Decals get damaged. It's just a fact of life. And for commercial vessels this can happen frequently. For the fishing fleet who pride themselves on their vibrant branding, a torn decal warrants prompt attention. One of the most iconic fishing vessels on San Francisco Bay is Jackie Douglas' "Wacky Jacky". She's known as the Queen of the Fleet and the First Lady of Salmon and takes great pride in her vessel she's been skippering since 1973. She's frequently dressed head to toe in the iconic red and black colors of Wacky Jacky's trim.
During a visit to the boatyard for routine maintenance, we were called to replace two damaged letters in Wacky Jacky's name on the transom.
For this restoration, we'd need to grid out the 'J' and 'A' in order to exactly replicate the lettering, with one of the bigger challenges being to color match the new lettering so that it would blend in with the existing lettering. Photos are key and with the aid of a colorimeter application on our DSLR, we can get the color values to match.
Every aspect of the lettering is gridded - guided by measurements taken of the damaged decals. Once gridded in 2D to establish the shape of the lettering and trim, we then run it on a 3D spline in CAD to get our angles and shadow depth, and create replicatable models of items such as letter caps and feet to apply to all letters being replicated.
The replacement decals are printed and cut separately using premium cast vinyl and protected with a clear coat overlaminate.