Looking for replacement decals for 89 bass buggy pontoon boat

[Mr me]

Hello! I had a question about my 89 bass buggy pontoon and thought someone might be able to help me with it. I've looked all over the internet for some replacement decals for my boat. I've found some newer style decal but can't find any for my year. Anything that could point me in the right direction would be very appreciated. Thanks

 

[HotTommy]

When I refurbished my old pontoon boat, I repainted the fences and they looked good except for the ten inch high swath around the entire thing where the original decal had been. I decided to cover that area with a new decal I designed myself. I worked up two basic images - one long narrow one that goes down the center of most fences, and one larger one where the factory had installed a much taller decal. I took a photo of the boat and tried out my design by superimposing the images on the photo using the Paint program. When I was satisfied with the design, I calculated the sizes I would need (e.g., six long decals 10" x 10' and two taller decals 28" x 36"). I then found an online company that allowed me to purchase the decals by submitting my designs as graphic files (.jpg). The total cost including shipping was about $140 and took about two weeks to arrive. They are peel and stick decals and work well although some of the corners wanted to peel back for the first few days. I just pressed them down until they stayed. ... My decals are red, white and blue and started to fade after three years outdoors. I replaced them with the same thing at the beginning of the fourth season. The decal company was called bannerbuzz.

 

[gm280]

Try a trophy shop and see if they can reproduce your decals. They have vinyl that will certainly work. JMHO

 

[Mr me]

Thank You very much for the ideas. I'm defiantly going to look into those options. I didn't even think about having someone make them off the computer. The background color on the fencing looks like it's painted the more I look at it. I may be wrong but i could probably use my paint sprayer on it for the main color and then have the graphics made like you guys mentioned. I'm thinking I'm gonna give that a shot. Thanks again for the help.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

When I refurbished my old pontoon boat, I repainted the fences and they looked good except for the ten inch high swath around the entire thing where the original decal had been. .

HotTommy did you leave the decals on or scrapped them off when you painted ? I am about to paint my pontoon fencing and find that the decals on it are gonna be a pain in the butt to scrap off, even if I use a heat gun to try to help soften up.
So thinking I'd paint over them but wasn't going to put the same decals back. Mine are pin stripes and big ol' GRUMMAN .
If you left them on how bad did the show up under the paint ?
Thanks

 

[HotTommy]

Rebel - I removed as much of the decals as possible using a tool like this: wheel. It was the easiest method I could find, but it did not remove everything. What remained was so firmly stuck to the fence that I just painted over it. The main reason I covered over the original decal area was to hide the irregular areas where I painted over it. The finish of my fence is pebbled, so the bits of old decal that remained under the paint do not show through on the new decals.

 

[jbcurt00]

Brooks, try not to ask questions about your project in another members topic, esp if the question isnt directed at the original poster, MrMe. Thats considered a hijack. Thanks

 

[ToonCruiser16]

No Title

I ran into the same with mine. The decals were so faded and peeling, I wanted to pain the whole fence. After looking at them you could tell if i were to paint the entire fence the old stripe would still shine through. So I masked and painted the stripe and will pinstripe the edge to cover any area that the paint bled through the masking tape. In the end I think it was easier to paint, and I used a single color. Depending on your masking skills you could do multiple colors.

 

[domwebhost]

Thank You very much for the ideas. I'm defiantly going to look into those options. I didn't even think about having someone make them off the computer. The background color on the fencing looks like it's painted the more I look at it. I may be wrong but i could probably use my paint sprayer on it for the main color and then have the graphics made like you guys mentioned. I'm thinking I'm gonna give that a shot. Thanks again for the help.

Vinyl plotters have went down considerably in price and you may even find that there is a database of vinyl plotter owners (like there are of 3D Printer enthusiasts) who pimp out their vinyl plotting work to locals. I have a friend in my town that used to make all of my stickers for me (was in a band and just had a sick sense of humor) and the materials were rather cheap.

If you can't find them anywhere else what I would do is this:

1) Take clear pictures of the decals that you have..... If there are some parts of them that have been removed then try to find a picture online
2) Get measurements of the text, placement, and pin-striping. (for scale and for reapplying purposes.
3) Now that you have decent pictures of them, head onto a site like fiverr.com (yes two rs) and look up something like "Logo creator" etc. Once you find someone that you want to work with make sure that you get a "Vector" image out of the work that they do for you (I did this before and it basically cost me $5 for them to do this). Give them the images and also make sure that the person you hire off of the site allows at least a couple of revisions so that you can get it how you want it. Take into consideration that each section of the fence that has a graphic on it will cost $5 to vector. The plus side is once you have half the graphics vectored you can just manipulate (or have the vinyl plotter enthusiast) mirror most of it for the other side other than the text in most cases.
4) Lastly, get ahold of a vinyl plotting individual or business (VistaPrint, the local high school, local sign-maker shop --that does vinyl and not just screenprinting) and give them a copy of the vector files that the artist on fiverr.com created for you and within a short amount of time you should have some spanking new decals.

Just my $0.02