Vinyl decals...experiences?

[shawmutt]

I love me some WW2 pinup girls, and found a site that sells vinyl decals. I have no experience with these things--how hard are they to install and how well do they stay? Is there a way to know if a vendor is crap without actually wasting money on them?

Here's the site I'm looking at: http://classicinsignia.com/

This is the one I'm looking at: http://home.comcast.net/~shawmutt/slightlydangerous.gif

[zed88]

I would love to know too!

[greywolf]

The custom car people use them a lot. The stock Suzuki emblems are vinyl stickers. The wolf head on my bike which can be seen in my avatar is a vinyl sticker. The small ones are easy to place directly. Larger ones go on wet so they can be moved around until properly placed. Then any air bubbles are worked out and the liquid is allowed to evaporate. It takes longer than the dry application but placement is easy. Once they are on and fully dry, they stay on as well as the OEM Suzuki stickers. I only have experience with decalzone.com but I'd buy from them again.

[mad max]

Thanks for the decal resource grey wolf.

[SCraig]

I've done a couple of them, but it's been a long time. One trick I was shown was to put a film of soapy water on the surface, then put the vinyl down. Get it straight and then use a stiff card (squeegee, credit card, something like that) to work all air bubbles out toward the edges. Once the water evaporates everything is good to go.

[shawmutt]

It seems identical to window tinting. I'm going to order my girl and install her, worst case scenario is that I'm out $10.

I'll post pics once I get it done.

[garandman]

Go to a sign shop or auto parts store and buy the plastic squeegee made for the purpose. They work best.

The soapy water trick makes it easy to adjust the position and you really can't go wrong.

If you miss an air bubbles in the middle after it's dried, puncture it on an angle with a sewing needle and squeeze it flat. The hole won't show.

[wheelspin63]

May want to excercise caution with the use of soapy water. I just asked my resident vinyl film expert (My girl worked many years for Oracal, a premium vinyl film manufacturer) and she advises that graphics vinyl may have water based adhesive and hence the use of water may dissolve or compromise the adhesive. For whatever its worth...Cheers!

[shawmutt]

Here ya go. Got her on pretty good, only two tiny bubbles to fix:

http://home.comcast.net/~shawmutt/sd01.JPG

http://home.comcast.net/~shawmutt/sd02.JPG

[fredellarby]

Very Cool!