Decal Dismemberment

I've never been a huge fan of tank emblems or decals. The only other motorcycle I owned, a 1981 Suzuki 450, only had emblems on one side. In the end I removed the other, filled it with body filler and repainted it flat black. It was a major improvement over the 'sea foam' green color that had been on there originally. One of dad's bikes never ran with the emblem and it always looked cleaner because of it. Even my uncle owned a bike without emblems.

It really isn't too uncommon to see bikes without tank emblems. Many use the tank as a location for a custom paint job or pin-striping of some sort. Personally, I can appreciate good tank art, but I also enjoy a nice clean look. 

If you acquire a Road King Police model, you will quickly realize that the tanks bear no emblems or striping of any type. Indeed, the police usually put the city seal on the tanks and the words police or police interceptor. Selling the motorcycle with any indication of it being a police officer is highly illegal. Well, somewhat illegal. In fact I will devote a whole post into the legality of lighting and other police style features later. The reality is, you will most likely be receiving a black, white or, on occasion, blue paint job.

I immediately took a liking to this plain approach, especially the white. For some reason, the plain white look of the police bike seemed almost timeless. Indeed that seems to be completely intentional. This design has not changed very much for the better part of 50 years. In general the police models tend to retain the look of the classic FLH style even more than the consumer version of the Road King. 

When I purchased the bike itself, it came with a single black line about one inch thick, running across both sides of the tank, briefly interrupted by a HD 100th Anniversary logo emblem. The black line itself was outlined on both top and bottom with an even thinner gold line. 

Poorly printed and applied decals are neither unique nor cool.

At first this seemed like a cool unique feature. I felt special, like this bike that had this stripe was one in a million. But then it started looking funky. The lines didn't seem quite right, like it was done in a factory. The distribution of the pattern made the tank appear more of a square than a teardrop. In other words, what first made me excited was causing me visual headaches.

I spent an entire day searching for this model of motorcycle. I ended up cycling through all the motorcycles HD released that year. The 2003 year was the 100th anniversary edition of all their motorcycles. This meant that any consumer motorcycle would include; A. a tank emblem and band, made from a metal that was mounted and pressed like a normal emblem, B. a stamp on the bottom of the crank case on the left side with the 100th anniversary logo and C. a 100th anniversary black and silver badge across the front fender. The only exception were the police bikes which would not have the "A" listed above.

An actual example of the HD 100th Anniversary Emblems that do not look terrible.

No where did I see the band that was on my bike. I attempted to verify that I was the owner of some super special edition. I was not. The realization that this was not factory or original prompted a closer inspection of the emblems themselves. Upon further scrutiny I realized that these were simply decals. Decals that were uneven, placed poorly and in some areas, starting to bubble and peel,  The emblem that was supposed to be for the 100th anniversary was not even original but was a peel on decal made by an aftermarket company. 

These decals had to go. We needed to remove them without damaging the clear coat or the paint. Naturally, we turned to YouTube to find a solution. Here is the solution we figured out.

That decal has to go! What do I do?

The most difficult aspect for removing unwanted decals is deciding what layer of the paint they are on. Usually professional decals are applied under the clear coat. If your decal is under the clear coat then I cannot offer any sage advice. I watched a video where a man used a exacto knife in order to cut around the decal while it was under the clear coat. Doing so allowed him to remove just the decal but left the area unprotected by the clear coat. This could be an option that you explore but for now I'll just cover decals that are placed above the clear coat.

1. We began with a heat gun and my wife's finger nails. She held the heat gun about 6 inches away from the tank and heated the surface evenly, moving it back and forth. Eventually she gave up on the nails and went and got a razor blade. It is important to note that it was just the blade itself and not in any type of holder. 

2. Carefully apply the heat and use the blade to work the decal up, slowly moving the blade along with the heat source. This melts the adhesive used and will allow you to slowly lift away the decal. 

The glue residue will consume the most time for this particular job.

3. It is a slow and steady process but eventually the decals will come off pretty cleanly. They will leave a residue. When removing this residue try and use something non corrosive. We used Goo Gone that was meant for automotive applications. This part is slow. It will take awhile to remove the glue. Expect to spend around 40 minutes or more depending on what you're removing. 

4. Once you've removed the decal and glue, use rubbing compound, again non corrosive, in order to restore the shine of the clear coat. You might be amazed at the result.

Removing the decals on both sides of the tank took the better part of 2 hours to complete. It is a tedious, time consuming process that requires you to be very careful with heat, blades and adhesive removers. The results will be completely worth it. Keep in mind that this was done on decals that sit above the clear coat and not below. Also please keep in mind you do this at your peril. This is simply what we did to remove the decal and it worked in our situation. Your situation and results may vary.

Looking nice and clean.