Can't remove discoloration of gel coat under original decal

[86 inches]

My original Champion stickers on the front of my consoles have faded so I thought I would remove and replace them. They came off easily with a heat gun and plastic scraper but there is an odd discoloration under them that I just can't get out wet sanding. I've gotten almost nowhere with 1000 grit and I'm not comfortable going deeper.

Any ideas what's going on here. Looking for suggestions on what to do next.

[crank68]

It won’t come off. All the decals are put on at the factory “really” before the gel is cured. The sun discolores the gel around the decal and the sun can’t get to the gel underneath. In some cases as with yours the original decal will aid in the discoloration of the underling gel due to the pigment in the original decal bleeding....

[86 inches]

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Any ideas on what I can do? ... not to remove the discoloration but maybe cover it up.

[crank68]

What I do is this situation for my customers...I get my decal guy to cut a decal as close to the discolored area/areas as possible.

[86 inches]

Darryl? Can you do that?

[crank68]

You’ll have to give him the demisions on what your tryin to cover up...

[Boiler92]

I would have a white decal cut to cover-up the old one. Place the new on over the cover-up. You could even have the cover-up a complementary shade to the Champion decal.

[CastingCall]

I would have a white decal cut to cover-up the old one. Place the new on over the cover-up. You could even have the cover-up a complementary shade to the Champion decal.

^This! Take your Champion decal and have them offset 3/8" to 1/2" from the very outside of the silver outline, so it follows all the same contours (vs. just a rectangle). Put that over the "stained" gelcoat, then center your decal inside that.

[86 inches]

I’m gonna try Ted’s suggestion first but I really like the idea of using a cover up decal. I found a Champion decal at discontinueddecals.com that looks to be the exact right size. Its in the mail. If it works, I’ll go with that . If not, I’ll ask Darryl if he can make me something.

[86 inches]

My new decals arrived but they don't match either. Will have to try something else.

Here is a pic showing an oval placed under the "Champion". It's just cardboard. I was trying to get an idea what it would look like and what size would be required. This one is 18" on the long axis and 8 inches on the short. I have plain white in mind but I'm hoping to come up with something a bit better.





Or may something like CastingCall suggested...

[sixpack1]

If the decal is the same size as the original just spray some soapy water on the console and that'll give you plenty of time to line it up with the residual from the old decal. Once in place carefully squeegee out the soapy water and you're done...

[86 inches]

Darryl at Iguanagrafix made me some white contour decals .25" over. Turned out pretty nice.

[crank68]

Nice !!

[CastingCall]

That did turn out nice!

[86 inches]

Thanks for everyone’s help on this. Much appreciated.