ADVISE please for replacing decals

[Timolgra]

I'm going to replace the decals on my partner's F650GSD like this one below.

My thoughts so far.

Warm the old ones with a hot air gun to remove.
Clean the panels with soapy water and dry.

Now the bit I'm not sure of.
Is it best to wet the panels so the new ones 'float' and smooth them down with say a credit card or do you do them dry and risk getting air bubbles?

So any thoughts as I don't want to cock it up

 

[rc mad]

when i fit new decals onto a bike i use soapy water and a squeegy, like what you'll probablly have in the car for clearing the windows. You want something that is soft and will not damage the paintwork but will still force the excess water out from under the decal. I usually put the soapy solution in a spray bottle and wet the fairings down and then apply the decals free hand, you could do a dry run with the backing still on and tape the top edge of the decal sheet down once it is in the correct posistion and then apply the soapy solution (lift the decal up first )

Also i would not remove the top sheet from the applied decals until they have had time to dry a little bit, and take your time when removing it as the decal may start to pull up, don't worry if that happens, just reverse the peeling process and it'll go back down, you dont want to pull the top sheet directly away from the bike either, more like directly away from the corner you started keeping the removed sheet as close to the fairing as possible, it seems to stop the decal pulling up as much.

Worked on the last two bikes i did

you may be able to use the hot air gun to dry out the decals once they are down correctly, i let them dry out naturally.

 

[Timolgra]

Ok thanks, some good tips there

The decals are quite big which is why I was concerned, taping the top edge should help

 

[brassmonkey001]

when i fit new decals onto a bike i use soapy water and a squeegy, like what you'll probablly have in the car for clearing the windows. You want something that is soft and will not damage the paintwork but will still force the excess water out from under the decal. I usually put the soapy solution in a spray bottle and wet the fairings down and then apply the decals free hand, you could do a dry run with the backing still on and tape the top edge of the decal sheet down once it is in the correct posistion and then apply the soapy solution (lift the decal up first )

Also i would not remove the top sheet from the applied decals until they have had time to dry a little bit, and take your time when removing it as the decal may start to pull up, don't worry if that happens, just reverse the peeling process and it'll go back down, you dont want to pull the top sheet directly away from the bike either, more like directly away from the corner you started keeping the removed sheet as close to the fairing as possible, it seems to stop the decal pulling up as much.

Worked on the last two bikes i did

you may be able to use the hot air gun to dry out the decals once they are down correctly, i let them dry out naturally.

Can't add to this. I used to fit decals to vans many years ago and this is how we did it.

 

[Vern]

Angle grinder and acid will fetch em off, no problem