Door Decals Installation?

[Who Needs 8]

I just got my hands on a pair of door decals. Are there any suggestions/how to's on installing these on the doors? Or any Templates?

 

[TTAfreak]

everytime ive ever seen any kind of decal attatched to a car, they have always used a soap/water combo in a spray bottle to get the car wet so the decal would slide into the exact spot you want it.

once its where you want it....use a towel to force the water out from under the decal.

then you could use a heat gun (keep a good distance, you only want to warm it up....not toast it) to dry it.

as far as location or a templet, i have no idea.

hope this helps. and if you dont have access to more decals and are scared of messing it up....IMO its well worth the small ammount of cash it would cost to have a professional do it.

 

[72firebird]

For a template I believe in the kits (I don't have one to know for sure) that GM had provided some sort of a template or some guides for placing the door decals for the dealers. There's probably someone on here who has them if they were made. If not I can measure for you off my car and make a simple CAD picture to show you the measurments.

 

[Who Needs 8]

Yeah, I figured the soap and water technique would be best. I've seen friends do this when they put decals in the recessed "MUSTANG" on the rear bumper of their, well, Mustangs.

I just bought my TTA 3 months ago. The previous owner said that it had decals on it, but the owner before him he thinks took them off. Sure enough, when I started using a Car Polish, the reflectivity (if that's a word) of the polish brought out the outlines of the original decals on the door in direct sunlight. So I might be able to use that, level ground, and my craftsman laser level to make sure it's straight.

72Firebird . . . I'm also a CAD Designer (I used AutoCAD 2002), so if you feel the need, that would be great. But like I said, I can probably use the faint outlines on the doors as a guide.

 

[j13smiley]

only templates were for the emblems... nothing for decals.

see my last post in this thread.... the door decals were installed in 2 places.... pick your favorite....

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=154933

 

[Who Needs 8]

Ok, what about Surface Preperation. Like I said, I use a polish instead of wax (Tropi-care, kinda like Zaino).

I was thinking that I probably need to remove all of the surface material to bare paint. So I was going to wash the area with a Dawn/Water solution to remove the polish. Then Clay bar the surface, and maybe use 3M Fine Cut Compound to remove any contaniments. Is this over kill?

 

[j13smiley]

yes - that's overkill. besides that - dawn will not remove zaino/tp, but any abrasive product will. alcohol will remove any zaino or tp. get a spray bottle and mix up 50/50 mixture of water and isopropyl alcohol, use that to prep the surface with.

i am assuming your surface is good to start with. if you want to remove swirl marks or use a clay bar to remove contaminates - do that first, then wash/ dry the car. clean the area with alcohol right before you put the decals on.

need any more detail or tips let me know.

 

[Who Needs 8]

Originally posted by j13smiley
get a spray bottle and mix up 50/50 mixture of water and isopropyl alcohol, use that to prep the surface with.

Good Call. I forgot about that. Thanks.

 

[2QUIK6]

I just washed mine with soap and water, and applied the decal so that the end of the letters ended just before it is under the door handle and the decal centered up/down in the area between the door handle and the rubber door guard. This location was determined after looking at tons of pics of the pace cars from the race and magazine articles.
What I did to make sure it was straight was I made a very light mark with a pencil measuring up from the rubber bumper guard to the top or bottom of the decal....then made sure the decal backing alligned with the marks....go slow and its easy....once applied, just erase the marks with an eraser.

You can get all the decals you want from John's Performance for about $50 if you mess them up.

 

[Who Needs 8]

Originally posted by TTAfreak
everytime ive ever seen any kind of decal attatched to a car, they have always used a soap/water combo in a spray bottle to get the car wet so the decal would slide into the exact spot you want it.

once its where you want it....use a towel to force the water out from under the decal.

then you could use a heat gun (keep a good distance, you only want to warm it up....not toast it) to dry it.

Ok, I got one door on last night. Took forever. It seemed to get easier the longer it took.

I have one question. In your post earlier, where you saying to do all that before I peal the paper off?

Meaning: Position the decal, use a towel to dry it, use a heat gun (I only have a hair dryer ), then when it's all dry, pull the paper off the car?

Last night, I positioned it, then tried pulling the paper off, but was having problems because the decals wouldn't come off the paper. But when it started drying on it's own, the decals stayed on the door better. Still wasn't that easy, but much easier. Then I used the hair dryer to dry them more. Turned out great, but I was wondering if I was doing this in the wrong order. I'm pretty sure I was.

I'm doing the other door tonight.


BTW: Thanks for everyone's Help.

 

[Jan Larsson]

Here's a number of pictures when I installed mine, I installed all of them dry as the instructions described. Worked out very well and only took maybe 1 hour or so for all 3 decals.

http://la.rsson.com/decals/

 

[j13smiley]

when i install decals....

- surface prep (clean / dry, alcohol).
- mist paint with h20/soap mix
- small squirt of h2o/soap on decal
- position decal
- once posistioned, carefully start pressing it on. the decal can still slide so be careful... light pressure - slowly start pressing harder.
- if it's too wet - it will be hard to remove the transfer tape. if it gets too dry it will be hard to remove the transfer tape. so test it - once the decals starts sticking to the paint, carefully remove the transfer tape.
- again - carefully press the decal and work out any air bubbles. make sure the decals are sticking and not sliding around.
- allow to completely dry. leave the car in the sun for the day and it will work well.

any small air bubble you can't squeeze out - after sitting in the sun for the afternoon 98% will be gone. any that are left can be carefully "popped" using a needle. it's best if you don't need to use a needle... like i said - usually the sun will remove any bubbles.

if you need to mark things... use masking tape.

i also like trimming around the decals so there is less transfer tape to remove later.