Le mans stickering advise please
Discussion
I would like to call on your collective wisdom when it comes to decorating your cars for Le Mans.
My original intention for the '07 race was to just buy a load of PH stickers, plaster bodywork and windows, Bob's yer uncle. However following an in-depth conversation with a patner-in-crime we have decided to go much further. Basically, I'm going to buy various vinyls off ebay in an effort to replicate a famous racing colour-scheme of years gone by.
Many of the vinyls I have been looking at on ebay are advertised as 5-7 year grade. I will probably only want them on the car for a month at the most. What I want to know is, from an unbiased point-of-view, are they going to be a pain to remove, damage the paint etc? I know warming with a hairdryer helps on the small stickers I've used in the past.
Stickers I have used in the past have been applied by ensuring the paint is spotless (clayed and waxed), then spray the surface with water so the sticker can be moved into place and any airbubbles chased out. Will this technique work for, say viper stripes or a very large sponsors decal?
Any help from your past experience would be great.
Cheers
My original intention for the '07 race was to just buy a load of PH stickers, plaster bodywork and windows, Bob's yer uncle. However following an in-depth conversation with a patner-in-crime we have decided to go much further. Basically, I'm going to buy various vinyls off ebay in an effort to replicate a famous racing colour-scheme of years gone by.
Many of the vinyls I have been looking at on ebay are advertised as 5-7 year grade. I will probably only want them on the car for a month at the most. What I want to know is, from an unbiased point-of-view, are they going to be a pain to remove, damage the paint etc? I know warming with a hairdryer helps on the small stickers I've used in the past.
Stickers I have used in the past have been applied by ensuring the paint is spotless (clayed and waxed), then spray the surface with water so the sticker can be moved into place and any airbubbles chased out. Will this technique work for, say viper stripes or a very large sponsors decal?
Any help from your past experience would be great.
Cheers
the industry standard is 5-7 year grade. for a weekend, it really doesn't matter what life the vinyl has though, go with the cheapest... with regard to claying the car first and remove all the wax etc, this is a great idea if you applying any graphics you want to stay on the car for a long time and stick really well but again, for a weekend, you don't need to do this - you will really struggle to get them off!
Thanks for the advise so far. Any idea if the spraying of water on the panel will aid positioning, will i be able to slide the vinyl around a bit? In particular I'm looking for something that will help make locating the viper stripe easier. As Jamesw2000 said I am anticiapting having a nightmare getting this bit straight, especially as I'll have to negotiate the Aerial, and slots in the rear spoiler.
I've supplied and fixed quite a few viper stripes over the years to PH LM'ers 
Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body
The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Edited by Viper on Saturday 2nd December 19:44
Viper said:
I've supplied and fixed quite a few viper stripes over the years to PH LM'ers Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body
The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Edited by Viper on Saturday 2nd December 19:44
It's actually a Gulf scheme I'm thinking of, the McLaren F1's were a similar blue to my car so should look ok. Plus there's plenty of stickers on Ebay.
I didn't think of using a hairdryer when putting the stickers on, I'll bear that in mind when I come to the curves on the bumpers.
Viper said:
I've supplied and fixed quite a few viper stripes over the years to PH LM'ers Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body
The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Gulf logos and colours was quite popular last year. The wet method is correct and the only way to go, then using heat from a hairdryer to help the material conform to the car body The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Edited by Viper on Saturday 2nd December 19:44
It's actually a Gulf scheme I'm thinking of, the McLaren F1's were a similar blue to my car so should look ok. Plus there's plenty of stickers on Ebay.
I didn't think of using a hairdryer when putting the stickers on, I'll bear that in mind when I come to the curves on the bumpers.
Viper said:
The biggest problem is the cheaper vinyl doesnt like bending around compound curves, mainly the bumpers where the curves are top/bottom and left/right at the same time
Edited by Viper on Saturday 2nd December 19:44
You only get this problem with really cheap calendered vinyl though. most can be manipulated enough. IMO the best to go for would be something like oracal cast 751 - cheap as chips, cast and 5 - 7 year life. However if you buy anything on ebay - you won't get achoice in what they use.
We bought a whole load of stickers of Viper for this years LeMans (and will be getting him to do more again for next years 
)
We waxed the car first then put the vinyl on wet. Used hairdryer and a bit of patience to get everything smoothed out. Viper stripes went on a treat after taking a little time to mark out the lines properly.
When taking back off we try to do it on a nice sunny day so the bodywork is warm, again using a hairdryer for additional heat and they come off no problem.
The only time I'd be a little nervous about plastering the car with the stickers is if it has fresh paint.
) We waxed the car first then put the vinyl on wet. Used hairdryer and a bit of patience to get everything smoothed out. Viper stripes went on a treat after taking a little time to mark out the lines properly.
When taking back off we try to do it on a nice sunny day so the bodywork is warm, again using a hairdryer for additional heat and they come off no problem.
The only time I'd be a little nervous about plastering the car with the stickers is if it has fresh paint.
Now I do like that! Orange on black looks good, needs more stickers everywhere though 
. I was thinking of an orange fat stripe with a thin white one touching on each side of it. I suppose when using more than one stripe, any wobbles will more obvious though.
Any tips on marking where the stripes are going? I'll not be scribing lines against a steel rule i don't think! At the end of the day, the stripes are not too dear so if it all goes I can just peel 'em off.
Anyway, if it all goes wrong I'll reply to the critics with "I'm a mathemetician thankyou very much, and that's Gulf sine wave, so there".
. I was thinking of an orange fat stripe with a thin white one touching on each side of it. I suppose when using more than one stripe, any wobbles will more obvious though. Any tips on marking where the stripes are going? I'll not be scribing lines against a steel rule i don't think! At the end of the day, the stripes are not too dear so if it all goes I can just peel 'em off.
Anyway, if it all goes wrong I'll reply to the critics with "I'm a mathemetician thankyou very much, and that's Gulf sine wave, so there".
all you need do is apply masking tape and draw on that, for instance for the bonnet a peice at the top and a piece on the bottom, find the centre of the bonnet and mark on the tape at both ends, and just measure back to give you the start the stripe.
The vinyl stripe wont bend that much and will keep fairly straight between those two points
The vinyl stripe wont bend that much and will keep fairly straight between those two points
Viper said:
all you need do is apply masking tape and draw on that, for instance for the bonnet a peice at the top and a piece on the bottom, find the centre of the bonnet and mark on the tape at both ends, and just measure back to give you the start the stripe.
The vinyl stripe wont bend that much and will keep fairly straight between those two points
The vinyl stripe wont bend that much and will keep fairly straight between those two points
Wot he said...
...I happened to use electrical tape as it's very non-tacky. For getting an even space alonside another stripe, I actually used further bits of tape all along the main stripe as spacers. In fact, if you looked really closely, my mini stripes are exactly one tape width away from the main stripe! Make it easy on yourself!
Ah.. I have some experience here!
Firstly, pics: www.pikeynet.com/06/06/10/lemansstickers.htm
They went on really easy. All I needed was 1) some friends who had done it many times before, and 2) err, no that was it
One thing I would say though - doing it outside when it's 35 degrees and in scorching sunshine on a black car is not the best idea. The bodywork is so hot it melts the sticker as soon as it hits. Cool bodywork definitely easier (yes and we did use lots of cold water).
Now, taking it off... I damaged my car. Only in one point (which was strange as there was a lot of stickers and the rest were ok). Firstly, lets deal with the kneejerk reaction...
YES, I USED A HAIRDRYER!
The problem, I was told by the body shop repair man, was NOT that the car was 4 months old, or that the stickers were too strong, or that I took them off incorrectly, or that the Le Mans intense heat had bonded them to the body, it was that the paint was not the orginal! He said the car was probably damaged between factory and delivery to customer & the dealer had the damage hastily repaired (says they get these jobs all of the time). I would never have known if I hadn't put the stickers on!
Anyway, he said the best way to take them off is with boiling water. Obviously I had a "no bloody way" reaction and said I wouldn't be putting stickers on again. He said it's perfectly safe to put stickers on and he'd repair any damage that came about from using boiling water to get them off
Hope that helps!
Ben
Firstly, pics: www.pikeynet.com/06/06/10/lemansstickers.htm
They went on really easy. All I needed was 1) some friends who had done it many times before, and 2) err, no that was it
One thing I would say though - doing it outside when it's 35 degrees and in scorching sunshine on a black car is not the best idea. The bodywork is so hot it melts the sticker as soon as it hits. Cool bodywork definitely easier (yes and we did use lots of cold water).
Now, taking it off... I damaged my car. Only in one point (which was strange as there was a lot of stickers and the rest were ok). Firstly, lets deal with the kneejerk reaction...
YES, I USED A HAIRDRYER! The problem, I was told by the body shop repair man, was NOT that the car was 4 months old, or that the stickers were too strong, or that I took them off incorrectly, or that the Le Mans intense heat had bonded them to the body, it was that the paint was not the orginal! He said the car was probably damaged between factory and delivery to customer & the dealer had the damage hastily repaired (says they get these jobs all of the time). I would never have known if I hadn't put the stickers on!
Anyway, he said the best way to take them off is with boiling water. Obviously I had a "no bloody way" reaction and said I wouldn't be putting stickers on again. He said it's perfectly safe to put stickers on and he'd repair any damage that came about from using boiling water to get them off
Hope that helps!
Ben
Excellent! Thanks for all the advice and keep it coming. I'm riding high on a wave of vinyl-fuelled confidence. As long as my car wasn't totalled and resprayed by my dealer before i got it i should be ok. I magine peeling off a PH sticker only to find 2 kilos of filler still stuck top the back 
I'll not be doing any stickering before the end of May I don't think, but I am going to peruse the web for the best stickers I can find in the meantime.
Pikey - Your web-site is mint. I really must make more effort to document my Le Mans exploits. I love looking at photos of other people jaunts to le Sarthe, I always see things to aspire to on my next trip.
I'll not be doing any stickering before the end of May I don't think, but I am going to peruse the web for the best stickers I can find in the meantime.
Pikey - Your web-site is mint. I really must make more effort to document my Le Mans exploits. I love looking at photos of other people jaunts to le Sarthe, I always see things to aspire to on my next trip.
bluest2 said:
Pikey - Your web-site is mint. I really must make more effort to document my Le Mans exploits. I love looking at photos of other people jaunts to le Sarthe, I always see things to aspire to on my next trip.
Thanks - glad you enjoy it! Never been called mint before
Ah, Le Man 2006... Clicky
pikey said:
bluest2 said:
Pikey - Your web-site is mint. I really must make more effort to document my Le Mans exploits. I love looking at photos of other people jaunts to le Sarthe, I always see things to aspire to on my next trip.
Thanks - glad you enjoy it! Never been called mint before
Ah, Le Man 2006... Clicky
Beat you to it! Already played with the previous link and found the other galleries. I've been sat here in a daze since, longing for June to arrive.......
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