Removing Diamond Shield From Our RV

It's about time I got back to writing about our Journey RV, because, after all, this is supposed to be about our RV lifestyle.  So I'll skip over talking about new houses, assembling furniture and skinned knuckles (lots of skinned knuckles).

The Diamond Shield protective coating on the Journey's nose served well for the nine years (already?) we've owned it, but the glue started growing mold under the plastic, making the Journey look like a diseased abomination.

I tried various things to remove the plastic, some parts it easily peeled of in big sheets, other parts it came off in little tiny pieces.  My fingers cramped after a while so I found plastic razor blades at Ace Hardware, which help a bit, by the plastic still came off in tiny, postage stamp sized pieces.

I got a recommendation to try a decal removal disc made by 3M.  I gave it a try after ordering it from Amazon.  I chucked it into my drill.

It didn't work well at all.  While it did sort of remove the top layer of the plastic, it melted the glue underneath into a really hard surface.  It took a very long time to even get that far.

Honestly, I was at a loss as to what to do.  Peeling the Diamond Shield off piece by piece would see me working on it until the next century.  There is a lot of surface area on the front of a Class A motorhome.

I was watching TV on my new home's 55 inch unit when I came across a car show where a custom car shop was removing a fancy car body wrap using a heat gun.  It came right off.  I decided to give that a try, after all, what did I have to lose?

With the heat gun on low, I heated a four inch square section at a time and then used the plastic razor blade.  The plastic shield peeled right off easily, with one down side.

The down side was in some spots, the plastic came off, but the glue remained behind, doing its job, sticking to the paint.  I tried some WD-40 on the glue to see if it would come off.

For the first time ever, WD-40 let me down, it didn't work on the glue.  So I tried another penetrating oil.

The PB Blaster worked well.  I sprayed it on and let it soak for five to ten minutes.  It turned the glue orange.

The glue residue was easily scraped off with the plastic razor blade and a little elbow grease.

The result was clear, undamaged paint, which I put some wax on.  The generator hood came out clean and shiny as if it was just painted.

Now that I know the secret to removing the Diamond Shield, I have the rest of the nose to clear off...when I'm finally finished putting together the furniture and other items in the new house.  ;c)

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