IMO, you can or should do whatever you want to do. My boat ('81 SRV245) was re-striped by the previous owner with wider, maroon striping. No two-tone, etc. Not exactly what "I" liked, but nice looking. I want to re-stripe mine in black, and replace the maroon canvas with black. My hull is cream colored, and I think it'd look nice. My upholstery is all maroon as well. About half the people I talked to like it, the other half doesn't think it'd match that well, and think brown is a better choice. I guess it's all what you want, since you're the one payin' for the gas...

I don't particularly care for the striping behind the windows, unless it's absolutely perfect, and not all faded, chipped away, etc. I see alot of that where I'm at, and it's hideous. If you remove it permanently, it might look TOO bare. But, that's just my 2 cents...
If you like it, I say go for it!

 

"Is the factory seam under the pinstripes a nice straight line?"

My boat has the same wide blue stripes above and below the rub rail. I removed the pinstripes above and below them so I could repaint those wide blue stripes. I found that the pin striping was very useful to conceal some "bleeding" of paint under masking tape when those stripes were painted.

I was going to replace the pin striping....but when my wife and I repainted the stripes.....it appears I did a fairly decent job of masking...and used good quality tape....and didn't get any "bleeding" under the tape. We got a nice clean crisp paint line. Better it appears than whoever did it before. So I may not re-do the pin striping.

Eventually I expect to be removing all the other tri-color pin striping which has become faded, chipped, cracked etc as well. Whether I replace any of it remains to be seen. Depends on how I like the look with no striping. "shrug"

 

I would remove the stripes. I plan to do the same on my boat, and think it does help to update the look.

A bit of heat (heat gun, used carefully) and some time they should come off without too much trouble.

 

Just bare in mind, the blue tri-tone tape that Sea Ray used is no longer available from 3M. Every site that says they have, are usually out and High priced. I personally love the pin striping, but to each his own!

 

Yes, I have noticed that the tri-color is non-existent. I was thinking of 1 solid color stripe but have no idea what color would look good going that route.

LK

 

here you go allwhite00.

Justin

 

I did some mockups for Heather (Spookeay) of her boat when thinking about changing colors and striping. Check out the post at http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/31475-Whos-good-at-Photo-Shop?p=356147#post356147

Not hard to do. Get a good photo of your boat that shows enough detail, then re-color it in Photoshop to your liking.

 

West marine sells a 2" wide tri blue tape stripe that might work.

 

Thanks for the photoshop - Looks OK but I don't want to get into re-painting - Lust talking about removing stripes at this point.

The 2" stripe is fine, The 1/2" tri color is the one with the issues.

Here is a quick photoshop with the stripes removed, What do you think?

LK

 

I removed (and then replaced) my Sea Ray emblems and boot stripe tape, and used a product called "747 Adhesive Remover" that worked very well. I let the sun hit the stripe/emblem, applied the product liberally with an old rag, then used a razor to scrape them off. They came off very easily. Just a matter of minutes for each side. I then used the product on the old rag to remove any remnants of adhesive which also came right off. I did the other side of the boat after the sun had some time to work on it.
There was ghosting where the old stripes/decals were, but it faded a bit over time and is hardly noticeable other than really close up.
The rest of the stripes that were along the sides of the cabin were removed by the previous owner and I think the boat looks a lot more modern without them
I got my new stripes from a local sign shop. The color selction is much wider than at any marine supplier I could find, the price wasn't much more, and they can make as many stripes as you want in whatever width you want.

 

i agree that it looks better without stripes or at least updated ones. Although there is a catch. Bare in mind the boat is 20+ years and those stripes are just as old. I did redid some on my baot and used a tool "pin stripe eraser" you can buy them on ebay for less than 20 bucks. Attatched to a drill at low speed will strip them right off. Use caution because if u go to fast ull burn the clear coat. The only downfall is you will have a faint change in paint tone where the stripes were because the gel coat has never seen light before, no matter the amount of buffing they will still be there. just a word of advice. maybe try a small spot to see if ull like it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Astr...iewItemQQhashZitem5188527962QQitemZ350179457378QQptZMotorsQ5fAutomotiveQ5fTools

 

I've used the 3M Stripe eraser in the past, but found that the 747 Adhesive remover worked even quicker and you eliminate the risk of buring through the gelcoat if you stay in place too long. The Adhesive remover is liquid.
The faded and dull Sea Ray emblems that I removed were the same ones the factory put on in 1987, and they came off in a matter of a couple of minutes. The ghosting wasn't a problem for me in that spot because I replaced them with new emblems.

 

I started to remove my stripes last season and with a blow dryer and putty knife, I gave up after removing about 12 inches.....lol.

I just recieved a 3M eraser wheel to try again but this 747 adhesive remover sounds pretty good. Im assuming it wont hurt the gelcote if it runs??

 

No, it won't hurt anything if it runs.
I've found that heat guns or blow dryers just make it harder to remove stripes because they make the adhesive gooey.
It took literally minutes to remove whatever I had to remove with no adhesive residue left over.
I just used it again to remove and replace some registration numbers from one side that were looking a little tired. It took me longer to line up and apply the replacements ( a couple of minutes ) than it took me to remove the old ones.

 

An eraser wheel in a drill will do the trick. I sell them on my tool Trk. It has been used in the auto body industry for years. It won't mar the finish, won't burn the gel, works perfect. Especially if the tape u are wanting to remove is old and has "hardened". Great thing is there is no "cruiser tax" usually associated with products that r needed for our boats. Rather inexpensive.

 

Are there any retail stores that carry 747?

 

I bought it in a local Hardware Store. If you can't find it locally, I know you can also order it on the internet. Just google it and some online sellers should pop up.

 

It should work well for you.
Like I said in an earlier post in this thread:
Let the sun work on the vinyl for a while, then apply a liberal amount on a rag and wipe it generously on to the vinyl. Let it soak the vinyl for a minute or two, then use a razor blade to peel the vinyl from the boat.
Use the same soaked rag to remove any residual adhesive that remains after you remove the vinyl.
I used to use a 3M adhesive remover that worked pretty much the same way, but haven't been able to find it these last couple of years. The guy in the Hardware Store recommended the 747, and it worked very well for me.

 

I restripped our boat this past winter. I removed the old strip with heat gun (and a hair dryer when I forgot the heat gun). I also used a plastic putty knife. To remove the glue I tested a bunch of stuff but what really worked for me was DeWitt's 'Remove-it'. Honestly that stuff was a miracle and saved me hours of time. I tried 'Goo gone' and it was useless , I also tried Acetone and it was useless. We did not use the Sea Ray strips but instead had a graphics guy make very similar strips. The total cost was about $700. The graphics guy and I worked on removing the old strips and he provided the new strips and labour to put them on.

 

I tried 3 different adhesive removers (couldnt find the 747 locally) and they didnt even budge the 26 year old stripes.

I used the eraser wheel and it definitely works but im not sure if it took all the vinyl stripe off or just the top painted layer.

Im not sure if whats left behind is vinyl or just the adhesive but i cant get anything to even slightly start to remove it.

It looks like there is clear stripes on the boat now with yellowed edges. Its pretty thick and almost feels like part of the gelcote.
I cant even get a razor blade to try to lift an edge. Ive tried adhesive removers and acetone and its not budging.

Anyone else run into this and find something that does work??

I see the post above about dewitts "REMOVE IT" and will look for some.

 

I had my smaller pinstripes removed a couple of years ago. I still have a ridge in the gelcoat where they were. It's almost like the gelcoat around where the stripe was worn away leaving a raised section of gelcoat. You can feel it with your fingernail and from more then 5 feet away you can't see a difference.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thats exactly what it seems like except mine can be seen from a distance and its raised quite a bit. I guess it may fade eventually but right now the small stripes look tan and the 2" stripe looks clear with yellowed edges. My 2" stripe had cracks all through it and unfortunately I can feel where all the cracking was too.

I have a feeling Im going to have to do some sanding on them. Not quite what i was hoping to have to get into right now as I have a lot of projects going on all at once.

 

I ran into that issue also, I just put new stripes over where the old ones were, Here are a couple pics.

This is "before" You can see they are chipped up and faded pretty bad - I ended up removing them with an "eraser" wheel.

this is "after" - Rub rail is off the boat and this is before I polished it up - It's all back together now but no pics yet - I replaced the triple blue above and below the blue with a navy 1/2" stripe and a 1/8" cream on top of it off center, Did it a little different up top by the Sea Ray emblem but it worked out pretty good.

LK

 

That turned out good alwhite00.

I wasnt planning on replacing the stripes but I'll have to see if I like it or not with none above the rub rail before deciding.