Ambulance – New Decal Removing!

Hello! Welcome back to another blog post. I recently posted a YouTube video detailing the process of using a solvent to remove the decals on the outside of the ambulance. I didn’t want anyone mistaking us for an ambulance or to think that we were trying to impersonate one. I also wanted to write a blog post about it if you’d rather read this! 

The previous methods we used were very energy intensive and also took a lot of time. My dad was using a razor blade and a heat gun, and I was using a Whizzy Wheel attached to a drill and Goo Gone for the adhesive leftover. 

Both of these methods also only worked well when it was very warm outside, so that was also a drawback. I really was not looking forward to continuing these methods, but didn’t know what else to do. 

Thankfully, one of my dad’s coworkers gave us some solvent to use called GraphX Off so we decided to try that alternate method first. We couldn’t use it in temperatures below 50°F, so we had to wait a while. This was still way better than having to wait until very warm temperatures to work on the decals with the razor blade / Whizzy Wheel. 

When we did get around to using it, we used it on the back and it worked great! It took about 30 minutes for it to work properly, but it scraped right off without too much effort. 

We also used some on the side of the ambulance that was in the shade, and that definitely didn’t work as well, but that was okay. It was only about 60 degrees when we tried it the first time, since we wanted to get as many decals as possible off before our first out of state road trip with the ambulance. I really didn’t want to get pulled over for looking too much like an ambulance. 

I was really dreading having to wait so long to try the other methods again and also dreading all of the effort that those methods were going to take to finish the rest of the decals, but now things are going much faster and easier. 

It was also really satisfying when the vinyl part would bubble up and come right off. I did enjoy taking a lot of the decals off this way as well, which I guess also counts for something. 

It definitely took a few coats to get all of the vinyl plus all of the adhesive off, but I think it is worth it to not have to go through the painstaking effort of manually removing them. I also think that waiting for the solvent to work is much easier than pressing a drill against the side of the ambulance the whole time. 

We did wear gloves during this whole process, but they broke a couple times because of the plastic razor blade we were using to scrape off the decals. Over the next week or two, the skin on my knuckles and fingertips all peeled off but nothing hurt. 

I definitely don’t think, after doing all that, anyone is going to believe we are trying to impersonate an ambulance anymore. I don’t think it would’ve really been an issue before, but I just wanted to make sure we would have the least amount of problems possible. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog post! If you would like to check out my YouTube channel, you can click here. I’ll see you guys in the next one!