martl

these look nice!

You could probably test print a few red patches and experiment with different types of clear coat to see what works as an "isolating layer" between the ink and the final clear coat?! Or maybe find a very thin clear adhesive fool to cover the decal before applying the clear coat.

randyjawa 

In those days, a color laser printer cost more than a divorce, so I went with a HP ink-jet. I used clear and white decal paper. The clear did not come through all that well, as can be seen in the seat tube decal on the late fifties Carlton. I sprayed clear over the decals, causing slight bleeding and sort of fuzzed up the edges of the decals.

These days, I invest a good deal of time preparing and painting a bike. When I go to the trouble and expense involved, I choose to use good quality stickers or decals from suppliers that I trust. In closing, believe this...

In the bicycle dictionary, next to cheap, they have a picture of me and how much I spend on my bikes. I strive for zero, but usually fail. This one, however, did not set me back one single cent...


Why did it not cost a cent? Because I did not buy it. I was lucky to know bikes, a bit, and realized that the Apollo had been repainted as a highly collectable Cyclops. And there-in lies another danger, when it comes to painting a bicycle frame. Issues might surface should the bike ever be offered for sale.

Anyway, short answer - injket jet on clear decal paper.

2fat2fly

I didn't even know there was a such thing as 'clear decal paper'.

How does the inkjet ink hold up to fading?

Something that comes to mind is a picture I printed about 5 years ago that I framed and hung on the wall in my office, its faded to about half its brilliance and its not in direct sunlight. The blues turned sort of a very light pastel blue and the reds turned to a pinkish color from what was a bright picture on HP photo paper framed behind glass in an 8x10 frame.

A buddy of mine worked with a guy who had an old ALPS dye sublimation printer years ago, he made me a set of decals for a minibike I restored. They were bright red and blue when I put them on, and we cleared over the decals. Now, 15 years later the red is a light orange color, and the blue turned to a faded turquoise color leaving only the black shading part of the lettering. They looked 100% original when first done but they faded bad pretty fast. Now a days I can buy professional decals, back then they weren't available, but that's not always the case with bicycles and from what I'm seeing, some bicycle decals can get pretty expensive. It wouldn't make much sense to put $50 or more worth of decals on a bike that's maybe worth a few hundred bucks in the end.

Another problem I see is that most of the decals I seem to need are either white, silver or gold, none of which can be printed on an inkjet printer that I know of unless someone is making custom ink these days.
It seems most of the bikes I've needed decals for have been painted black or dark red.
I rarely run an inkjet these days, I switched to a color laser about 15 years ago when Minolta came out with the 2400.

repechage

contact a known supplier of graphics.
Get the vector art done in an acceptable file format.
The experimentation is fine, but the added cost to get them pro printed will outweigh a bunch of experimentation.
All the home made attempts I have seen fall very short of the time, energy and money expended.

bOsscO

When I wanted vinyl decals made for my Mongoose I contacted a local maker space who had both a vinyl printer and cutter. I provided them the vector file and for $50 Canadian they made me five decals; one headbadge, two top-tube, and two down-tube. I think they look sharp.

Hudson308 

Apologies for being six months late.
So has anyone ever tried this on a Cricut using quality vinyl? I just happen to know someone with a Cricut...