installing large vinyl decals on curved objects

This video shows the "freehand" installation of a long tribal hatchet flame reflective decal graphics on a motorcycle gas tank. It shows how to cut the decal and how to apply this and other similar car, truck, boat or motorcycle graphics

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• motorcycle
• decal
• flame
• graphics
• wet
• installation

[MRWHITE3535]

Thanks that helped me a lot.

[BillAggie]

@MRWHITE3535

Glad to be of help

[101Osprey101]

Holy crap dude! WAY too much liquid! all you need to do is mist both surfaces. Practice more and you will stop doing wet aplications all together. A dry aplications turns out SO much nicer. The curves on the tank in the video were really simple curves. Hardly any compund curve at all.

You could have done a dry install in a quarter of the time with better results. I honestly cant remember when the last time was that I used aplication fluid.

[BillAggie]

@101Osprey101

Osprey

The lesson here is if you can install the decal dry or without liquid, congrats! Most consumers can not. I can install them dry, I can fabricate dry, but a first time effort would end up in a trashed decal most likely for someone without experience. The key here is it might be slow but it's totally effective and in the end the install looks just like you or I or another installer put it on. Thanks for the comment.

[coldmv]

I am working on putting some stripes around the rear bumper of my mustang. Do I need to keep the backing tape on, then peel it off once it bonds? Can I do it the same way like you have with no backing tape?

[BillAggie]

@coldmv

If the vendor put premask (backing tape) on the decal, it's probably the best way based on that vendors experience. After the decal bonds, pull off the premask which is on the face of the decal.

[BillAggie]

@defkon99

Makes for a pretty result and saves tossing out a botched decal.

[BillAggie]

@smxer85

Stick with water and palmolive.

[BillAggie]

@tarkoman

A bit nippy are ya! I'll tell ya what, send me all profesionals for my customers and I'll dump the video. The purpose of this video is to help the average consumer install our decals and others without fail. Your suggestion is for the pro installer, as you pointed out. And you are wrong about the pro installer taking 30 seconds. By my book it would take at least 3 minutes.

[BillAggie]

@Blademasterssss

Yep... heard of it.  We even use it, but it's not going to work here because of the need to shape the decal around the tank. This is just too curved for transfer tape to work out.

[BillAggie]

@zachsithlord

Ha ha.. Not my mom!

[BillAggie]

@benmark10

You are right, it's not as easy as it looks, but with the wet system you can keep doing it until it's done. Thanks!

[BillAggie]

@charlyex

The liquid is water and Palmolive. The exactly correct mix can vary depending on water hardness. WHen you get a mix that just crosses the line of water beading to water laying level and flat, that's the perfect mix, go with it. Start with 6 drops in 32 ounces and add a few drops more at a time until you can create a water blanket and no beading.