Boat Striping

B

Bryank

Member
Jul 3, 2008
455
Catawba Island, OH
Boat Info
2001 410DA
Engines
Mercruiser 8.1S Horizons
I am in need of re-doing my striping. Has anyone tackled this on their own--is it as hard as I think it will be, or is it relatively easy if I just take my time? Any specific product(s) you would recommend? I have a 41' boat, so there is a bit of length here and I'm concerned that I will mess up at least once!
 
It is not very hard although it does take a little practice. The old strip comes off with a heat gun. The residue comes off with acetone. There will be a shadow of the original gel coat color when the stripe is gone that will be the guide for the new stripe. I used Finesse it polish to really clean up the area to be re-striped. Once you have the new stripe in hand the secret to success is having a helper and a bottle of Windex with no ammonia. You spray the area to be striped with Windex and float the new stripe on being careful not to stretch the material so it does not fail. Once it is on and straight use a stiff piece of cardboard to get all of the bubbles out from beneath the stripe. It is best to do the project outside in mild weather and do the shady side of the boat. When the sun comes around to the new stripe, it will bake the area and really set up the adhesive. A day or two of hot sun on a stripe will make it stay on as good as the factory original.
 
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I used a hair dryer and old stripes removed easily. Removing the old adhesive was tough and time consuming-acetone, goo gone, etc. Spray bottle with 3-drops of dish soap will lost work to float them on. Take your time and s stated, do not stretch. Mine turned out perfect. Purchased through Boatus. You get 150 ft on each roll-enough to do it twice

Bennett
 
You can do it yourself or have a local graphics shop do it for you.
 
I used Stripeman.com; the quality is great and it was easy to install.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I have a buddy willing to help me so I may give this a go--I can always blame him! I'll check out Stripeman.com
 
done this several times. The best way is to go to a auto paint supply stove and buy pin striping tape. Strip you boat with this just above where you want you pin strip using the tape as a guide. Once you start roll out about 10' so you can get straight.
 
Bryank said:
I am in need of re-doing my striping. Has anyone tackled this on their own--is it as hard as I think it will be, or is it relatively easy if I just take my time? Any specific product(s) you would recommend? I have a 41' boat, so there is a bit of length here and I'm concerned that I will mess up at least once!
Click to expand...


Just a thought - we took all the "stripes" off except the boot stripe. If you look around, you'll notice many of the modern boats don't come with any stripes at all. We had the stripes removed and boot stripe replaced by a local graphics guy when the boat was hauled. Where the stripes were removed, our detail guy "cleaned up" the remains and it came out great. In our opinion, the couple of hundred dollars was well worth other's expertise and time.

The results on our 400DB are in the photo below. We're very happy, but that's strictly subjective. Just another option to think about...
 
Get a rubber wheel for a cordless drill. Makes quick work of removing old stripes and will not harm gel coat. I removed all of my stripes on a 33' boat, both sides, in one hour. All of the adhesive comes off as well. Cleanup for new stripes is pretty easy.
 
MancaveII said:
Get a rubber wheel for a cordless drill. Makes quick work of removing old stripes and will not harm gel coat. I removed all of my stripes on a 33' boat, both sides, in one hour. All of the adhesive comes off as well. Cleanup for new stripes is pretty easy.
Click to expand...

3M makes this wheel. I bought one from Amazon and it worked great.
 

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+ 1 on the wheel. Pin striping on my 185 was crazed and cracking, I spent an hour removing about 3ft before I bought the wheel -- removed the rest in about 15min. I ultimately decided not to replace the stripe - like the cleaner look.
 
My striping isn't cracked and crazed, so I think that a heat gun will do the trick. That said, I will probably pick up a wheel just to be safe. I want to replace them only because they are nicked in a few places, are discolored below the thru-hulls and are black/gold--which screams early 2000s. I do like the idea of only having a boot stripe at the bottom--and it will be inexpensive to have that done. Thanks for the advice. I'll be at the boat tomorrow formulating my plan...
 
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