zero Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Has anyone here tried to get new OEM type decals made for their rig? As I understand it - now that digital printing is common - photos and sizes can be brought to a place with digital printing and new vinyl decals can be custom made. I have never tried it and have no idea how well this works or how expensive it is. I want to bring my 1978 Toyota Chinook back to how it looked originally this winter. Back in the 70s - I'd be doing the work by hand. Actually I am too sloppy. I'd be hiring someone to do it by hand. Now? I'd love to get the original decals made. Or even find some new-old-stock decals made by Chinook? I've searched the part #s many times and never found anything for sale anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 Back when I was in the electronic repair business, the shop next to mine was a Sign-O-Rama franchisee. They used a vinyl cutter that worked like a plotter except it had a knife blade rather than a print head. Key is getting high quality graphic files of what you want done. I'd start with creating the graphic files for what you want. It will be far more costly to get someone to create the graphic files than to cut the decals. Keep in mind that a file like a jpeg would have to be enlarged. Vector graphics (like CAD) will be superior to raster based files for this kind of work. The cutter may even insist on them. For the logo you can either recreate it or find some good quality photos of it, then convert to vector graphics. I've done this before to recreate logos in Autocad starting with photoshop and working my way through the conversion process with filters and standalone converters. The CHINOOK part of the decal might just be a case of finding the right font and then creating a simple vector file of it. The rest would be pretty easy to lay out in a CAD type program once you had the logo and the CHINOOK vectors as the drawing above has the dimensions. Just go long and trim it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 I have good JPGs of all the graphics and also the actual inch sizes. I was hoping to find a place with computer-generated vinyl graphics to get the stuff made up without a huge expense. I sent out several emails to a few places but never got a reply. I realize that my JPGs will lose quality when enlarged to real-world size. But we are talking about decals with solid-colors so I suppose good software can easily fix that issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 19 minutes ago, jdemaris said: I have good JPGs of all the graphics and also the actual inch sizes. I was hoping to find a place with computer-generated vinyl graphics to get the stuff made up without a huge expense. I sent out several emails to a few places but never got a reply. I realize that my JPGs will lose quality when enlarged to real-world size. But we are talking about decals with solid-colors so I suppose good software can easily fix that issue. Unless the JPG's are line art graphics, it will be difficult to convert them to usable vectors. I've used conversion software to convert line art to vector and still have to spend time cleaning the graphic up. It is time consuming and not automatic. To cut the vinyl, you'll need vector files. It is basically an X-Y cutter with no Z plane controlled by the dimensional vector coordinates. Think 3D printer or CNC milling except on a 2D plane. As I said, the biggest cost in this is going to be the graphic work involved to get a file they can use to cut it for you. I'm a bit rusty in CAD but even when I was at my best, I'd envision doing these files would take me a good part of a day to complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 45 minutes ago, Back East Don said: l I'm a bit rusty in CAD but even when I was at my best, I'd envision doing these files would take me a good part of a day to complete. I was afraid of that. All the original decalmania is still intact on my 78. It was just sprayed over with a spray-can. What ever that spray-paint is - it is tough. I can't remove it without damaging the decals. I was thinking of just repainted the whole thing and then hand-painting the raised decals. Not my area of expertise. We'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 (edited) http://www.customvinyllettering.net/lettering/t-vinyl/ Convecta Base, 4x20, $20 Edited September 27, 2016 by WME Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted September 27, 2016 Share Posted September 27, 2016 46 minutes ago, WME said: http://www.customvinyllettering.net/lettering/t-vinyl/ Convecta Base, 4x20, $20 The text part would be probably the easiest part of the graphics package if the font matches. That leaves the logo and then the stripes. The cost is going to be based on the material width and so those long stripes that start at the back top and drops down and then forward would result in a lot of waste material unless you lay out other stripes in that space. The drawing shows all sorts of dimensions but not the lengths. These would be pretty easy to lay out in cad if the rest of the dimensions were added. The remaining question I would have is how many colors for these stripes or are they all one color. One color makes it easier to mitigate the waste. Still not thinking it would be cheap for exterior 3M materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunkaman Posted October 1, 2016 Share Posted October 1, 2016 hi there, i too have been researching new decals for my rig. oddly, my situation involves having one color of the three color graphic scheme fail. with some advice and info from this forum, i was able to remove the failed graphic with out damaging the underlying surface. i used old school methods and traced the outline of the graphic i needed to replace and took the full size pattern to a decal shop. the price for replicating the graphics varied from $250.00 to $625.00. i have learned the vinyl material used for exterior graphics is far more expensive that non exterior vinyl. also for self installation, you can have the graphics made with a "backer" sheet for a much easier application. hope this helps. joe from dover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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