Ski Nautique Logo: Stickers vs. Paint

My dad and I recently bought a 1978 ski nautique and are trying to recover its once "good looks" Our problem is that the 1978 nautique has the logo painted on the side, therefore we can not get the original sticker kit. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to go about getting the original logos on the boat? We thought about using a stencil to have new stickers re-made (but not the original) or getting stickers from a different year to put on the boat. My thought was to make the boat completely original by designing my own "ski nautique" design in artistic format and having a sticker made from that. Would putting a design on the side of the boat that is not "original" ski nautique manufactured degrade the price of the boat in the future?

Wakerider;

I am going through a similar process as you. As 81nautique indicates, these graphics are Rustoleum gloss enamel. Keep it original also as he said. You will have to tape it off and paint spray the graphics.

Something new I just picked up on this afternoon was the black shading around the graphics, assuming the '78s had the black shading.....leave your tape on, and then airbrush around the perimeter of the letters. Keep the center of your airbrush spray on the tape and not on the boat for best results in shading. Otherwise, too much black goes on the boat and doesn't look right.

Dave

Wake, I'm in total agreement with Alan and Dave as far as keeping it original. In fact if I was too say anything else the members on this site would think I was a different person posting!! I do feel that doing your own graphics on the boat will hurt the resale value. Stencils for paint can be made by a sign company to make the painted lettering easy. The stripes can be masked with tape.

David (above) is going through the painting process and there is some info in this thread:
Stripes

Alan (above) painted his (a year ago?) and the job looks great.

Which color is it? The astro turf type carpet is still available. I have a 77 that the previous owner put vinyl graphics on. He did match the style but when it needs to be redone, I will go back to the paint.

Pete,
   Do you have a source for the astroturf, i see some around the home improvement stores here but I wouldn't use it is not the same.
I have to do the front floor area on my 83 this year and although I am leaning toward redoing the whole thing in some very plush modern marine carpet it would save me redoing the sides of the boat (which are absolutely perfect still) if I could match the new floor carpet to them.
-Joe.

Joe, That's the stuff. When I got the Tique, the floor Astro was all matted down so I wasn't to replace it. I went to Menards and bought enough for the floor but the stuff was really on low quality side. I saved it and used it to re carpet the bunks on my boat lift. The Carpet that I got from Capri has got extra backing and is plusher. I only re did the floor and you really need to look close that it isn't a exact match.

This is a photo of my 82 that was painted with imron in 1995. I loved the color combo of the new boats at the time so we just copied it using the original Ski Nautique pattern. The fog in spray down the center is almost a green color. I think think this will outlast any decal. It was a lot of tedious prep work, but well worth it.