Ausfish stickers/ boat names - not happy Jan

[Hagar]

Forked over some hard earned $$ for four Ausfish stickers and two boat name signs . Tried applying them exactly as per the instruction sheet . Scrapped the first two after having trouble peeling off the waxed paper ( the sticker stayed on the waxed paper not the application paper ) and then having them peel off the hull when dry and the application paper was being peeled off . Next two the waxed paper came off OK but the bloody things peeled off with the application paper when dry. I have applied these type of stickers before . The hull is clean and has not been polished for five years . Would be interested to hear of other readers experience with these stickers befere I go off at the suppliers. >:( >:( >:(

Chris

[imported_admin]

Chris

Sorry to hear you had trouble applying your stickers. It would sound like there is a coating of some sorts on your boat, especially as both lots of stickers came off. Did you clean the area with Prepsol or anything similar before putting the stickers on? Did you put them on using any water ? and if so did you wipe out all the water using the squeegee and then wait a period of time for the stickers to completely dry before removing the application tape ?

[xxxxhornet]

No problems putting mine on - they are great as are the ausfish fish frame stickers.

[blaze]

hi hager
is your boat alloy
if its alloy you need to remove the powdery coat that gets on alloy (they can be a pain in the a***) When i fit to alloy i always use a 600 grit wet and dry and give them a good clean where i am going to apply them (tried using cleaning products over the years and they dont cut it) when they come off did you see a substance left on the sticky surface, thats what needed to be removed. a lot off care needs to be taken removing the sticker from the backing with the app tape, some time the humidity can cause the app tape not to lift the sticker, there is also different grades of app tape. the other secret is to run a hot air gun (hair dryer) over the applied sticker to help seal it (have been know to apply clear lacquer around them for extreme conditions) the glue on the back of the stickers is pressure sensitive ( you need to use a lot of pressure to them with the squeegie to apply them correctly) . If appling them wet, put a couple of drops of detergent in the water and only spray it on as a light mist. My qualifacations for giving this info is I have been sign writing for 10 years
hope this helps
dont blame the quality of the ausfish products
cheers
blaze

[DR]

the background needs to be perfectly clean.
do your normal wash, then ( i do signage for a living too, 35 years ) give a wipe with windex. if possible apply the vinyl dry as some surfaces, for reasons unknown become very greasy when wet & interfere with the glue, yet stick like mud to a blanket when dry. any sort of polish will cause problems.
remember CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.

putting detergent in the water for wet application can be a trap. As Blaze said, only a couple of drops (literally), but that is for a litre of water.

Blah, blah, blah, never realised how difficult it is to explain the process in writing. you can pm me if you want me to explain over the phone. may be more coherant.
cheers

should add, have seen Steves stickers & know the vinyl, good stuff & should not be a problem

[charleville]

Have been very pleased with mine.

I chose a fairly fine font and was conscious of the need to take it slow so as not to tear the letters.

Followed the instructions exactly and practised on the extra Ausfish.com that was included. No problems at all after several months.

My hull is a painted aluminium Quinnie. Cleaned the area first as per the instructions.

[Hagar]

Steve and guys
Thanks for the feedback - looks like mine is an isolated problem . Yes , I followed the instructions exactly.

The first problem was with peeling off the wax backing from the Ausfish shapes . The vinyl wanted to stick to the wax backing paper not the application paper - especially the red Ausfish . The gold ones were better . The small segments of the fish shapes mostly were wanting to stick to the wax backing . Overcame this with much patience.

The hull was clean . Only gets washed with water and has not been polished for years and any residual should be well and truly weathered off by now . It does not have any powdery surface on the gelcoat ..Used fine mist spray and two drops of washing up detergent as per instructions . Yes , I did squeege all the water out and gave the whole thing a thorough going over after . I had four Ausfish . The first two were left for about 90 mins and large segments came off with the application paper when removed carefully. Tried the remaining two Ausfish and this time left them for about an hour to dry . Same result . The boat names were also more adhered to the application paper and were coming off as it was peeled . I managed to keep one boat name together and got the application paper off it and squeegeed it back down and left it . It is stuck OK today by the looks but one out of six is a poor result . Looks like my boat is destined to remain incognito to other Ausfishers . :-[

Chris

[sir_noelus]

CHRIS, NO, YOURS IS NOT ISOLATED. lIKE OTHERS IHAVE APPLIED A LARGE NUMBER OF THIS TYPE OF STICKER. MY BOAT WAS IMMACULATELY CLEANED, (ONE MONTH OLD NEW PAINT) AND I KNOW WHAT CLEAN IS. I USED PREPSIL AND METHO, STILL FOUND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PEEL THE BLOODY PAPER OFF. TOOK AN HOUR EACH, AND I BELIEVE THEY ARE NOT GOING TO STAY THERE. THEY ARE LIFTING OFF THE HULL ALREADY. BOUGHT MINE ONLY LAST WEEK. PRETTY SAD JOB FOR SOMEONE WHO CALLS HIMSELF AN EXPERIENCED TRADESMAN.

[NQCairns]

Mayby there is a bad batch? it happens. nq

[Lucky_Phill]

Placed Ausfish stickers of varying types on Painted Alloy Boat, Glass, Alluminim and fibreglass. Sticking like sh*t to a blanket.

Easy as, to apply and no probs. Been on for over a year now.

Cheers Phill

[Hagar]

Sir_noelus
Glad to see I am not the only failure here . Is your boat glass or alloy. May be a common denominator .

Steve and other pro's
Can you leave the application paper on too long or is the longer the better ?

NQ
Wish it were true . But the problem was with different colours of material . Maybe the post ofice is using some scanning process that stuffs it................?

Chris

[landy1]

Ive used quite a few of Steves stickers, all have been great both on boats and cars. Ifit can take the sun all day up here and the crap the mine pumps out it'd have to be good.
cheers
Mick

[Brett_Hoskin]

I have applied these sorts of stickers over the years and find that if appllied wet that it may take overnight for the sticker to stick well enough for the backing to be removed. Also I find that it is best to remove the backing so that as it peels off the angle of the peel should never contact a letter or shape at the same angle.

Difficult to explain....If you are peeling the back in a horizontal manner (sideways) and you approach a H make sure yyou dont allow the backing to contact the first vertical of the H at the same time. Pull the top of the backing down and hit the H at a 45 degree angle.

Does tis make sense? If not I will remove it.

[BOMBER]

Gotta say I have Steves stickers all over my boat in blue red and yellow have had them on now for over 2 years and when it comes to most things like this I am as dumb as dog do do I even struggle with car rego stickers. But must say these stickers are well and truly stuck and not lifting at all and were extremely easy to apply, its painted aluminium always in the salt give it a wash everytime I come home but thats it just gave the hull a wipe with a wet rag before applying.

Regards,

THE BOMBER

[blaze]

Hager
a good way to get app tape off when sticker is applied is to give it a liberal spray with your wetting solution and let it soak in , it will nearly fall off then.
cheers
blaze

[searaider]

Brett_H ,
At least I know what you mean .
I found that when applying my Black skeleton style AusFish Fish Stickers , they were lifting of when trying to remove the top paper . Once I tried removing it at 45% to the parts of the sticker it was a bit tedious but worked fine . The 2 stickers are on flat sections of my Fiberglass Boat and have stuck like Sh#t to a blanket .
The Boat is 2 years old & I cleaned down the areas with Meto First ( worked fine , look great ). [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Peter
Searaider 2

[sir_noelus]

Well I don't know what to say any more. I've never heard of a vinyl sign being left on overnight, but am prepared to listen to anyone who knows more than me. My stickers are gold. The boat is alluminium which I recently sprayed using etch primer and epoxy enamel (no stranger to either of those products) The paint was lightly rubbed down with 600 wet paper, washed with Prepsol, then wiped over again with metho. I had close to a litre of clean water with three drops of Cussons Morning Glory detergent in it, which I sprayed to the area. The waxed paper came off OK and the stickers were applied. It was about an hour before I believed it was right to remove the adhesive paper. Then the **** hit the fan. It required so much physical effort to remove the adhesive paper that the vinyl was actually stretchind and distorting, and of course it was impossible to keep it on the boat. It took nearly an hour to remove each one and I believe that's ridiculous. I have never encountered anything like it before and have to accept that regardless of the experiences of others, I got a couple of duds. Noel

[sir_noelus]

I forgot to add that I peeled the paper of in a diagonal manner as requested and as I have done in other instances. Noel

[blueringin]

where can I get hold of some of those stickers,i live down south but wouldnt mind promoting the cause :-*

[blaze]

hi sir_noelus
have found gold the worse color to work with, as mentioned above wet down your app tape after squeegying the sticker on
cheers
blaze

[lordy]

I've got the blue ones on my plastic portabote. No problems at all.

[Mudcrab]

I recently put two of the large Ausfish red skeleton looking stickers on my GRP boat. I used Acetone to clean the area, read all the instructions, had a tinny, looked at the hull for awhile, read the instructions again, had a second tinny and then got on with it!
I think that milking a mouse would have been much easier but it seems that taking your time is essential. I fought the brutes of things for hours but finally got them on OK and they stick like shit to a sheep's tail!

[Fitzy]

Stickers on my boats were put on as per instructions, not a problem getting them on & they havent moved yet. After doing several now I've noticed that it is easier to get the waxpaper off if you lay the whole thing down flat & curl the paper back at an acute angle. This helps to get those little sharp corners to stay on the masking tape where you want it. Always take your time & you'll get better results.

Cheers,
Fitzy..

[imported_admin]

It would appear that the main problem is that people are removing the application tape before all the water is removed from under it.

If the sticker is coming away from the surface when you remove the application tape then you need to leave it alone and let it dry. You have used too much water.

There is a fine line between the right amount and too much water when applying the stickers. All you need is a mist to be applied to the surface, about 1ml of water would be heaps to apply one Ausfish sticker.

Here is a copy of the text from the instructions


Depending on the amount of moisture you sprayed on the surface you will now need to wait for the surface to dry. About 30 minutes to an hour is a reasonable time, depending on the temperature.

Once you are satisfied that the sticker is dry you can remove the application tape. Carefully start peeling back the application tape from the front top corner on a diagonal. If the sticker stays on the application tape instead of staying on the surface this means it is not yet dry enough. If the sticker does lift just push it back down with your credit card as you did before. If it is dry enough just slowly remove the application tape on a diagonal keeping your hand that is pulling the application tape close to the surface so the application tape is nearly folding back on itself. Once removed you can discard the application tape.

[Fitzy]

Steve I've done a few without the "lubricant" (water). It is hard to fix any stuffups or air bubbles without it, but it is still possible to do. Think the water spray makes things far far easier.

fitzy..

[blaze]

been fitting them for 10 years now
when spraying with water it MUST be a fine mist and not droplets
when using the squeegie (credit card) you must apply pressureand squeegie the water out
if working on a vertical surface, work from the top down with your squeegie holding as much of the sticker off the surface as possible as you work your down (if the edges seal first the water will stay under the sticker
If you are working over a curved surface, you can use a heat gun to shrink and mould the sticker over the surface (with app tape removed) dont get them to hot but it is amazing how much you can shrink it
hope this added info helps some one, feel free to pm for indervidual help
I have no commercial interest in Ausfish
just trying to help
cheers
blaze

[sir_noelus]

Thanks Blaze, good to hear it's not always a piece of cake. I've put about 50 of these sort of stickers on for myself on other boats and for others in the past couple of years. Never had a problem before. No, I did not soak the adh paper and perhaps could have done. Never had need to before. Instructions should include that sort of thing when specifically sold to lay people. It's no good wetting the paper now, the stickers are on, albeit pretty temporarily I think. It appears I've done my dough and stuffed the whole thing. Steve' supplier should tell people if this can be a potential problem. Noel

[blaze]

Hi Sir_noelus
I was given no formally training in fitting them, gets worse if they are 5 to 600mm high or 5 to 6 meters long, still make stuff ups sometimes.
was asked to quote once on the wind towers at woolnorth to apply a banner with a 15 meter drop, I never quoted and the job wasnt done, so i figue, no one quoted.
we all learn by our stuff ups
cheers
blaze

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

i was a stickering virgin 18 months ago.

like fitzy, applied mine without lubricant, but followed instructions & peeled paper at acute angle.

18 months later, 3 boat names & two fish still look like sex - I'M A HAPPY CAMPER.

[Brett_Finger]

yep,
i have use the stickers from Steve for 5 years now on all my hulls, and it's all good for me.
Hookin,Brett

[ba229]

How can you get the stickers off?

My boat has a sticker that i don't like but its on bloody good.

the boat is painted aluminium

[CHRIS_aka_GWH]

a warm iron or hairdryer set on high - they'll just peel straight off. That's how we de-sticker our rentals.

[Hagar]

Well - this one sure generated some input . Seems by an overwhelming weight of evidence that my error was in having too much water mist on the hull and peeling off the application paper when the sticker was not adhered enough to stay stuck to the hull even though the recommended time had elapsed .

Steve - the Ausfish stickers have been given the stamp of approval by most users . With the amount of good guts info posted here on the subject hopefully no one else will have the problems I had [smiley=hammer.gif] so something has been achieved.

Chris

[imported_admin]

Seems by an overwhelming weight of evidence that my error was in having too much water mist on the hull and peeling off the application paper when the sticker was not adhered enough to stay stuck to the hull even though the recommended time had elapsed .

Chris

Chris

It would appear that that was the problem. I have been selling and applying these stickers for a few years now so I trust the product and know that if the things that happen as first posted occur then I know that it is not the product at fault.

After selling several hundred stickers to Australia, UK & USA I have never received an E-mail from any customer saying they have had a problem with applying them. Therefore assuming that the instructions where adequate, but maybe they need a bit of adjusting.

Here is a copy of the text from the printed instructions, from your experience with applying the stickers for the first time can you offer any advice on how better to discribe this or any other part of the instructions ?


Depending on the amount of moisture you sprayed on the surface you will now need to wait for the surface to dry. About 30 minutes to an hour is a reasonable time, depending on the temperature.

Once you are satisfied that the sticker is dry you can remove the application tape. Carefully start peeling back the application tape from the front top corner on a diagonal. If the sticker stays on the application tape instead of staying on the surface this means it is not yet dry enough. If the sticker does lift just push it back down with your credit card as you did before. If it is dry enough just slowly remove the application tape on a diagonal keeping your hand that is pulling the application tape close to the surface so the application tape is nearly folding back on itself. Once removed you can discard the application tape.


Copy of full instructions are at - http://www.ausfish.com.au/stickers/apply.htm