What is gold leaf film?
We use three styles of custom gold leaf film for most of our classy boat names. This yacht, Golden LIght, looks good with Florentine gold leaf swirl lettering. Gold leaf film is the preferable material for naming sailboats and powerboats with fiberglass hulls. We know it will look good for eight years or longer whenever we apply a new name to your Gelcoat. Paint tends to break down faster, and paint is far more difficult to remove. We can quickly remove vinyl after eight years. However, your hull might need a few passes with the buffing wheel and compound to thoroughly remove the residual shadow of the old letters.
Silver leaf for classy boat names too.
Besides Florentine, we also offer gold leaf burnished, and engine turned too. All styles of finish are available as well in a silver leaf. Our most popular and most traditional film is engine turn gold leaf. Typically you will see this on fire engines and luxury yachts. We also use these films to create custom ring buoys that will match your unique boat name. However, we can’t use any film to make teak name boards for your boat. Whenever we make carved boat name signs, we use traditional patent gold leaf and palladium leaf. The outlines we painted by hand too. Let’s put your classy boat names on your life rings and teak quarterboards too!
Creating contrast with a secondary color
Golden Light has a dark blue hull. This scenario is not unusual, but it does present problems for our typical approach. Usually, we would offset a gold leaf letter with a dark color, like navy blue or black. Classy boat names always have good contrasting colors. However, when working on a dark hull, we need to create that contrast with a lighter color. Usually, white is the best way to combine a gold leaf letter and outline on a dark hull. Some other good choices for the secondary color might be any shade of light blue. It is tempting to apply the gold leaf with no outline on this dark blue hull. However, that can be problematic down the road.
Gold leaf; a messy removal indeed.
Gold leaf film has incredibly aggressive adhesive on that back, and if you put this directly onto your boat, it can be trouble down the road. Gold leaf film does not remove in the same way that one could remove a premium cast vinyl. This film will break apart into tiny pieces, and even if you use a heat gun, it will not come off quickly. To make matters worse, it leaves all of the glue residues on the transom. A removal like this could take 8 hours to complete. That is why we always put gold leaf on top of some other color, any premium cast vinyl will do, and it will save you a lot of trouble down the road when it’s time to change the name.
Order your classy boat names today!
When you are ready for a new classy boat name, it’s time to call Designs & Signs, or if you prefer just send us an email. We’ll probably need to ask you a few questions and then usually we can provide you with a quick quote with a day or two. Thanks again for your time, we hope you will stay a while to enjoy more of the great photos posted on this site.
