removing vinyl lettering shadow

[robin]

Removed the old lettering with an iron over towel, then peeled off the vinyl (very easy to remove once heated). Guy at the lettering place said there may be some "shadow" behind the letters. I tried a bunch of chemicals, rubbing compounds, even lightly sanded the area but nothing takes off this shadow. Any suggestions? How can I match the paint? did hunter use a standard color over the gellcoat or is this gellcoat that i need to gell coat over? Also have some deck spots that are fading so i dont mind painting.

 

[Steve Dion]

Just leave it alone.

Robin:We had the name painted on the stern originally. We used Oven-off to remove the paint and had the same thing. The original area was slightly raised. Used some cleaners to clean the area and some rubbing compound and wax. We just put the new vinyl lettering over the raised area and let mother nature do her thing. It have been about a year and you cannot see the old outline anymore.

 

[Peter]

try this

This will sound stupid but try oven cleaner. It worked on a racing sailboat that I crewed on. PEASE TRY IT OUT ON ANOTHER PART OF THE HULL THAT DOES NOT SHOW. If your boat is paited it will take off the pait. We did it over straight gelcoat. It worked great.

 

[Peggie Hall/Head Mistress]

Exorcising the "ghost"

If possible, park the boat so that the afternoon sun hits the transom (or wherever the old name was)...if not, it's no big deal, it just takes a little longer to get rid of it. Spray the whole transom (or whatever) with undiluted bleach...don't rinse it off...daily if possible...if not, AS often as possible. The bleach plus direct sunlight will gradually oxidize the gelcoat under the name to the same amount as the surrounding area. It can take from a few weeks to a couple of months, depending upon how long the name was on the boat and the color of the hull, but if you go with a painted name again, you can put the new name on and still continue the bleach "treatments" without harming the new paint. It took me about a month to completely exorcise the ghost of a name that had been on a boat for 3 years--and that was in a covered slip where no direct sunlight could help.