How do I go about removing 30+ year old decals from the quarter panel of my Omega. I hate them, and they must go! They're on there good!

 

The adhesive is probably dried pretty hard by now. You could try using a heat gun - just be carefull how long it stays in one place and a plastic scraper. There will probably be some marring of the paint that you could power polish out later.

Have you checked with any of your local decal application shops and asked them how they do this? I would expect that they can give you expert advice. It might not even cost that much to have them professionally remove the decals. If they do it, take pics beforehand to make sure there is no false claims that "that scratch" or 'that paint chip" was already there. I say that based on the school of hard knocks and have learned that the principle of CYA is a good way to go.

 

X2 on the heat gun & plastic scraper. Red tends to fade pretty easily, so I would be a little concerned you may still see a "shadow" of the decal even after polishing.

 

After them being on there for 30 years, I can gaurntee you will still see those in the paint once they are removed. If thay are factory decals, you may want to just leave them be if they are in decent shape. If you truly don't like them, it's going to take a repaint to cover them properly, even if you get the decal & adhesive removed without marring the paint underneath.

 

I have seen the 3M Stripe / Decal remover wheel in action , it is pretty impressive. It is sort of like a paddle wheel made of gummy eraser.

 

I've heard of it. I'll try my local auto supply store.

 

That's an excellent point. Red is so subject to fade

 

The car had a repaint in the original cover, and I believe they masked over the decals.

 

cover? you mean color? Yup, I know. That's how you say down there ....

So that means that when you take off the decals, there will be a ridge where they were taped off? Might be able to buff that down with some cutting agent and polish it up. How long ago was the paint and did they match it really well?

 

WD40 softens adhesive up. Maybe that and the heat gun

 

I would strongly reccomend the 3M wheel. things work great for me and never did any damage to paint ( even fairly fresh paint )

 

X2 with 4424me the wheel he showed is the best . Alot of guys at our shop use an air drill at rediculous rpm if you keep it slow it will do it's job just as effective and erase the decal off and you wont waste the wheel as fast . The faster you go the more heat the more chance to peel paint. I use a regulator in line on my air dril if you have a variable speed drill electric that will work too. Just keep the rpms at a low rpm and have some patience at it will work. If they taped over the decals then you will have recessed area in the shape of the decal . Unfortunantly the only way to fix that is to sand and repaint. If they did base clear it will never look right if they did it in single stage paint you might be able to fix it but it still wont look 100%. Red does fade pretty bad my dodge ram is red and was an old fleet truck i sanded and buffed it i can still see where it say's monroe trucking road assistance.

 

Typo, buddy, typo.We say color here, or is it colour,lol?? The repaint was super, it matches perfectly. The only b+tch is they must have had some dirt in the lines or something. I've got pictures of the repaint but I'm not sure when it was done, or if it is a base coat/clear coat.

 

I'm sorry to see them go
It took me a few years to find the correct ones after a repaint. I found some still sealed in original package. I had them reproduced at a local sign shop as I wouldn't trust 30+ year old vinyl to hold up.
I was also under the impression and Omega S had buckets and a floor console I could be mistaken as I often am...
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...als-found.html

 

I'm looking at my 1974 Olds brochure and I see the "S" option included there. My car is the "S", as I have all the options associated with that group except for the buckets and console.Don't forget, this was 1974, and you could order anything you wanted,lol. I ordered a new 1974 Nova SS, with a 350, 4-speed, and a bench seat. I love bench seats with a 4-speed.

 

I wish they offered a four speed in the Olds

 

Yep!