To de-vinyl or not

Well I received word yesterday that my tools where being shipped! So, while I wait for them to arrive I thought I would make myself useful. I got out my wood ruler and my solder iron and started to de-vinyl the left elevator ( the bottom). I made sure to take the solder iron out to the scotchbrite wheel and round the tip. I've read some comments that folks have pressed too hard and scratched the aluminium. So I set out to just remove the strips that are in line with the rivet holes. WHAT A PAIN. The blue vinyl is a bit tricky to take off. Its a fine line between pressing enough, and not pressing enough. I'm trying to be EXTREMELY careful not to scratch the aluminium. After about 10 strips (25% of the left elevator) I was just not pleased with how it was turning out. There were some scratches where I had used the iron, even though I was soo careful. On close inspection these scratches are so small - less than a hair, But the shiny aluminium in the bright light makes them pop! Logically they will scotchbrite out (as I plan to paint the plane) but it just doesn't sit well with me. After reading some more on the forums, i've opted just to remove the vinyl when I'm ready to work on a given piece.