Stormy85

Hi there

I am restoring an old Giant Cadex and have created some replacements Decals based on pictures. Initially i wanted to create a negative stencil using vinyl and airbrushing the decals but some of the letters are so small that it wont work. I then bought some waterslide decal paper which for basic black letters seems to work fine with my inkjet printer.

I do have one issue though. The transparent decal affects the underlying color which makes it a shade lighter then the rest of the fork. Having sprayed a layer of clear on top trying to blend the decal thr color difference becomes very obvious and even though the surface is very smooth the decal is very noticable due to the color difference. Has anyone had this issue? I will take a picture tomorrow when the sun is out.

Regards

thinktubes 

Might have better luck with a laser printer.

Velo Mule

I had a Schwinn that I used water slide decals on and I noticed that the water slide clear film was touching on all of the high spots of the paint, but was not able to settle into the valleys. As a result the decal looked opaque or cloudy. The paint was probably put on too dry and didn't level the way it should. This was a candy apple paint, so it can be tricky to get both the tint and the flow right. This was my experience.

The next time I use waterslide decals I plan on clear coating one or two layers over the color coat, then sand with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper to ensure that the surface is smooth and level. Apply the water slide decal. Then a few more coats of clear coat.

This is not the way that Schwinn did it. Their paint process was set up to apply these candy apple colors and get the paint level. Their water slide decals always went on transparent The clear turned darker after 40 years, but they looked good for the first decade or so.

I like water slide decals because it allows you to move the decal around until you are satisfied. There is also a setting solution that is supposed to help get the water slide decal to conform better. Perhaps this would have helped in my situation. I haven't used it, yet. It is my understanding that it makes the decal softer, which is good and a bit weaker. Do your own research on this. It is supposed to help.

Mostly what is available now is vinyl which, can sometimes be thick from some suppliers. Then you get a raised letter look even after clear coat. The thinner vinyl can be tough to work with and more expensive. These are the trade-offs.

Stormy85

this is how it looks. You might be able to see the light difference in color.
i have read a lot about the surface having to be really smooth so i sanded the clear underneath with 800 grit and sprayed another clearcoat which layed down really nice and then added the decal. Regarding the surface prep I have also read that it generally leads to silvering but i would not say that mine has any silvering.
I am thinking it might be the waterslide paper itself. I bought it at a craft store but there is no brand or manufacture name written anywhere. I guess they buy bulk and repackage it for smaller orders.

oneclick 

His problem is that the clear stock is not clear enough to not change the underlying colour. It may be that laser-printer-specific decal paper would have less of that effect, but might be true of any of the various flavours of decal paper regardless of the printing method for which they are suited.

MY suggestion to the OP is to ask about his problem in a modelers' forum, likely a place where they deal with decals a lot and could well suggest a brand of decal paper that might be better.

T-Mar

There are decal softening and setting solutions available from hobby shops that increase the decals ability to confrom and adhere to surfaces. This will decrease the carrier film visibility, though may not totally eliminate it.

Some plastic model builders also dissolve the carrier film with chemicals. The problem with this is that all carrier films are not the same and therefore react differently to different chemicals and of course, there's always the probabilty of the chemical reacting to the paint. Consequently, you'd need to test the various solutions on an inconspicuous area of the frame.

In my model building, I've used Microscale's Microl Sol and Micro Set decal softening and setting solutions with good results, though I've never tried the various carrier film removal methods and can't endorse them from experience. Google "removing decal carrier film" and you'll find a few different solutions.

markk900

It’s been a loooong time since I was a modeller but would it help to trim the film much closer to the logo before applying? I used to always trim within say 1/32” to avoid too much of the carrier film showing.

randyjawa 

Years ago I made my first attempt to do water slide decals. I learned that using clear decal paper resulted in diminished colors (should have printed on white decal paper). Not sure if this is the issue in your case but I did learn from the effort.

The result over white panel was pretty good in my opinion...


But not so good over other colors, even chrome surfaces...