How to Installing Water Tranfer Decals?

It's important to ask a few questions before you purchase water transfer style decals.

Were they made using water proof inks or were they made using an ink jet printer which inks are not water proof and just sprayed with a coating to protect them.

I stopped making water transfer decals about two years ago because the last printer I had stopped working and trying to find someone to fix something that old is very difficult. I had a total of four of these very old printers which have not been made in years.

All the water transfer decals I used to make were made with water proof inks which is really what you should be using. As soon as they are printed you can spill water right on them without any ink starting to run. Try that with an ink jet printer and watch what happens next to your decal.

You said you a buying an original old decal and most of the old decals that did survive the 50's are all curled up and cracked and when you place it in warm water you just might find the decals in many pieces flooding around in the water.

If your decal floats off the backing just fine the chances are it was not an original decal in the first place.

The old saying buyer beware applies when purchasing old decals from anyone.

There are really two ways to make water transfer style decals and they are with a printer that prints with water proof ink and also prints using white ink which again is something an ink jet printer cannot do and having them silk screened.

Hope that helps. Jimbo

 

Only one way to make a proper water slide, and that's screen printed. Found out the guy I highly recommended in Nebraska has p***ed away (Decals Unlimited/Decals USA). Not sure what is going to happen to that business.

Only hard part about screen printing a water decal is controlling the humidity (near impossible for me with Lake Erie right down the street) as to maintain registration. None of it is rocket science.

 

Isn't this a decal made to go on a top surface rather than behind the gl***? I haven't messed with them in years, but maybe somebody here can chime in.

 

This is a good question! Can you mount them both ways?

 

No!

The paper side is always the side that goes down.

 

I think this is a good question. I have tried to use a couple of decals from a certain traditional HR org. only to have them dry up and flake off the gl*** in weeks.

I have a NOS cam decal I want to use on my RPU and hate to think it will do the same.

 

Come one Doc, all my stuff is original..........re-pops ****.

Heres how I do it.

 

I guess that confirms it, I am an utter *******!!

Sorry mate!

Though like I said Muttley has some great stuff, and its all original!!

I have bought quite a few of them and have not had a single issue with them.

Doc.

 

Wrong, they can be mounted face down on the inside of the gl*** (recommended if you want them to last). They can also be mounted face up on the outside of the gl*** or a metal surface.

Proof:

 

HAHAHA, Doc rules.

 

Not all decals were created equally. Many were glued to go either inside or out, Some were only glued on one side, front or back.

 

Oooo Kay, majority rules!

Perhaps I stand corrected.

I was always under the impression that there was a "glue" side that faced the paper. If the transfer was intended to go on top, the glue and the paper would be on the back. But if it was intended to be on the inside of gl*** then the glue and paper would be on the "face" of the transfer.

 

Let this thread die already. No big deal about water decals. I used to cut out the holleys, headman headers, wynn, engle cam, etc.....etc....water decals as far back as 71 when I was 8, with big fat scissors. All this bickering reminds me of a bunch of old ladies in a beauty shop.

 

Thanks man for the info and examples!
Jay

 

Simple solution! If you aren't interested then stop visiting the thread and don't read it!

 

no ****

 

Some damn good information on here, thanks guys.-MIKE

 

How about a instructional video? HRP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr5R9VCNVHU

 

Does anyone use UV clear film over the back side to protect the decal from being scratched? I'd heard of them being varnished?
Scored a Jalopyrama slide decal last year and pressed it between wax paper til I got time to adhere it.It completely disintegrated!
Again this year,bought two more and applied one and would like to protect it on the cab side of the window.

 

Soak in snake oil then use dryer sheets to smooth out.

 

Guys, another thing you can do is also clear coat over the decal, Har**** has some this with some of his paint jobs and had embedded old decals into the paint. I just painted a vintage Schwinn and used decals for some of the Schwinn logos, what you have to do its clear over the decal and let that set, then flash a few coats of the clear your using to lock in the decal, I imagine if you good you can lock in your decal on gl*** the same way, but you'd have to basically create a mask that allows the paint to stick to the gl*** a bit.
OR the other method to lock in a decal would be to run a large patch of clear tape and cutting around it like a 1/8 inch boarder effectively turning the decal into a sticker.