The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting a decal?

I bought the decals for the Chevrolet on tailgate and grill cause they were cheap and I hope t paint them the dark blue accent color. If not I will try and paint the recessed and raised letters without the decal.

Is there a good way to paint a decal?

I know of no way to paint a "decal" since what you have is really a vinyl sticker. Paint just doesn't do well on them.

But you can paint the tailgate first, apply the stickers and then go over the tailgate with a clear coat. The danger is the clear might cause the stickers to lift at the edges before the clear dries. If you do this, apply a thin coat of clear first, follow with another while you can still re-coat but toward the end of the re-coat time range and then let that dry. Say a prayer the vinyl doesn't lift. I've seen it happen. Lightly sand in 3 days and apply a heavier coat of clear. Then wet sand with 1000 grit and polish using 3M 05954 or whatever rubbing compound you like. If you do it right, you won't even feel an edge there. Good luck.

Paint he dark blue where the letters go, Apply the decals and then paint the rest of the tail gate. Peel off the decals to reveal the blue.

That would have been a great thing to think of before I painted the tailgate the final color.

I was examining the decals this morning. I'm gonna try and paint them and probably ruin them.

The best chance you have of painting common grade vinyl is to use a flex agent. I didn't mention that earlier because it is insanely expensive (unless you buy the stuff that doesn't work). A pint of the good stuff can run $70. Good luck.

I'm about to try something similar. I bought a 3/4 ton 4X4 pickup recently that has some faded paint, mostly on the hood, and the remains of some double stick tape where side trim on the cab and bed once was. I'm going to paint the hood flat black, apply a big vinyl eagle decal and some lettering, and then shoot a couple of coats of matte clearcoat over the whole works. On the sides, I'll clean off the adhesive residue, do a little color sanding with super fine sandpaper and water, add a wide vinyl stripe decal, and clearcoat that area. If it works, good- - - -if it doesn't, I'll try something else! We routinely applied clearcoat over stick-on pinstripes with no problems when I was teaching collision repair at a big high school in Nashville.
Jerry

Clearcoat over actual decals or the vinyl stickers people today think of as decals will work just fine. At Evan's place I just saw an example of this which was done very well. Painting pieces of vinyl and then removing them from the release paper and trying to apply them without the paint cracking and coming off in the process is another matter entirely.

If you have a large vinyl sticker to apply (say to a hood or a door), try doing it wet. The water will keep the adhesive from sticking and will allow you to position it more easily. Once the water dries, you can gently press down and it will be stuck.

I was going to say that my only concern would be the stickers (decals) tend to shrink slightly after installed. With time, you notice a slight brownish edge that is from the adhesive from the "originally applied size". So if you clear coat them, does that stop the shrinkage? Or would there be a slight edge that no longer had clear around the sticker?

Why not just carefully mask the outline of the letters and paint it like the old days? It seems like the sticker/decal plan is a lot more trouble and more risky than taking the time to do it the old fashioned way.

Otto,

How do you cut the masking without cutting into the existing paint?

I had the the same issue with my 49-3100.
I would suggest take the tailgate off and bring it to a paint job.
That is what I did and yes it cost me a few bucks but it was done the right way and it looks great.
Doug

Would really like to see it, after all this discussion on this topic. Got a pix??

Ferris, You don't cut anything on the truck. You apply it carefully in the shape you desire around the outside edges of the letters, in this case. Use the decals you have as templates to cut what is essentially a "negative" of the decal out of the masking material.

You can use "fine line" tape for the detail curves or if you have a sign shop around that makes the vinyl decals, they have a "masking material" that does not stick permanently and they cut with like a CAD printer so you can get a perfect masking decal.

If you happen to have or have access to either a Cricut machine or a CNC machine with a laser head you could use common wide masking tape to make a masking tape stencil that will let you apply the stencil to the letters, mask with paper/tape to protect the other areas and remove it. I have been thinking about using my CNC to do this but it is way down on the project list. The CNC/laser cuts nice carburetor gaskets. You can see an example attached.

Here is a tip on masking tape. To prevent it from sticking too well and pulling off paint when you remove it, shave your beard well that morning and then press the tape to your cheek/chin/neck before applying it. It will still mask but it will come off much easier and cleaner.