cut 91, then 49. At this point you can remove the blue tape, polish with 45 right over the decals and wax with flagship wax. And your in luck Mequiresdirect.com usually has a sale for the 4th of July so even though they are already the cheapest you will save en more. If you do decide the decals need to be replaced I’m sure there are some around.

 

[JoshMurrah]

Hi Josh, yes you can cover them with blue painters tape, the blue really is much better than the green. Wet sand starting with 800griit and move your way up to 2000 grit or higher, I wish pit onto the mequires line for cutting and polishing so I use the heavy cut 91, then 49. At this point you can remove the blue tape, polish with 45 right over the decals and wax with flagship wax. And your in luck Mequiresdirect.com usually has a sale for the 4th of July so even though they are already the cheapest you will save en more. If you do decide the decals need to be replaced I’m sure there are some around.

thanks for the reply - wife and I took another look and the decals still look good on it, so we're gonna try and mask them off... especially with them not available OEM.

 

[burtshaver2021]

thanks for the reply - wife and I took another look and the decals still look good on it, so we're gonna try and mask them off... especially with them not available OEM.

I forgot to mention, it’s impossible to run along the edge of the decal with the tape, so what works best is using a new utility knife blade (olfa knife) put a single layer of tape on the outside edge of the decal and then using the edge of the decal as a guide cut around it. You don’t need or want to push hard at all.