How to Stencil your vinyl parts..... Step by step Pictorial

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Jetskigoodies

Well-Known Member
I had a couple previous post on how to do this so I will just combine them in to a thread so you can find them easier.

Alot of you guys have had to rewrap your seats and would like to get that factory look back by putting the seadoo logo back on. Well here is how you do it.
It is fairly inexpensive and easy to do.

Here is a link to many different paint colors you can choose from
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/s...Fabric/N0477/C0171.oap?categoryRedirect=N0477
The paint ranges from $6-$10 a can. One can goes a long way. One can of red has so far done a stencil on both sides of the seat and the handlebar pad and a couple test runs. The can is still half full

The best part about this is you can customize your seat or handle bar pad to say anything you want, name, racing team, or any logo you want.

Here is a little surprize I havent seen anyone do to a seadoo. I was pm'ing racerxxx that I would like to put the logo back on the seat. Well doing what he does best(well next to bringing things back from the grave) he did some research and came across a site on stenciling vinyl seats. So I contacted Dr Honda to see if he could make this happen. Well Dr Honda called his supplier and here is what we came up with. Im sure you guys will love it.

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Stencil on the seat
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This is after the top mask is pulled off and the area was taped off for overspray
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Finished product
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This couch is at the warehouse, just making sure you guys dont think that ratty dirty couch is in my house lol

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I just used duplicolor vinyl spray paint.
If you try this, the seat has to be very clean, the room temp, seat and can of paint need to be at least 70 degrees. It is very important that all of them are at correct temp. We got 2 stencil kits from Dr Honda and I am glad we got 2. The first stencil we tried on a piece of scrap vinyl and the paint was too cold and I laid the paint down too heavy. The result of that was the stencil started to buckle and look like bacon. So I then waited until everything was warm and went at it again. This time we used very very light coats. I sprayed the first coat so light it looked like pin sized speckles, I waited for that to tack up and test the tackiness by touching the paint on the masked off areas. The paint would tack up in about 15 seconds and then i would add another light coat and repeated those steps about 18-20 times. The trick is to keep it light and then let tack up before the next coat. As soon as you think you have enough coverage you need to remove the stencil before it dries. Just take off the masked area first then slowly peel off the stencil.
 
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We also stenciled a seadoo logo on the handlebar pad. This time I took more pictures of the steps and even the coats of paint, so you can see how light the coats should be

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To center the stencil, I measured the outside edge of the letters, the distance was 5 inches. I then measured the handlebar pad length, it was 9 1/2 inches. So I had a difference of 4 1/2 inches. Now I cut that in half which is 2 1/8 inches. So I measured 2 1/8 inches from each edge and I used tape to mark the spot. So as long as the edge of the letters are in between them it will be centered.

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Now what I do to get the right height I want is this. On the stencil itself I measure 1 inch down from the letters on each end. I then will mark it and scribe a line across them, then use scissors and cut along the line to guve you a nice straight edge. Then I use 1" masking tape and I place the top edge of the tape where I want the bottom of the stencil. Now just place the bottom edge of the stencil to the bottom edge of the masking tape. The stencil should now be in the perfect spot.

You could use any size masking tape to set the right height just measure down from the bottom of the stencil the same distance as the height of your tape. It may be more usefull to use smaller tape if you want the logo closer to the edge of something.

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Peel the back mask off of the stencil

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Place the stencil on your marks and make sure you put the stencil on straight and go over the stencil applying pressure to make sure the stencil adheres well.

You can see the bottom of the stencil is directly lined up with the bottom of the masking tape. Since I used the steps above you can see that the letters are exactly where I wanted them to be.

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Then pull the top mask off of the stencil

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Make sure you tape off the rest of the area around the stencil. I used clear plastic and just taped it down


Now make sure to use very very light coats the first few coats just look like speckles
Coat 1
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I wait 10-15 seconds per coat, I will then touch the tape around the stencil to make sure it is dry or just slightly tacky. Then I spray the next coat.

Coat 2
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Coat 3
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Coat 4
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Coat 5
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Coat 6 you can now see the stencil is almost red but the vinyl still has a long way to go

Now that you see how light each coat should be here are some pics a couple coats later at a time


I use about 15-20 coats
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Now as soon as your last coat is done give the paint about a minute and then pull off the plastic

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Then pull off the tape around your stencil

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Then pull off your stencil. Start in one corner and peel it off slowly on a downward angle

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Now after the main part of the stencil has been pulled off there is a few portions that were left behind inside the o's. To remove those I take the dull side of an exactoknife and gently pull up a corner. I will usually use tweezers and grab the corner that was pulled up but I forgot them today.

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There was a little bleeding on this one but not enough to notice unless you get really close.

Here are some important tips.

Make sure your vinyl is clean when you start.
Make sure the room,vinyll and paint are all ate 70 degees.
Do really light coats, if you do not the paint will run and the stencil will crinkle.
Pull off the stencil before the paint completely dries or the paint may come off with the stencil. You do not have to rush, take your time pulling off the stencil. I just mean do not leave it sit a couple hours before you peel it off.
Make sure to shake the can between coats.


It looks like I just posted a mini how to in the middle of this thread.
 
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As always awesome JSG!!!! Now my only question is how durable is the stencil after its done? Does it feel tough and well stuck? I wanna do it to my seat on the 95 xp that I recovered.
 
It feels like it should hold up well. I would not hold a power washer real close to it but then again I would not do that to any seat period. It seems like it should hold up just as good as the oem. Eventually it will fade like the oem. It should last a long time though.
 
This was well put together.

Really nice job on showing examples and not just saying what to do.

It is VERY clear that LIGHT coats are the answer.....

Again,,, nice job on the details...
 
Very nice how to article. I am going to be putting a new seat cover on my GSX soon... Will definitely be contacting Dr Honda when I do to order that SeaDoo stencil.
 
Not sure about doc, but I know jsg has a plotter note and can probably cut his own.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk
 
I Just have to find out what type of material he bought. I have been trying to do research on vinyl supply websites.
 
We ordered the material to make these. So we will be selling them soon. We will test it out on a few seats next week
 
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