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May, 2025

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Vinyl wrap old armada skis

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Philaphlous
Posts: 3 - Karma: 22
Hey guys,

Life long lurker, first time poster.

I've got some ugly as sshh armada skis from like 2008. They're sandwich sidewall construction and they're in decent condition. I've reground the edges and replaced the bindings with my rossy race 120 bindings which still work great.

My idea is to replace or essentially cover up the top graphics with a "wood" vinyl wrap. I've got the adhesive backed vinyl wrap and now comes time to actually wrap the skis... Ive filled any chips in the top with marine epoxy and sanded down the skis. The surface is prepped but I'm very worried the vinyl wrap is going to peel right up the first day I'm out on the slopes...

I'm looking at using 3M super 90 construction adhesive between the skis and vinyl. I'm wondering if anyone else has had experience vinyl wrapping skis? I want this to be a pernament bond so heck I've even considered dripping super glue down the entire length of the skis but I know a spray adhesive is going to work best...

Any advise would be greatly appreciated! I'm planning on some sick before/after pics so I'll be sure to share my experience if anyone else is looking to do the same.
7 years ago
6 0
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Woos
Posts: 832 - Karma: 1,567
PhilaphlousHey guys,

Life long lurker, first time poster.

I've got some ugly as sshh armada skis from like 2008. They're sandwich sidewall construction and they're in decent condition. I've reground the edges and replaced the bindings with my rossy race 120 bindings which still work great.

My idea is to replace or essentially cover up the top graphics with a "wood" vinyl wrap. I've got the adhesive backed vinyl wrap and now comes time to actually wrap the skis... Ive filled any chips in the top with marine epoxy and sanded down the skis. The surface is prepped but I'm very worried the vinyl wrap is going to peel right up the first day I'm out on the slopes...

I'm looking at using 3M super 90 construction adhesive between the skis and vinyl. I'm wondering if anyone else has had experience vinyl wrapping skis? I want this to be a pernament bond so heck I've even considered dripping super glue down the entire length of the skis but I know a spray adhesive is going to work best...

Any advise would be greatly appreciated! I'm planning on some sick before/after pics so I'll be sure to share my experience if anyone else is looking to do the same.


Uhh I've wrapped cars and panels before but I don't think this is a good idea or something I could even pull of myself. I mean you do your thing and I'd love to see how they turn out but I think you should just ski them or throw a few stickers on them. My guess is the wrap will end up in horrible condition very quickly and end up looking worse than no wrap.
7 years ago
1 1
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meadows69
Posts: 104 - Karma: 151
I've always wanted to see a pair of plasti dipped skis w a bunch of stickers
7 years ago
2 0
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Philaphlous
Posts: 3 - Karma: 22
Yea. Plastidip is my plan b... I figure if I can laminate the vinyl well enough to the skis there won't be much play in the vinyl so it won't tare easily.... We shall see... Ive already wet sanded the top surface of the skis so I'll get a better stick..Hopefully.

I've read some crazy stuff about heat flashing polypropylene to get adhesives to bond to a low energy surface like pp and hdpe...that along with sanding and alcohol cleaning makes for one of the strongest bonds apparently besides friction welding which obviously doesn't work for a vinyl wrap...im a bit less inclined to test out a torch on my skis tho...
7 years ago
3 0
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meadows69
Posts: 104 - Karma: 151
PhilaphlousYea. Plastidip is my plan b... I figure if I can laminate the vinyl well enough to the skis there won't be much play in the vinyl so it won't tare easily.... We shall see... Ive already wet sanded the top surface of the skis so I'll get a better stick..Hopefully.

I've read some crazy stuff about heat flashing polypropylene to get adhesives to bond to a low energy surface like pp and hdpe...that along with sanding and alcohol cleaning makes for one of the strongest bonds apparently besides friction welding which obviously doesn't work for a vinyl wrap...im a bit less inclined to test out a torch on my skis tho...

Ya could be sweet, they make some sick colors and finishes.

haha you've done ur research. Heat treating for higher surface energy will definitely work. But it takes practice if you're doing it with a hand torch. It would be tough to chemically treat it (alcohol), it's the least energy intensive, just cause you're probably not gonna get your hands on the right solvents. legally anyways. and yeah you cant friction weld plastic of any kind. Realistically you are on the right path with wet sanding, or torching it. if you can find scrap vinyl, and scrap stock of the PP, you can practice with the torch. Only reason I know any of this is I got my degree in plastic and composite engineering. good luck man. Post a pic if you remember to
7 years ago
2 0
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Lonely
Posts: 7122 - Karma: 69,153
My suggestion would be to epoxy over the vinyl. If it was just bare vinyl as soon as you chip it the edges are gonna start to lift off, resulting in large swaths of the vinyl being removed
7 years ago
0 0
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PurlerOver
Posts: 4 - Karma: 7
Wondering if epoxy would crack once you flexed the ski pretty good. Or how/if an adhesive would effect the flex.
7 years ago
0 0
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Philaphlous
Posts: 3 - Karma: 22
PurlerOverWondering if epoxy would crack once you flexed the ski pretty good. Or how/if an adhesive would effect the flex.


Marine epoxy is especially flexible and waterproof. It's the slowest cure epoxy....slower cure means more elastic. I didn't use that much to effect the flex.. The skis are pretty stiff compared to what I'm used to so we shall see. More to come.
7 years ago
0 0
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SpryGrown
Posts: 2 - Karma: 11
How did they turn out?
6 years ago
1 0
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