time is not on my side. I am very busy lately, being able to play more than one instrument is not always a good thing. everytime i think i'll get a evening to do some running around to talk to some body shops, t shirt making place, etc.. i get called to fill in for somebodys band. i did get some time tomess around with this today though. the stencil is done, there are a couple small differances from the original that you have to put one over the original to barely be able to tell. lets see how sharp your eyes are, i challenge someone to tell me the differance in the pics i posted. that is the original hood pad from my 84 gn. a run of these have not been done yet because we want to make sure they will indeed do a decent job. problem now is finding a suitable paint. since actual silkscreening is out of the question because it is a expensive process, i'm trying to find a suitable replacement that will not look like a cheapy rattle can painted over fabric. i've been doing some test here and there with some differant kinds of paints, trying to find a good "primer" to help take up the "porusnous" of the fabric before final color coat, you can see some of my experimenting on the hood pad.
a guy i work with who has done lots of silkscreening with ink on aircraft (mostly for labeling things), suggested trying out some differant fabric paints since they are made to soak into fabric and dry smooth, and then take a beating repeatedly in washer and dryer machine at hot temps. the only thing i've found so far that works really well is some stuff called stencil spray. its advertised right on the can as "silk screening in a can". google it, your local arts and crafts store will probably carry it. only cost about 4 or 5 bucks. dries hard, and it leaves a nice crisp clean edge when i pulled the masking tape off to see if there would be any bleed. i'm sure there will be some bleeding here and there, but you could touch up with some black touch up paint or marker. problem is, i want a closely matching grey or silver color like original. they make it in grey, but it has lots of glitter in it. its just to much and doesn't look right. they also make it in white, but i don't want white, as soon as some dirt or grease, oil, etc gets on it, i would think its going to look dirty even if you wipe it off. they make it in black, so what i'm going to do is do a first coat of black, let it cure, then paint over with a regular light grey, probably a hi-temp light grey. i hope to get this done this week and post some pics. i've tried regular sandable primer, and it doesn't fill "flow" into the fabric very well.
When i put the stencils on, they all went down nice and flush and adhesive held well. So all i got was a first coat down. I abanded the black stencil spray idea because it just didn't leave as good of hard surface as the silver glitter, so i was going to go over the silver glitter stencil spray with a light gray high heat. I couldn't put another coat of anything on because it would look like crap. Everything else looks great though. edges are all nice and crisp, this would have been absolutely awesome if stencils hadn't screwed up. you'll see what i mean in the pic. at this point, i'm so freakin busy that i may abandon the project. plus, i'm on a diet, and by the afternoons i'm feeling so weak and pissed off that i don't even feel like messing with anything. :frown: 
.. I didn't know they have gone that crazy 
