custom decals

[joelbob]

HELP!! I am building a Kenworth with a livestock trailer, and I want to put my father's business name on the cab and trailer.....I would like to have the cab lettering in simulated gold leaf, if at all possible (the cab color is Ford ultraviolet pearl), and I would just need regular black letters for the trailer. I would like to have some sort of graphics also....not sure just what.) Thanks for any help! Truck on.

[Jim B]

You can check with Dan Poulin over at Dan's Model Truck World. He does custom decals, and he might be able to help. You can also check with Jim Botaitis over at www.jbot.com. He does cursom work to. Both guys do top notch work.

Good luck & truck on!

[Semi Trailer Mechanic]

What's goin' on...

***WARNING***

This may take a while to read go get ya a cup of coffee or a soda pop. so being the curtious fello I am (HA HAAAA) I broke this post into paraghaphs so ya don't go crosseyed. (Or maybe that's just me)

Funny you bring this topic to the table. I just made several decals for various prjects. Bare Metal Foil makes decal paper for both ink and laser jet printers. The paper is availiable in white or clear. I reccomend using the clear unless you have an ALPS printer that'll print white.

Try taking Gold Bare Metal Foil and carefully make your logo on a sheet of printing paper. The letters can be large if that's what it takes to get them accurate. When your done for example the logo may be 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide. No bigdeal. Scan that to your compouter.

Go to WORD bring up a blank file. Click "INSERT" then picture and choose the file which contains your logo. That'll open up and it will be outlined w/ circles at all points around the logo. Click one of the corners and drag it diagnally so you reduce the size of the image. BEFORE you print it on your decal paper print it on standard paper. I like to reduce the clearity of the printer and print it in gray ink for the trial and errror process so it doesn't waste ink. Go ahead and print your logo then have your model right there w/ ya. Compare the size of your logo to the door of your truck (model) IF it's too small then go back to you WORD file and then click the logo so again it's highlighted. Click on one of those circles around the logo and drag it so it enlarges the logo and repaet the above mentioned process untill it's the right size. Now reset the printers config to the high resolution color and print it this time so you see it's full potential.

Now you got your logo PERFECT click and save the image as is. Now how many logos do you want? I like to have 7-10 logos made up in case I screw 1 or 2 up. Now reset your margin on your printer so when you print the logos are near the edges of your decal paper so you don't waste space on your decal sheet. Say you want 10. Go back to your WORD file bring up your logo which you saved as a file. Just click the logo and hit copy (CTRL C keys at once) then paste (CTRL V keys) and repeat how as many times as you want copies of the logo.

My printer is a HP Officejet 6210 (ALL IN ONE) that prints photographs. When I set it to print I set the config to print "high gloss photopaper and it looks GOOD! Something I almost forgot to mention. For the logo on the truck. IF there's not white in that use the clear Bare Metal Foil. Now you printed them I let the ink dry no less than 10 hours. As a matter of fact I printed some off last night that I'm still letting them dry. Once you do this use clear coat the decals. Depending on how you want them to look depends on the gloss,semi gloss, or flat. If you're gonna weather the truck I'd say spray it w/ flat clear coat. If you haven't done this before it might not turn out right the first time.

If you want to make other logos for other projects do some looking around the internet. Making decals is something I do when I get the builders block virus. Here's a few ideas I use go to one of those photo websites and do a search for trucking company logos or something like that. I've found several images/logos either others made or I cropped from the picture and saved. If you're looking to make money off this make ###### sure you don't ###### in your backyard so to say. The fella that owns and operates KFS model truck accessories got a 10+ page nasty gram from Catapillers leagle department about selling CAT decals he made.

Say ya wanna go that route you can rub the letters directly to your trailer or transfer them to the clear decal paper scan that to your computer and repaet the above process.

This link is a WIP picture of a project I used dry transfer letters on. The unit numbers 762, company name on the flaps and the door are all dry transfer letters.

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/ViewPhoto?...6832564&f=0

No pun intended but using dry transfer letters is pretty much a cut and dry process.

Good Luck

[chevymaniac]

JoelBob, the only way you can get gold leaf decals is using an Alps printer. The method Scott described is how I make my decals except I use Adobe Illustrator and draw from scratch but without an Alps printer you can't print White, Gold and Chrome and yellow is really hard also. Your best bet would be JBot.

Later

Dan

[chuckyr]

...and I might add, gold is only possible with the Alps MD5000. With the MD1300 meFirst Lieutenant Vernice Armourrinterstalic colors are possible but not gold or silver leaf. I have both.