Installing your stickers from Boat Registration Stickers.com
Installing boat registration stickers is EASY. To ensure they will adhere properly to your boat, please follow these instructions carefully (scroll down for video!) We have these instructions on Michigan MC Numbers.com too! You can apply them in under one minute to each side. Choose a sheltered location or a non windy day to apply them. It’s BEST if your boat is NOT in the water (or you are sitting on the dock on a calm day right next to your bow.) While it’s possible to apply them hanging upside down over your bow, we would definitely appreciate tips and a photo of you doing so! (We don’t recommend this!)
- Clean the area of the boat hull where the numbers are to be applied. Make sure all oil, grease, wax or other surface contaminants are removed. Acetone is recommended, but glass cleaner can also be used.
- For best results, apply where both the vinyl and hull can be above 50 degrees F. At cold temperatures, the vinyl can become brittle, and the adhesive characteristics of both the vinyl and the transfer tape also change.
- Use a horizontal rule to mark a baseline for where you will apply the vinyl. A small tick mark at the end points and every 12” is helpful. A fine point felt tip marker or sharpie (ink can be removed with acetone from non-porous surfaces) is helpful.
- Peel back about 1/2” of the transfer tape (but not the vinyl itself) and fold the substrate back on itself vertically.
- Position the bottom of the letters against your baseline.
- When you are satisfied with your positioning, press the “tab” of transfer tape onto the boat.
- Slowly peel the transfer tape from substrate using a 180 degree motion. The vinyl should be picked up on the transfer tape.
- Work your way along the graphics, slowly peeling the substrate and then lightly pressing the transfer tape/vinyl onto the hull as you expose more of substrate. Be careful not to pull to hard or the vinyl may stretch and distort.
- With the vinyl and transfer tape in position, use a plastic spatula or old credit card (never one that you’ll need again!) to burnish the vinyl onto the hull. You’ll want to use fairly aggressive pressure, but not too much to rip through the tape.
- Slowly peel up the transfer tape. If you have started from a clean surface and burnished well, the vinyl will adhere and the transfer tape will come up.
If you are applying a boat registration stencil to your boat using our stencil product:
You’ve got one more step – once your stencil is down on your boat, protect the rest of the boat from overspray with newspaper or cardboard; you will be spray painting your stencil “holes” – that match the typeface and your custom numbers! If you have a rigid inflatable, see this article here for a customer-recommended product. If you’re applying to a roto molded plastic hull, use a recommended plastic spray paint from the manufacturer of your kayak or boat. With each order, we include 2 stencils so you can set them up on your boat and spray both in succession.
Alternative installation of boat registration stickers: the “Wet” method:
You may also install these using the wet method. See our video below for details on the wet method.
- Clean the area of the boat hull where the numbers are to be applied. Make sure all oil, grease, wax or other surface contaminants are removed. Acetone is recommended, but glass cleaner can also be used.
- For best results, apply where both the vinyl and hull can be above 50 degrees F. At cold temperatures, the vinyl can become brittle, and the adhesive characteristics of both the vinyl and the transfer tape also change.
- Use a horizontal rule to mark a baseline for where you will apply the vinyl. A small tick mark at the end points and every 12” is helpful. A fine point felt tip marker or sharpie (ink can be removed with acetone from non-porous surfaces) is helpful.
- Make up a spray bottle of water with a little bit of dish soap and shake (mostly water, a tiny bit of soap, just to get it to bubble a little bit). The dish soap and water help create a slick surface for the vinyl to slide on for application that can be moved around while applying.
- Peel the PAPER backing off, exposing the sticky side of the vinyl and transfer paper
- Spray the transfer paper and vinyl lightly with the soapy solution
- Apply to your hull. You have a minute to adjust this because the graphics will slide on your hull with the wet method.
- Burnish with something flat/plastic (a ruler, an old credit card or loyalty card, a spatula)
- Peel the transfer tape off
- That’s it! Easy!