HazzCoDaisy

Is anyone making Decals for sport watercraft

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I am pulling my hair out on this sled. I have a nice plastic panel to put numbers on. Problem is they keep coming up.

Here is what ive been doing ..

Covering the panel with Oracal Cast Vinyl in white, then layering silver over the white, hitting it with some heat to seal and letting him go. Its coming up on both sides, not just the money side.

Do most of you use a marine grade vinyl? Maybe someone can print these for me? I don't know. Ill letter them again for the weekend and see how to fix it better next week.

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I am pulling my hair out on this sled. I have a nice plastic panel to put numbers on. Problem is they keep coming up.

Here is what ive been doing ..

Covering the panel with Oracal Cast Vinyl in white, then layering silver over the white, hitting it with some heat to seal and letting him go. Its coming up on both sides, not just the money side.

Do most of you use a marine grade vinyl? Maybe someone can print these for me? I don't know. Ill letter them again for the weekend and see how to fix it better next week.

Make sure there is absolutely no wax on the suface. the slightest bit of wax will cause it to fail.

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How are you prepping the surface? Are you applying wet or dry? I would try cleaning the surface with some sort of alcohol based cleaner or if it wont damage the finish something like acetone. IDK what the finish is like on marine craft. Myself, I use RapidTac 2 to prep any surface (for wet or dry app) and then wipe down with a microfiber and/or tac rag. I would make sure you use a ton of pressure while applying although the heat should get the adhesive nice an baked on.

Also is the vinyl fresh or has it been sitting around for a while? Vinyl for cutting does have a shelf life (of abot 2-3 years on the roll). Have all these been off the same roll? Maybe a bad batch of vinyl- not likely but possible.

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Thanks for the input guys, i really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I prepped like this. Removed old vinyl, which was a very heavy printed sticker, im thinking some kind of coated stock .. extremely heavy. Used Rapid Remover to strip adhesive, cleaned all parts with soap and water and a toothbrush because the piece was dingy, and then used rapid tac to prep. I applied dry, covered the area with the white vinyl first then trimmed, cleaned up around the rivets, and hit the entire thing with heat. Lots of heat i was really pushing it. I layered the black and silver on the table and applied in one piece.

The vinyl is fresh and i have not had any problems with anything else from the same rolls; then again nothing else off these rolls go underwater at high speeds! Lol.

I just got these panels back in the shop a little bit ago and i guess it turns out that actually only the money side came up. The passenger side looks like it got hit and ripped by something external. I'm not sure what but it's definitely not an adhesion problem. During practice or a race this decal is completely immersed at speeds up to almost 100mph. It would have only taken a tiny corner to come up to take the entire thing off. The plastic is a bit porous, so my partner is thinking of putting down a later of spray adhesive then applying the white and squeegieing out from the center, trimming, curing that with heat and waiting a day to apply the number. Any other ideas? It turns out this guy's next race isn't until next weekend so i have until this Sunday before those panels go back in the water for practice. Good news.

I don't know guys .. this one is gonna be trial and error, i think. Thanks in advance for any advice.

DoneFirstTry.jpg

DoneFirstTry2.jpg

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Speed is definitely the culprit here. i have almost always removed vinyl off my own vehicle at the car wash with a pressure washer. same concept. Maybe want to look into some sort of heavily laminated wrap that is continuous and then edge seal?

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Speed is definitely the culprit here. i have almost always removed vinyl off my own vehicle at the car wash with a pressure washer. same concept. Maybe want to look into some sort of heavily laminated wrap that is continuous and then edge seal?

That's exactly what i'm thinking. Thanks again VM.

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