Vinyl Decals w/ DACP?

[HenryPF]

Hello! First time poster.



Been lurking for weeks now and it's almost time to give a shot at detailing my truck.



Here is my problem, see the massive amounts of vinyl? (the black striping) It is currently horridly faded, oxidized, dunno what to really call it. What will happen if i go over it with DACP? While I think it will completely dull the vinyl (acceptable, its got so many dull spots it's not funny), will DACP dull the vinyl without swirl marks?



I have been thinking of removing the vinyl altogether but the vinyl has been on the vehicle since 1996. I think my chances of the paint being faded underneath it are pretty damn good. Is it worth trying to save and make the entire vinyl dull? Parts of the vinyl still shine, but other parts are just plain dull. Rather have it all dull or shiny but I have searched countless times to see if the vinyl is restorable (even the vinyl cutter vendors say "good luck").



If I remove the vinyl what are the chances of going over the entire vehicle with DACP to blend in where the vinyl was?



Sorry for the unclear photo, its hard to distinguish alot with the trees and leaves shadowing the truck. Color is correct though, it is a very bright silver.



I currently have at my disposal pc7424, Rotary, Meg's #9, 83, 24, AIO, SG, pads, MF, etc. Anything else I should be getting or missing?



If worse comes to worse, I can remove the vinyl and have a new (and possibly different) pattern cut - hence another problem, will the paint be faded too much to notice?

 

[oldmodman]

I recently had the drivers door on my Ford Explorer damaged in an accident. So I decided that it would be a perfect time to try some possibly damaging detailing techniques. I used both my Porter Cable DA with #83 DACP and a Makita Rotary on the undamaged part of the door to TRY and hurt the paint. Part of the test were run over the vinyl factory pinstriping. The DA didn't do any harm at all. The paint and pinstripe were both shiny and undamaged. And I worked the DA around in a very small circle over the same spot for 20 min! The rotary was another story. After 5 to 6 min in the same spot I wiped it clean and checked the paint. It was perfect! Even the orangepeel was gone. But so was the pinstriping. It had polished right through it. And underneath the pinstriping was a perfect darker shaded stripe.

So, if you remove your vinyl stripes just tell your friends that you have ghost flames!