BlackTip Jetsports Traction Mats

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

Fedex delivered the flooring I ordered last night, and I went to work. I was using the .001″ thick Mylar sheeting from Amazon as a template here. It worked okay, but after finishing the back of the boat (one sheet), I opted not to use it going forward. If you want to use templates with this stuff, you need to spend the money on the thicker sheeting that won’t crinkle and move as much.

This morning I got up and knocked out the rest of the boat. Without using the Mylar templates, the edges aren’t as nice, but it went a whole lot quicker. I used an X-Acto knife to score where I wanted to make a line, then used a steel ruler to make a straight cut. I free handed bends, rounded edges, and corners. Viewing from a sitting or standing distance, I think it looks great.

I had four 1Mx2M sheets of material to work with, and ended up running the deck in a different direction than the rest of the flooring to minimize the amount of seams on it. I had a little left over, but with the way the cuts had to be made, needed all four sheets. I used a little of the spare to run across the top of the cooler, which I think is a nice touch.

Before sticking down the self-adhesive on the back of the mats, I cleaned with Windex and then Acetone. I found that Acetone does a really good job of removing stains from the fiberglass and started working on a stain under the port seat, but the orange dye from the new microfiber rag opted to come off and create a new stain. I’ll have to get back out there in a bit and get it off somehow.

Overall, I think $240 in sheeting was absolutely worth it, but wouldn’t recommend bothering with Mylar. I used four X-Acto blades of the 30 pack I bought, and two are still usable, so you could probably get by with a five pack.