Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Original Water Transfer Decals and How to......

Hey There Guys and Gals. Got a question here. I have several original various water transfer decals. Most are in great condition but there are are a few that have some hairline cracks in them. They are in tack and have not come off the paper backing. My question is...is there anything to do to them before trying to put them in water and apply them to designated surfaces. Any advice? Someone here in town suggested spraying a glue or something on the area so that it would stay in tact once submerged in water.
Hope you all have some advice. thanks for your time and happy gassin'.

My luck with the old dry decals is when you put them in the water there going to fall apart. I don't think you can do anything. you might call Mike Slama in Portland and ask him , hes always playing with old decals.if you don't have his number , you can look it up in the menu under parts. good luck.

You can try masking the cleaned surface with paper or something that won't stick, then spray it with Krylon clear spray. What goes through the crack to the base won't hurt since it is just the glue and doesn't stick. That will bind the crack and other parts back into a secure decal again. Give plenty of time in the water for the decal to slide freely.

The original layer that protected the lacquer decal colors was just a screened clear lacquer. The Krylon does the same thing.

One thing I would do is scan the original decal if it is not replaceable. That way you can re-create it on the computer to make your own decal and in the process get rid of that nasty crack. Do a scan with a minimum 600. (If necessary scan it in two parts then piece it together to work on as one.

Hey this is fun stuff! Good luck

Koz

Hey Koz......sorry for the long delay. I am going to try using the clear coat as you and Mike Slama advised. I wish I could scan it but the situation is that the decal is reversed so scanning would not work. But I am confident that we can get this going shortly. Email me and I will hopefully email you back an image in a few weeks. I am in the Portland Vancouver area. What is on your chase list? Thanks again

I always removed the door and layed it flat to put any decal. Sure makes the job much easier.

Zerobear,

Once again, I recommend that you make a copy of what you end up with. I realize that you can't see the image now, but when you get it on a surface, protograph the image at F-19 or F-22 with the aid of a tripod. Scan that print in a high resolution. Drop it into Photoshop Elements, Image Fx or something else like that to make corrections. Believe me you can end up with quality even surpassing the original. Note I didn't say it would be easy, because it isn't always, but the satisfaction is a kick. Let me know if I can help in any way.

Good Luck, Koz

Hey Jack. Thanks for the note. This is an oil lubster decal that I am going to be putting on a piece of plexi. It is quite the rare one two but too nice to leave on its original backing paper. Will show you all when it is done.

Cheers