removing lettering from your yak?

[young mola]

hey guys! just a quick question.. ive seen a couple kayaks without the lettering on em and am wondering if theres a way to take it off or if theyre bought like that? ive got a cobra escape if it makes a difference...

[Iceman]

They are mold in graphics (Mold in Graphics are a highly visible and permanent subsurface graphic embeded directly into all rotomolded polyethylene, nylon and vinyl resins), fused plastic to plastic. Ones you have seen are BLEMS, where they forgot to put them in the mold or intentionally left them out.

[peguinpower]

Not that I recommend it, but if you really want to remove the decals, sand them off and smooth the plastic with a blow torch or a heat gun. Heat will melt the roughed up plastic and blend it with the rest of the hull. This is one way of removing shallow scratches. Obviously, there are big risks in using heat on a plastic tub. If you are not skilled with a heat gun, just fughedaboudit.

/bing

[dgax65]

Be really careful when applying fire to plastic

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by young mola

hey guys! just a quick question.. ive seen a couple kayaks without the lettering on em and am wondering if theres a way to take it off or if theyre bought like that? ive got a cobra escape if it makes a difference...

Ok.. I've done it...

On a Cobra you can remove the graphics by sanding them off with a good orbital sander,I've done it myself, but they are deep into the plastic and it's a lot of work.

You can get away with it because their hulls are pretty thick but be aware that you don't want to sand into it too deep.

Here's what my FND looked like when I got done:





I used 80 grit first then followed it up with 120, then 220.

Keep in mind it's not going to be shiny when your done but kind of a flat surface.

I'll be honest with you: I'm no wimp and use power tools all day long because I make things by hand for a living. That said it's a lot of hard work sanding those things off. You have to really lean on it to make progress. Change your sand paper often and push hard, and don't even try it without a good sander.

I'm happy with the result but after an hour or so of into sanding it I was like WTF did I get myself into, and once you start you're committed, to I'd say at least a four hour job

As to a heat gun... No way would I use it on that portion of the hull, where it's smooth, convex, and visible.

I altered "flattened" some scuppers on the FND with a heat gun and I'm no stranger to a heat gun, but once you get that material hot enough to soften up, gloss over, it wants to move. I'd be very worried it would distort the sides and they would never be truly flat again.

On a really round hull it would not be an issue as they would be self correcting but those cobras are very flat sided. If you use a heat gun be very careful about how hot you get it, and test the idea first underneath before you try it on the sides.


Jim

[young mola]

looks cool.. but sounds like a little too much work! thanks for being the guinea pigs!