Hull polish / ceramic - New Stripes and Vinyls under or over?

[Blue Seas]

I'm taking the hull and superstructure back to bare this spring and then building up the protection and appearance - still agonising over Wax or Ceramic but I'm getting it whittled down.
So would you put new stripes / vinyls / graphics over or under the coatings? I can see pro's and cons with both.

 

[Anibal]

Same dilemma here a few weeks ago and decided to go for Ceramic. I forced myself into buying the stuff so that I could not back out then. I would think the new stripes should be in place before the ceramic coating as it may not adhere properly over a ceramic surface plus won’t benefit from the ceramic protection.
Would you mind elaborating a bit on the cons as I have never applied ceramic to my boat and I do have some vinyl decals on it. Cheers

 

[KevinV]

I spoke to a vehicle polisher last year and he was emphatic to do the polish /ceramic first, then the vinyl - the logic being that polishing and coating worked best on a flat surface, and the vinyl will stick perfectly well on the ceramic coating.

 

[Anibal]

Well, there you go. I would have thought the opposite but I am no expert by any means.

 

[KevinV]

Well, there you go. I would have thought the opposite but I am no expert by any means.

Ditto, but he was quite insistant. He was specialised in cars, not boats and he was definitely talking about ceramic coating not (silicon) wax - make of that what you will

 

[samfieldhouse]

Interesting. I applied a 10mm vinyl stripe as a 'boot top' in 2023 - I wiped the waterline down with meths before applying it, then polished and waxed over the top. It's not budged, I'm really pleased with it.
I've just done the same around the new windows on the top sides.