Sokolva
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Hello everyone!
Kind of a weird one here, but I really like customizing my skis with stickers. One tradition I have is to add bird stickers to the backs of my skis, after a childhood pair of skis I had with little eagles on the back of them. I got a pair of nice rainbow thunderbird stickers to put on the backs of my skis, and while the stickers themselves are high quality and should last, skis are a notoriously difficult surface to stick things to, and the water and wear and tear often causes stickers to peel and become damaged quickly.
I've been researching various solutions to this, and have found a few possible options. I also plan on calling my ski manufacturer, Moment Skis, tomorrow, to see if they have any suggestions based on their experience with the top sheet of their skis, which is some kind of textured nylon that is very durable, but I don't know how well stickers will stick to it. The sticker that Bootdoctors put on hasn't fallen off yet, but I've only ridden it a little over a week, so it has yet to stand the test of time.
www.etsy.com
Thunderbird From Etsy Seller TheOuterLands
1) There are Polyurethane sealants that people use to waterproof the stickers that they use to customize Tumblers and other drinks for the washing machine. These sealants get lightly painted on and around the sticker to seal the edges and help waterproof it. Anyone have any experience with any of these, and whether it will work on skis like it will a tumbler?
2) I've read on other forums such as Newschoolers and Teton Gravity Research, the recommendation to paint a thin layer of some kind of epoxy over the surface, but there are so many different kinds of epoxies, and I'm not sure which one will work for this application. I would think it would need to be flexible to flex with the ski and not just crack. No one gave specific recommendations, but I've seen several different types recommended by ski techs for ski repair. Anyone have any recommendations or experience with using epoxy on the surface of the ski topsheet? How did it hold up and what brands did you use?
3) I ordered this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KD6YW46/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
which is a polyurethane adhesive used by crafters to glue rhinestones and other things to the surface of all sorts of waterproof things such as tumblers and phones, and people give it very good reviews for this application. I was thinking I could use a paintbrush to paint around the outside edge of the sticker to give it an extra waterproofing seal, and possibly paint over its surface for a clear protective coat. Its an option, but I'm going to wait to do anything until I hear suggestions from this forum and from the Moment team and evaluate what I want to do and run some tests.
Let me know if anyone has done something like this before or has experience with various sealants, crafty stuff, and epoxies, I'd love to hear your thoughts! As a final note, I absolutely love these skis and intend to keep them forever until they are worn out, so I'm not worried about resale value and keeping the skis "mint." They are already permanently mounted and these customizations are just for my own happiness, so I'm not worried about doing anything permanent, but I do want to carefully research this so that its a really nice permanent customization and doesn't look crappy.
I'll post pictures and progress reports once I decide a course of action so that others that may want to customize skis in a similar way can learn from my trial and error!
Kind of a weird one here, but I really like customizing my skis with stickers. One tradition I have is to add bird stickers to the backs of my skis, after a childhood pair of skis I had with little eagles on the back of them. I got a pair of nice rainbow thunderbird stickers to put on the backs of my skis, and while the stickers themselves are high quality and should last, skis are a notoriously difficult surface to stick things to, and the water and wear and tear often causes stickers to peel and become damaged quickly.
I've been researching various solutions to this, and have found a few possible options. I also plan on calling my ski manufacturer, Moment Skis, tomorrow, to see if they have any suggestions based on their experience with the top sheet of their skis, which is some kind of textured nylon that is very durable, but I don't know how well stickers will stick to it. The sticker that Bootdoctors put on hasn't fallen off yet, but I've only ridden it a little over a week, so it has yet to stand the test of time.
Thunderbird Holographic Sticker - Etsy
Thunderbird Holographic Sticker 4 x 2.22 Free Domestic Shipping
www.etsy.com
1) There are Polyurethane sealants that people use to waterproof the stickers that they use to customize Tumblers and other drinks for the washing machine. These sealants get lightly painted on and around the sticker to seal the edges and help waterproof it. Anyone have any experience with any of these, and whether it will work on skis like it will a tumbler?
2) I've read on other forums such as Newschoolers and Teton Gravity Research, the recommendation to paint a thin layer of some kind of epoxy over the surface, but there are so many different kinds of epoxies, and I'm not sure which one will work for this application. I would think it would need to be flexible to flex with the ski and not just crack. No one gave specific recommendations, but I've seen several different types recommended by ski techs for ski repair. Anyone have any recommendations or experience with using epoxy on the surface of the ski topsheet? How did it hold up and what brands did you use?
3) I ordered this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KD6YW46/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
which is a polyurethane adhesive used by crafters to glue rhinestones and other things to the surface of all sorts of waterproof things such as tumblers and phones, and people give it very good reviews for this application. I was thinking I could use a paintbrush to paint around the outside edge of the sticker to give it an extra waterproofing seal, and possibly paint over its surface for a clear protective coat. Its an option, but I'm going to wait to do anything until I hear suggestions from this forum and from the Moment team and evaluate what I want to do and run some tests.
Let me know if anyone has done something like this before or has experience with various sealants, crafty stuff, and epoxies, I'd love to hear your thoughts! As a final note, I absolutely love these skis and intend to keep them forever until they are worn out, so I'm not worried about resale value and keeping the skis "mint." They are already permanently mounted and these customizations are just for my own happiness, so I'm not worried about doing anything permanent, but I do want to carefully research this so that its a really nice permanent customization and doesn't look crappy.
I'll post pictures and progress reports once I decide a course of action so that others that may want to customize skis in a similar way can learn from my trial and error!
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