Transom Decal Replacement project

I've been wanting to replace the decals on my transom since I bought this boat about a year ago. Never done this before, so I did a bunch of reading here to lean how. My boat has a bunch of cracks in the gel surface. I'm not quite ready to tackle a re-gel job just yet.

I ordered my decals from NautiqueParts.com. These decals were $70. A little pricey, but they turned out great.... worth it, I guess.

Here is a picture of what I had to start with. You can see the cracks in my gel here. I have read where this could be caused by putting the gel on too thick. As the gel never stops curing, it eventully cracks.



You can see now why I wanted to replace them. The next pic was made while I was taking off the letters. I had read to use a hair dryer and heat them up and they peel right off. I used a putty knife (very dull) and just slowly scraped off each letter. (the dark spot you see on the swim deck is sweat, btw)



Another pic of before. This is with them all removed. (the dark spot you see on the swim deck is sweat, btw). I used goo-gone to remove the sticky residue left behind.



After I got them all off, I removed the swim deck and tapped up the pin stripping. Blue 3/4in wide painters tape fits over the strip perfectly. I used 800 grit on a DA to sand the transom down. Next I went it with 1200 grit, wet. I then went over it twice with Evercoat Heavy Duty Compund then twice with Presta Ultra Cutting Creme. I had to resand some places becasue I could still see a shadow of the old letters.

Now for the decals. I used more tape to mark where the decals was going to be positioned. I removed the backing from the new decals and sprayed the decal down good (on the side that goes to the boat). I spayed them with a mixture of Joy dish detergent and bottled drinking water (didnt have distilled water). Next I sprayed down the boat where the decal was going and lighly put the decal in position. Sprayed the outside down again and moved it into position. Then I used a squeege and pushed all the bubbles out. After about 5 minutes, I slowly removed the tack (?) from the decal. I had to go slow here cause some of the lettes wanted to come off with it. Now sure how long I should have waited before I removed this backing... Might should have waited longer, IDK.



After about three hours, I put on a finsh coat of wax then put the swim deck back on. Everything went pretty well and I am pleased with the outcome. The cracks are still there just not as visible as before. It looks 110% better.



For every minute of work, I need a minute of play.    Going to the lake tomorrow.

Nice job, I'm going to replace mine with the right decals.

Looks great!

Kudos! Well done.