Sun, 13 May 2007

The boat has a name now!
She's the Ugly Betty. Rob picked the name the night he bought her. He even knew the typeface he wanted. I found a guy selling 8" letters on eBay for $1.29 per letter. It took a little while, but I finally got the letters this past Thursday, and we put them on on Saturday. Rob had already painted and sanded the hull a couple times. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better. Here you can see the mockup of where the letters will go.



We were fortunate that Chris just happened to have worked at a vinyl sign shop somewhere in his past. He had a different technique than the one in the directions that came with the littering, so we did it his way. First you tape the lettering at the top. Then cut the strip of letters into individual letters. Spray down the surface behind the first letter, and peel the backing off the first letter. Now use a squeegee to work down from the tape "hinge" at the top, keeping tension on the letter. Work the squeegee side to side, going 1/4" lower each pass. When the letter is completely stuck on, peel the front paper off, using a "sheer" technique. This means to pull the paper back as close to the surface as possible, so the letter won't lift off the surface.

Here's Rob squeegeeing down the "tty" in "Ugly Betty", since the three letters were all connected.



And the finished product:


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