Removing lacquer & old decals?

I recently bought a bike which has been resprayed recently with the previous owner's name on downtube and seat tube. It's a Harry Hall 531 frame nicely painted and I want to take the (one coat) lacquer and decals underneath off. I took it to Visual Impact (Bristol) who do Argos's decalling. They suggested I phone Argos which I'll do tommorrow.

But has anyone done this? I don't want to respray the entire frame. Just want to remove the lacquer from over the decals, then peel the existing (vinyl) decals off. Then affix new Harry Hall decals from Visual Impact and apply lacquer over top. Applying and then peeling off some sticky backing in the shop brought some of the single coat of lacquer off and showed how delicate the decal underneath was. Steve

decals

You could try to continue peeling the laquer off the decals and then heating them with a hairdryer. They should come off that way, pretty quickly too.
Then....its a 1200 grit wet & dry job. Get the whole base nice and flat and try to lift as little of the top coat enamel as you can.
Apply new graphics.
Laquer.
Take advice from a pro on the laquer- I've had problems with mismatches in the past. Good old cellulose is the way to go - that acrylic or polyeurethane is trouble.

You might try heating them first and see if you can peel me off lacquer and all.

Then wetsand and refinish.

Lacquer/transfers removal

Well, I went over to Argos (I live in Bristol) to get some advice from the experts. I spoke to two of the frame restorers and they have certainly done this before. Their workflow is as follows:

1 Use boiling water carefully to remove the necessary lacquer
2 Peel off the vinyl transfers by hand - they should be soft by then
3 Allow to dry
4 Apply lacquer (spray or brush on; at least 1 or 2 coats) to use as a 'filler' for the next stage
5 Carefully sand down the area with 2500 grade paper and neat washing-up liquid. This is to feather down any edges left from the transfer removal. Use 1200 paper for coarser sanding if insufficient effect with the 2500. Note you must allow the new coats of lacquer to dry between coats - very important to prevent 'balling-up'.
6 Then use White spirit to remove all traces of the washing-up liquid
7 Apply the new transfers carefully
8 Finally apply two to four coats of lacquer.

They said the head tube transfer would be difficult - perhaps I can find a suitable sticker? They could do all of the above for approx £60 inc new transfers. Given the process I'm tempted to let them do it. I'm a bit nervous of ruining the finish and they were very confident.

Steve

Interesting thread.

Apparently the boiling water only works on certain laquers which is a shame.

Peel 'em off to put on another bike?? Maybe?? I shoulda scavenged better in my prior years...