Beginner vinyl wraps his boat

[gm280]

Not sure what that vinyl is made out of but I have to say it looks really familiar to a product we use to use when flying and building Radio Controlled aircraft. We used a product called Monokote (Solarcoat, Coverette, Tower Coat, etc). It was a very tough vinyl material that had a heat activated glue on it so when you heated it with a heat gun or iron, it would stick and then shrink as tight as a drum. And it was near impossible to push your finger through that stuff. I do remember offering to give my son a $100 bill if he could push his finger through that material and he tried and tried and tried some more but couldn't. So this vinyl material looks really close to that stuff. A hint for future installations, on your seams, use a straight edge and cut through both pieces at the same time. Then they will fit to each other perfectly. An old carpet installation trick I use to do. But it does look really nice and I am interested in how it will hold up in the water over time... :thumb:

 

[mattsmall1972]

Hi gm - Thanks for the advice. I expect it to last 3-5 years at which point I will be happy to redo it with all new vinyl maybe in a different color. This is the same stuff that they print the wild graphics on, but it's got a solid color. I am so pleased with how it turned out. I still need to do the other side and use the heat gun on everything, but I'm about an hour from the South Carolina coast and the rain has been non-stop for the past week. It's about to get really bad.

 

[BWR1953]

Not sure what that vinyl is made out of but I have to say it looks really familiar to a product we use to use when flying and building Radio Controlled aircraft. We used a product called Monokote (Solarcoat, Coverette, Tower Coat, etc). It was a very tough vinyl material that had a heat activated glue on it so when you heated it with a heat gun or iron, it would stick and then shrink as tight as a drum. And it was near impossible to push your finger through that stuff. I do remember offering to give my son a $100 bill if he could push his finger through that material and he tried and tried and tried some more but couldn't. So this vinyl material looks really close to that stuff. A hint for future installations, on your seams, use a straight edge and cut through both pieces at the same time. Then they will fit to each other perfectly. An old carpet installation trick I use to do. But it does look really nice and I am interested in how it will hold up in the water over time... :thumb:

We still use that stuff on RC planes. My wife holds one of my planes covered with Econocote in the pic below.





And that vinyl wrap stick-on stuff is also used for plenty of other things. Here's a pic of a beat up old Winchester Model 100 that we covered in Mossy Oak pattern.

 

[redneck joe]

Love the drive thru garage

 

[gm280]

We still use that stuff on RC planes. My wife holds one of my planes covered with Econocote in the pic below.





And that vinyl wrap stick-on stuff is also used for plenty of other things. Here's a pic of a beat up old Winchester Model 100 that we covered in Mossy Oak pattern.

Okay, I forget about Econocote. If I remember correctly, Econocote was a lower temperature covering for aircraft. You had to watch carefully not to burn through with the usual Monokote irons they sold. I actually have two covering irons yet. They work great for making PC Boards now. And I seriously like that Winchester 100 autoloader rifle. I am assuming it was in .308 cal. I yet to get one but always wanted too.

mattsmall1972, you stated that you have to use a heat gun on the material yet. So I take it that it is shrinkable as well. Interesting knowing that is how the Monokote works as well. Maybe it is the same type material. Did it have a peel away clear plastic sheet on the back that you have to remove before applying? Post your finished results. I am interested in it... :thumb:

 

[BWR1953]

Okay, I forget about Econocote. If I remember correctly, Econocote was a lower temperature covering for aircraft. You had to watch carefully not to burn through with the usual Monokote irons they sold. I actually have two covering irons yet. They work great for making PC Boards now. And I seriously like that Winchester 100 autoloader rifle. I am assuming it was in .308 cal. I yet to get one but always wanted too...

Yup, I used the Econokote because of the low temp application. Needed that in order to apply the film over the foam wing. Back in the early 70s I used to use Solarfilm.

Due to my health issues I can't hunt anymore so I ended up selling that Winchester. Got twice what I paid for it because of the camo job!

 

[mattsmall1972]

I don't know about it shrinking much, but i see it on YouTube and if it helps it stick better or wrap on the bottom edge better, then I'm all for it.

It does have a peel away sheet. It's basically just a sticker meant for this kind of use.

I'm not done yet due to the infinite rain we've had this week. I am hopeful that it will get done this week.

 

[kcassells]

Looks very cool! Thanks for the info and I look forward to the final. How do you think it will it hold up to bumps and scrapes?

 

[gm280]

I don't know about it shrinking much, but i see it on YouTube and if it helps it stick better or wrap on the bottom edge better, then I'm all for it.

It does have a peel away sheet. It's basically just a sticker meant for this kind of use.

I'm not done yet due to the infinite rain we've had this week. I am hopeful that it will get done this week.

I can't say for certain, but the Monokote material I was referring to also had the peel away clear plastic sheet from the covering material as well. And you could look at it all day long and not see anything that resembled glue. But when you applied heat, the glue became evident and would stick to the balsa wood or fiberglass and then shrink and became tight as a drum. So maybe it is a very similar type material after all. :noidea: I can easily understand the rain situation. We haven't seen the sun in over a week now ourselves. And it looks like a few more days of cloudy, rainy, gloomy weather as well. But make sure you post the final results whenever you get some good weather to finish up. Like I said, I am interested... JMHO!

 

[mattsmall1972]

Bumps and scrapes - about as well as any vinyl striping on a boat. The pinstripes on my other boat are messed up a little bit due to bumping the dock. However, if I have a really bad section, I can cut around it, peel it off, and put another one in its place. That makes this a pretty attractive manner of upkeep.

I didn't imagine that would be an option when I started doing this. I thought I was going to get this applied in one giant sheet. Now that I sectioned it, it's infinitely fixable.

 

[kcassells]

Gots to say I like it alot. Cool use of a product and application. After I posted I said to myself.."so what...If I bumped/scraped my paint or gelcoat then I'd have to make a match/repair anyway." So you mentioned 3-4 years then a redo. What is the reason for that? Sun, UV, discoloration, fresh/salt water etc? Just asking.
Thanks.

 

[mattsmall1972]

The expected lifetime on this product is 5 years, although I don't know what the end of the lifetime would look like under normal circumstances, be it fading, peeling or slowly disintegrating. I will likely feel like changing color to something else within that time period anyway. I bought far more vinyl than I needed, thinking that I needed a single 60-foot long sheet that was over 2-foot wide due to the upturn of the boat from stern to bow. Now that I know I can use small sheets, it would cost less than $100 to change the color if desired, although the graphics and number were $125. This makes the color change a bargain and so simple to do. Why wouldn't I change it up?

 

[jigngrub]

You did a great job on that vinyl, now you need some good dock bumpers to hang over the side of the boat to protect your handy work.

 

[mattsmall1972]

The rains have finally stopped here in South Carolina and I was able to get back to the vinyl wrap this evening. It took me about 3 hours to finish everything up. It's dusk now and the pictures are a bit dark but I wanted to show the finished product.

What I'll say about this is that I love it. This method of application may not be for everyone, particularly if you're extremely anal about the seams. It doesn't bother me at all. I noticed that when I added the graphics, all of my attention was diverted away from anything except the whole package.

I've also noticed that over the past several days, the vinyl has actually gotten tighter and smoother than when I originally did it. I assume that's because of the expansion/contraction from the temperature. I am planning on going over the whole thing with my heat gun to really activate the glue as well as help it smooth down on the underside of the bottom lip of the hull.

 

[64osby]

Looks great from here.

I've seen a few car shows where they use this. It is big in the European markets apparently.

 

[mattsmall1972]

Thank you! I saw this on a Wheeler Dealers once as well, and thought about getting the big expensive custom wrap as well. But I just got this boat and really wanted to spice up the look with minimal expense and work. After all of the consideration of paint and gelcoat, I figured this was the perfect solution for me. It certainly was and is now.