Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

nitrosteve · Aug 29, 2009

Ok well here's my idea buy 24" x whatever it takes vinyl to wrap the top 12-18" of my boat. The have some really trick colors that could really spice it up. What are your guys thoughts on this? The top ring of color around my boat is faded bad and its not coming back ever....

ozzgood2001 · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

should work. is it cost effective though? use a hair dryer to work around stuff and its its aluminum the rivets will be your worst enemy hard to make them look good ya know.

woosterken · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

why not? the bass masters boats are wraped

woosterken

redone4x4 · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

ive been thinking about the same thing.....what could it hurt, if your hull is at that point?

Les Robb · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

No doubt it will be unique, oh well different strokes for different folks.
Let us see how it turns out. ( Just don't use kitchen floor tile pattern )

Luck ya'll

redone4x4 · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

i think it would come out the same as vehicles that are wrapped. it wont be glossy like gelcoat i dont think, but it would look good.

WAVENBYE2 · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

I have this guy who can do custom grafics for my boat, I have something specific in mine and he can do it!! When it's aplied it is perfectly safe to wax over it, they recommend it. and looks great!! Check this out if you want and click on boats to get an idea.
http://www.rvsg.com/boats.asp
He is going to do mine for around $700 and I install myself, but it will be unique and one of a kind

RICHARD5 · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

My concern would be the prep work and regular maintenance. If done correctly, everything looks great at first. It's how to keep it looking great that is the harder part. And it starts with the prep.

Would a simple alcohol wipe be enough prep for installation?
How would you repair any peeling or age cracks?

nitrosteve · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

I think Ill go pick the local guys brain on the cost involved but the vinyl isnt bad to buy to wrap the boat in a solid color looks to be about 250.00 that's 24" width. If I only do say 10" I should be able to cut that cost in half.

nitrosteve · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

RICHARD5 said:
My concern would be the prep work and regular maintenance. If done correctly, everything looks great at first. It's how to keep it looking great that is the harder part. And it starts with the prep.

Would a simple alcohol wipe be enough prep for installation?
How would you repair any peeling or age cracks?

Prep as far as I can tell would be a wipe down with acetone just to clean the surface. I figure they will last as long as my current vinyl stripes which look better than the gel coat. And they have had the same abuse.

nitrosteve · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

Les Robb said:
No doubt it will be unique, oh well different strokes for different folks.
Let us see how it turns out. ( Just don't use kitchen floor tile pattern )

Luck ya'll

Ill keep that in mind when I purchase my vinyl. Kitchen floor tiles. As far as unique not so much there are all kinds of off shore boats doing this process. Here is some examples

http://www.skinzwraps.com/vinyl-boat-graphics.html

jdlough · Aug 29, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

This reminds me of building my house at the river. Lotsa projects, so some left half-*****ed. One project is that my kitchen counter tops were just plywood, so we 'temporarily' covered them with sticky-backed shelf paper with a granite motif.

Two years later, we removed the plywood and installed REAL granite. Nobody noticed.

Honestly? $5000 bucks and it looked about the same.

So, I say, just replace the shelf paper every year and buy a REALLY nice boat (or a few big screen TVs) in a few years.

Jim

5150abf · Aug 30, 2009

Re: Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

Used to work in a sign shop so I know the bigger the peice of vinyl the harder it is to apply.

I really don't think I could have gotten that even back then, the problem is wrinkles bubbles and stuff like that and God forbid you get it alittle crooked.

So I would say this is one of those things that sounds like a good idea but isn't, it's just too hard to do right.

Ever seen a car where the guy tried to tint his own windows and there are more bubbles than tint, that is what you are looking at.

With paint you can lay it out and change it as many times as you want very easily and when you are done you have exactly what you want.

Uncut Vinyl the side of my boat instead of painting.

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