Yamaha Transom Lettering Came Off!

[YamaHog]

The Yamaha lettering and logo on my transom started coming off a couple of weekends ago while we were out fishing. Not super impressed with the quality control there.......but instead of repairing or replacing, this happened instead.......



Got the chrome domed lettering in the same "Yamaha" font from domedlettering.com in the 2" size. Had to wet-sand and polish the transom area to get all the old lettering residue off first. (easy-peasy after doing some minor gelcoat repair last year on the hull) Turned out pretty good though!

 

[haknslash]

No need to wet sand and polish to remove adhesive residue. You can use mineral spirits, acrysol, pine, rubber eraser wheel and a ton of other options that are far less involved and labor intensive than wet sanding and polishing. It’s one thing if doing gelcoat repair but not at all needed for lettering unless you have a lot of sun fade where the stickers were.

 

[Sean R]

There are 2 new 25ft yamaha's at my marine and both are missing letters on the hulls, one is missing the round yamaha decal and the other an A.

 

[YamaHog]

There are 2 new 25ft yamaha's at my marine and both are missing letters on the hulls, one is missing the round yamaha decal and the other an A.

Sounds like in some cases Yamaha hasn't been prepping/cleaning the areas well enough before applying the adhesive lettering. The letters on both sides of the hull of my boat have held up so far. It was just the transom lettering that wasn't 100% aligned straight to begin with.

 

[YamaHog]

No need to wet sand and polish to remove adhesive residue. You can use mineral spirits, acrysol, pine, rubber eraser wheel and a ton of other options that are far less involved and labor intensive than wet sanding and polishing. It’s one thing if doing gelcoat repair but not at all needed for lettering unless you have a lot of sun fade where the stickers were.

It actually was a bit more than than just the adhesive residue. There was an orange colored ring around the "tuning fork" Yamaha logo decal to the left of the lettering that I couldn't get to come off with 90% alcohol or mineral spirits. You could also still see the gelcoat was whiter where the lettering had been. I tried a magic eraser next, but still couldn't get the orange ring off. So after that I hit it will some 2000 grit wet sanding until the orange ring was gone, and then used some Meguiar's M100 polish and a small foam pad on a drill to polish it out. Actually went pretty quick and glossed back up great. I definitely would have preferred to not have to sand and polish!

 

[rbarthur21]

This is what mine looks like. Hasn’t bothered me enough to do anything about it.

 

[haknslash]

@rbarthur21 Is your “H” sliding down and last “A” rotating or did it come that way? I couldn’t deal with that on my boat and would likely remove them.

 

[adrianp89]

Super glue works great for repairing this.

 

[haknslash]

It actually was a bit more than than just the adhesive residue. There was an orange colored ring around the "tuning fork" Yamaha logo decal to the left of the lettering that I couldn't get to come off with 90% alcohol or mineral spirits. You could also still see the gelcoat was whiter where the lettering had been. I tried a magic eraser next, but still couldn't get the orange ring off. So after that I hit it will some 2000 grit wet sanding until the orange ring was gone, and then used some Meguiar's M100 polish and a small foam pad on a drill to polish it out. Actually went pretty quick and glossed back up great. I definitely would have preferred to not have to sand and polish!

I didn’t realize the newer boats have 3D emblems. I thought you just had some vinyl letters as that is what they used back on my 2016 AR192. Sucks you had to do all that.

My 2016 for comparison with its black vinyl sticker...

 

[rbarthur21]

@rbarthur21 Is your “H” sliding down and last “A” rotating or did it come that way? I couldn’t deal with that on my boat and would likely remove them.

Yes, but did not come that way. I bought it brand new in April last year before the boat bubble, but also prior to Covid quality, so I can’t blame it on that. Just crappy regular quality ? that kind of stuff doesn’t bother me too much with our boat, it’s more important to me to make sure everything is running great. But…..maybe I’ll go ahead a remove it. It makes me chuckle everytime I see it though. Kind of interested in how long that H will hang on. Going on a year and half now! ?

 

[buckbuck]

Years ago ( maybe on the other site?) there was a guy that lost the 'H' . He had the dealer repair it except they put a 'M' in place of the H. So that is what he named his boat
YA MAMA