I removed the decals on the front of my 2010 exp 213 as the old ones were cracked, chipped and really looked horrible while staring at them in my rearview mirror. I saw a few posts on here about it, but none with decent pictures so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Note that in all my pictures, I've already removed the two large "swoosh" decals under the "Jay Feather" (and small swoosh) decals just a few days earlier.
The front of my trailer is very oxidized. White "powder" comes off when you rub it with your fingers, so I decided to use something to remove the oxidation and make it shine again too. We'll see how long it lasts. Overall, getting the decal removed and front polished up probably took around 3hrs.
Anyhoo, step one is to peel off the stickers. Use a heat gun (I used low setting) and get that sticker good and hot. Work with small 6"-8" long sections at a time. When you start peeling off the decal, if 'goo' remains behind, either a) apply more heat before peeling decal, or b) leave the goo on the trailer and deal with it later. Be patient, this isn't a super fast process!
Once removed, there was a black outline of crud around the stickers.
I then used some goo-gone (along with the sticky side of the peeled-off decals) to get rid of excess goo. This requires elbow grease! You're definitely doing yourself a favor if you apply more heat and try to leave minimal residual glue.
I also used some dish detergent and a sponge to wash off the black outlines of the letters. At this point, you could clearly see the 'fresh' gelcoat left behind under the decals! Very shiny, and very white!
I then used 3M Marine Restorer and Wax to remove the oxidation and bring back the shine. I applied it with my power polisher, as per instructions (could do it by hand, but would take a while!)
https://www.amazon.ca/3M-09005-Marin.../dp/B0000AY65X
At this point, if you get up close the gelcoat that was under the decals is still pretty white compared to the slightly yellowed exposed surface. From a few steps away you don't notice it much. I hope to do a few more passes with the polisher to see if it evens out the colors a bit more, but I'm not too concerned -- I plan on applying a new decal on the front (not a Jayco decal) so a chunk of it will be covered up again. (yes, tough to see any details in these small low-res pics!)
you can see just above my finger the super white color that was under one of the decals. It's pretty faint, but you can clearly see an edge where there is a color change.
The pictures don't show it when it's 100% polished -- I've only uploaded the picture where I polished around the decals. It's nice having a shiny front end once it was all done!
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