72 Promo Progress

Looks awesome Chris! Great work!!!

It should do the trick! The wheel will probably smear the adhesive creating a booger consistency but acetone (or a solvent) on a rag after should clean it up.    

Bruce, I guess a worst case scenario is I'd screw it up and have to sand it all off again. Unfortunately, my shop time is limited so I'll leave it to Anna (sign painter) as she's done some great work for us in the past. Planning to have her start with the transom so if something goes wildly wrong we're not backtracking as much.

Todd, the gel on your promo is in much better shape than mine. I'm sure that thing will be beautiful once you guys are done. Hopefully we can organize a "tres promos" or "quadruple promos" in the next few years!

Chris, it scared the crap out of me too. We attempted to use tape because we didn't want to get near the boat with paint, but it wasn't going to look as good.

The Promo is looking great. As much as covering gel making a mess, POs sometimes actually end up preserving the gel which looks like they did on the motor box.

Update on the engine over which I thought was destined for a re-gel or yellow vinyl cover. One of the PO's had this covered sometime in the 90's and they used an aggressive spray adhesive and double sided tape to secure the foam backing.



After several failed attempts I finally dedicated a few days to tackling this project. In the end, a 3M eraser wheel was the best solution although it made a mess of the adhesive. It took several steps after the eraser wheel to fully remove all the grime.

Photo prior to cleaning the back. Right side is ready for the buffer.


Not sure I will be able to fully remove the adhesive stains as seen in this pic but overall it's much more presentable than before.


I'll live with the remaining blemishes left over as it's now part of the boat's history. I still have several hours of wet sanding & buffing ahead but this part of the project is on the right track!

storm34 wrote: Looking for paint suggestions (rustoleum) for the letters/boot stripe and pointers for preparing the surface for paint.

Most professional sign painters and pinstripers rely on 1 Shot Enamel.
Also don't ever use a shop towel with Grease and Wax remover on it to prep the area. Use a new paper towel product. Shop towels can contain oils and grease that would transfer to the area you are trying to clean.

Chris,
I don't feel you need to get that "top shelf" Rust-oleum. The regular worked for CC for years. Solvent wipe the areas for paint. Lightly scuff with 400 and then solvent wipe again.

Lookin great!

The last few weeks have been spent restoring the engine cover gel, gathering materials for a new interior and repainting the letters/boot stripe on the promo.

The hours don't show in these pics but I've spent some considerable time sanding the hull sides. I'd previously wet sanded a majority of the boat but avoided the letters & decals in hopes of saving the original patina a few more years. Since everything will be re-painted this spring I was finally able to be more aggressive sanding & buffing the remaining oxidation.

Not too bad for a 45 year old boat!




I'm currently planning to have everything re-brushed as the current graphics are definitely hand painted and show no signs of being sprayed at any time. Personally, I like the look of the brushed letters.

Looking for paint suggestions (rustoleum) for the letters/boot stripe and pointers for preparing the surface for paint. Guessing I need something similar to this product?

Thanks Chris. Count me in as a backer! Depending on the outcome (price) it might be worth getting a few backups as well.

Tim, I haven't been able to find any listed in the last few weeks and haven't received any responses from sellers who've sold them in the past year. I have all winter to do the leg work and we don't think price will be much different.

I've also noticed a few variances in these decals since I've been searching. Wondering if they have any meaning....

Blue dot or the letter "c" on either side of the logo.


Orange dot from decal on a ski....


Letter "B" from my 72 Promo....


Any background on these would be helpful.

Will do, Chris! Planning to get him some measurements and good pictures this week. Hopefully they can make it happen without breaking the bank!

Too bad.....that stuff would be worth millions these days! All kidding aside, Zach might have found a solution.

If anyone needs Cypress Gardens decals for their wood ski restoration or promo speak up now so we know how many to order!

Duane in Indy wrote:    Should be relatively easy to mask off the lettering since it is all there.

Chris,
I agree but when you wet sand and or buff, be careful to leave some of the original graphics for masking. When the time comes, you'll need some of this - great product!!

On to winter projects and the 72 Promo is enjoying the 65 degree weather in the shop. Currently in the 20's here in Iowa.    

First order of business was to finish up the trailer project which includes proper black bunk carpet, orange pin stripe and some baby moons. I'm still looking for the right orange pin strip so if anyone has suggestions they'd be much appreciated. I'm thinking 1/8" wide would do the trick.

Here's a few pictures of the trailer project. But first.....One last ride before winterization.







Ok, on to the projects....Temporary carpet removed (old stage carpet). Ready for black bunk carpet!


One side down. FWIW - I noticed Ramlin adds a strip of carpet on top of their bunks so decided to do the same on this project. Grey carpet came from the 01's old Magnum trailer.


Re-painting Axle, springs and misc hardware.


Ready for baby moons, pin stripe and a promo!


Looks much better!




While I'm waiting to find a few trailer items I decided to start on the graphics restoration. It all started with replacing the MA registration but I couldn't resist cleaning up everything else.

The vinyl boot stripe was in pretty rough shape and the PO had touched up a lot of blemishes with paint. I stripped everything with the 3M eraser wheel and will wetsand off the remaining paint. Currently planning to re-paint the boot stripe along with the letters.

I would love to see one of these boats roll off the assembly line with the bright orange!


There was a lot more paint than I expected. Here you can see the remnants after the vinyl was removed.


Cleaned up and ready for paint.


My plan is to get all the prep work done before the end of next week in hopes of re-painting everything between Christmas and New Years. The letters currently have light brush marks and I have no reason to believe it's not factory so we'll be duplicating this look instead of spraying.

I'm waiting to remove the American Flag and Cypress Gardens decals until I can find a good source for placements. There's no telling if the CG decal was original but I'm concerned the gel color will be much lighter if removed. JMurph's promo has the CG decal....but the AZ promo showed no signs of either decal. At this point I'll plan to replace it unless there's concrete evidence it's not original and the gel isn't too faded underneath.



Cousin Donal - any chance you have a few NOS laying around with your other Cypress Gardens paraphernalia?

Great thread, what a beauty!