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My 1998 Mercury Bigfoot is showing its age. The Florida sun has deteriorated the decals and dulled the finish on the engine cowling. I have bitten the bullet and purchased replacement decals. They look nice, but did not come with instructions. I have experience with the graphic decals we use for boat names. I am hoping these decals work the same way. Does anyone have experience with installing replacement engine decals that can offer a little advise? Same with restoring shine to the engine cowling?

Hi Herschel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX5JsOxs6bU

Decals? or Stickers?

Probably stickers as I haven't seen decals out side of a model kit box in years.

I have installed stickers on airplanes with great success after I learned to use a water mixture (drops of dish soap) to spray on the surface. Apply the sticker and you have time to position it. I used a squeege to remove any air bubbles trapped beneath. If any bubbles do appear later, you can prick them with a pin and they will magically disappear.

I have to rehab the appearance of my Tohatsu 50 this Winter. The stickers are fine, but the paint is falling off.

You can always paint over the old decals, and use your own colors.

Herschel wrote:My 1998 Mercury Bigfoot is showing its age. The Florida sun has deteriorated the decals and dulled the finish on the engine cowling. I have bitten the bullet and purchased replacement decals. They look nice, but did not come with instructions. I have experience with the graphic decals we use for boat names. I am hoping these decals work the same way. Does anyone have experience with installing replacement engine decals that can offer a little advise? Same with restoring shine to the engine cowling?

Herschel,

I have the same issue with My Merc. Where did you get the decals?

Thanks,
Jim

Herschel wrote:My 1998 Mercury Bigfoot is showing its age.

1998. Not bad... My 2010 Etec lost the Evinrude decal on one side and the Etec decal on the other side--the first season!!!

...Doug
http://starsloop.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/StarSloop?feature=mhee

Thanks for the u-tube video. That was spot on. I think I will take plenty of pictures and make key measurements before I start. Someone was interested in where I got my decals/stickers. I got them from Doug Russell Marine at http://www.dougrussell.com/. When I get through, I'll post some before and after pictures.

If Yours Isn't... a 3 layer Decal/Sticker.. you might damage it.. when you squeegee That water out from under the sticker??
Its that 3rd layer , the "mylar" protective top layer that protects the "sticker" surface itself... Be Careful...

Good thought. Still in the picture taking and measurement phase. I'll go slow and start with one of the small ones. There are four small ones "50" (2x), "Bigfoot", & "Mercury" , two in the front and two in the rear, plus the large wrap-around one, "Mercury--Four Stroke" (2x), that is the main decal. I'll do that one last. By then I should have the experience with the process down. Any thoughts about making the black cowling, itself, a little newer looking. Cleaning/buffing? Spray painting? I probably don't want to put any wax on it; that would be problematic for the decals.

For sure Herschel Keep us all in the loop on how this goes.. What I .... find to be beneficial in application is one of the "felt" Chalkboard Erasers..
Mine was from one of those "Erasable" Marker boards..
I agree with the guy in the Video.. a nasty looking outboard really detracts from the looks of an otherwise decently maintained boat..
We all see them around.. Someones Rattle Can Attempt at "Restoration" laughing if its not ours.. no doubt, ..hopefully angry with ourselves if it is..

Hello,
I repainted my 1995 Tohatsu 50 engine cover and replaced the decals. I could only get the later 2002 style decals from Tohatsu. I used factory paint in spray cans and it matched really well. Be aware the surface of the cover will be soft where the UV has aged it and the old decal areas will not be soft. It will telegraph the old lines through the paint. I ended up painting it then had to wet sand the entire cover to smooth out those areas. I let it cure a couple weeks before wet sanding and repainting. It looks great now "like new."

Don T wrote:Hello,
I repainted my 1995 Tohatsu 50 engine cover and replaced the decals. I could only get the later 2002 style decals from Tohatsu. I used factory paint in spray cans and it matched really well. Be aware the surface of the cover will be soft where the UV has aged it and the old decal areas will not be soft. It will telegraph the old lines through the paint. I ended up painting it then had to wet sand the entire cover to smooth out those areas. I let it cure a couple weeks before wet sanding and repainting. It looks great now "like new."

You don't happen to remember the cost / part number of the decals or where you got'em, do you?

Sounds like you took the time to do it right Don..

Don T wrote:Hello,
I repainted my 1995 Tohatsu 50 engine cover and replaced the decals. I could only get the later 2002 style decals from Tohatsu. I used factory paint in spray cans and it matched really well. Be aware the surface of the cover will be soft where the UV has aged it and the old decal areas will not be soft. It will telegraph the old lines through the paint. I ended up painting it then had to wet sand the entire cover to smooth out those areas. I let it cure a couple weeks before wet sanding and repainting. It looks great now "like new."

I started to pull all the engine cover decals of my new Suzi. Guess I wanted that 'mystery engine' look. but I had to stop when I saw the fading under the peel-off, and had to settle for factory best. Would've put on my VW chromie but it was the wrong contour -sheesh!

Progress report--I tried the directions in the u-tube video listed above. The technique discussed involved using a heat gun or hair dryer to heat the old decals and then pull them off. In areas where the old decals were relatively intact, the technique worked reasonably well. Where the old decals had deteriorated, it was a matter of scraping them off. A razor blade did a reasonably good job, but the I nicked the finish a couple of times. Those nicks, along with others that had occurred during regular service, and overall faded finish, has persuade me that a repaint will be necessary. Wet sanding with 400 paper did a pretty good job of getting off the glue left on from the scraping. I did not find any of my solvents in the garage were strong enough to dissolve the glue. I tried rubbing alcohol, brush cleaner, and acetone. The wet sanding, while getting off the glue, did dull the finish enough to require a repaint. Now to find the right paint and prep appropriately.