A forum for owners of Yamaha TTR250 trail and enduro bikes!

Just had this question on an other forum I go to so thought I would share it here as well.

It makes me laugh at some of the antics people do to stick down there graphics, I've seen some clasics over the years   :laugh:
first off, I'm a signwriter and this is how I do it all the time.

HOW TO REMOVE OLD GRAPHICS

1) To remove old graphics get a hair dryer (NOT A HEAT GUN, WAY TO HOT) and some turps and some rags
2) Use the heat gun to soften the stickers and peel them off.
3) Use a rag well soaked with turps and wipe it over the remaining adhesive (just keep rubbing at it and keep it wet with turps, it will all eventually come off)
4) Keep doing this until the adhesive softens and comes off, when the rag gets all slimy with adhesive chuck it out and get a clean one.
5) After you have all the adhesive off get a new clean rag and wipe the whole area down 1 final time with turps.
6) Then get some normal washing up liquid (MAKE SURE IT'S NOT LEMON, LEMON DAMAGES THE NEW ADHESIVES) and wash the whole area down with a fairly
strong solution of Washing up liquid, and then rinse clean.
7) rub your hand over the surface to check you got alll the glue off
8) give it a wipe down with metho if you really want but I don't usually bother but doesen't hurt either

"  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  " "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  " "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  " "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "  " "  "  "  "  "  "  "  "
HOW TO APPLY NEW GRAPHICS

You will need the following tools:
A 500ml plastic spray bottle, the type you remove the trigger from.
A squeegee of some kind, you can get stiff rubber ones from a hardware store
Washing Up Liquid  (NON LEMON TYPE)
Clean Rags
Hair Dryer

1) Rinse out the spray bottle to remove any crap that may be in there
2) Fill it nearly to the top and put about 1/2 a teaspoon of washing up liquid (AGAIN MAKE SURE IT'S NOT LEMON, LEMON DAMAGES THE NEW ADHESIVES)into the bottle and shake it to mix it up
3) Spray down the plastics you are going to stick the graphics to
4) Peel the graphics off the backing paper and spray the sticky side with the washing up solution
5) spray enough on to make them slippery and then move the graphics into position
6) Now spray the front of the graphics as well, it makes it easier to squeegee out the air bubbles
7) Take your squeegee and squeegee out the water starting in the middle and then work out from there

I usually squeegee a vertical line from the middle up nad the middle down and then work horizontally to the outside edges

Now here's the tricky bit, Stickers will stick to a single curved surface no problem (an arc like a mud guard)
but don't like to stick to compound curves (that is like a ball, curves in 2 directions at once)

So squeegee out as far as it will go and then just wait for it to dry leaving the unstuck edges up then get your hair dryer and start to heat the graphics
and stretch them gently and squeegee then down at the same time, this is where you may need some help, it's tricky to heat, stretch and squeegee at the same time, takes a bit of practice

The heating and stretching allows the graphics to wrap around compound curves, if you have cleaned the plastics well you should have no problems

MOST IMPORTANT, KEEP YOUR FINGERS CLEAN AND WHEN YOU ARE HANDLING THE GRAPHICS KEEP THEM WET WITH THE SOAP SOLUTION, EXCEPT FOR THE LAST BIT WHERE YOU ARE HEATING AND STRETCHING

Hope this helps, any questions ?