Decal options

[functionoverfashion]

I'm considering taking the big AIR decal off the sides of my boat. I don't love it, and would like a cleaner look. I think I'd leave the rear bit that says 'Air Nautique 210 Team' but then, they're pretty beat up from years of buffing around/over them, too. So NautiqueParts has a variety of decals and I think I could replace them, or something very close - I'm okay with using later/earlier "Super Air Nautique" decals that fit in the same area, with the AIR board logo, etc. but keeping it close to original. Anyway, that's not what I'm asking. Should I keep that at all? Or go for a full-clean look? My inclination is to keep the rear decals but lose the AIR. See below for amateur photoshopping.

In order of my current preference:

2

3 (how it is now, more or less factory)

And I don't see why I would do this, but...


I know to some extent, I'll never totally get rid of the "ghosting" left where the old decals were, but I still would rather do this now than in another 5-10 years of sun exposure. Some other gel work is being done at the same time, so it's an opportunity to get this done, the way I see it.


Thoughts?

[functionoverfashion]

Just for fun:

[Cadesun]

I like no "air" and put the new TE 210 stuff on the back.

[NautiqueJeff]

I like the factory setup.

[8urchvy]

You actually have a great color scheme. Grey and blue are back in style now. I would get a very clean wrap that takes the curves out of the look.

I suck at photoshop or i would render it for you.

The wrap would be grey starting from your current grey accent in the front. and cover the grey and blue with solid grey over the nose. Run a straight line back down the nose and then a 45 degree angle down to the waterline and then 45 degree angle back. The side of the boat will now be mostly solid grey, where you can add just a clean chromax of SUPER AIR NAUTIQUE.

It will keep the classic look and just modernize it a bit.

Kind of like this picture i found of a 210.

The wrap will cost about $1200 installed and the chromax i think is around $200 each side.

[JAppler]

I just completed the new Chromax decals on my 04 210.



I don’t think you can do this with your second swoop would cut into the logo and look weird. I love you colors, and if I had to choose I would prefer the 210 only on the back.

The Air set up is a little dated for me.

One suggest that I am looking at doing on mine is to update the 210/ Team Edition font to the newer font and keep the old logo but with new fonts top and bottoms. I have emailed this request into DomedNumbers to see if they produce this for me. I’ll post on here after the holidays when I hear back.


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[JAppler]

ONE BIG WARNING!!!

When you pull the Air logo off it will leave a ghost of the logo. Be careful when wet sanding and polishing it out. I have a slight ghost of the old logo, and couldn’t fully remove it due to fear of blowing through the gel coat.


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[ScooterMcgavin]

+1 vote for factory set up

[bturner]

Depending on sun and elements exposure the ghosting shouldn't be too bad in that location. You have a large area to blend the sanding to so you don't really have any sharp contrasting areas to work. I recently removed all the warning stickers off my 400 hour 2016 200 Sport Nautique then cross blocked (wet sanded) and polished the hull. The ghosting is very, very slight and will vanish or get near undetectable probably in the next 2-3 seasons. And this BTW was in the black portions of the boat.

I've been doing similar projects to this with much older flip boats I've bought over the years with a lot of success. I won't say every one of them will look like new but they always seem to come out very close. The key is knowing how to wet sand properly, when to stop sanding and when to start the compounding/polishing process. A good shop with a skilled tech makes the difference.

At this point I don't think anyone is looking tips on technique so I'll leave that to another thread but gel coat is pretty forgiving if you're willing to put in the time and start with the finer grit papers first (I like to start everything at 1500 and see where that takes me). The other area is in the polishing process. I've seen a lot of projects go south from using cheap or one stop products. 3M makes a great 4 step kit if you decide to get serious.

[Rockymtnsurfer]

Agree with bturner....not bad to get it off and ghosting isn't bad at all if you take your time and use the right products.....3M 4 step is what I used and came out great. No ghosting at all. My opinion is "similar" to Jeff......back to original, my choice was no logo. Its a 03'....great year......I am not a fan of trying to make it what its not....just me.

First pic is how I got it...second pic is after I removed logo

[dhanni848]

Another vote for factory setup but maybe you can remove all to do a good cut and polish, and then after replace with factory decals. If you didn't have the forward grey stripe I would say remove the AIR logo. I have the same dilemma on my 03 SANTE, but it just looks like something is missing when they are removed.