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Vinyl vs Painting

10K views 56 replies 30 participants last post by  perro 
#1 ·
I was curious as to how many people have considered using vinyl intead of paint for their bike?

I was thinking about what I want to do on the fenders and I'm wondering why wouldn't vinyl be a good temporary paint job? Would vinyl hurt the 9's top coat? Cost effective?

I'm thinking custom made design would go well on the yellow (Black pinstripe design) but also make it possible to just remove it when your tired of it
 
#4 ·
decals

my buddy did the decals on his harley and it looks good, simple design, they took pictures of his bike without put on computer came up with different ideas for him then they made,put them on all for $75 bucks can't beat that.
 
#6 ·
The reason why I'm asking is also because I cant seem to find a painter in my area! People who I have asked turn me down because they're "Bike Parts" and the other half of people just dont have the skill... I dont know whats with people in my area...

Also its because I can design high quality decals on my computer and the thought of being able to remove the designs whenever I feel like it is quite appealing, and I dont have to ruin the original paint job...

I'm sure that some vinyl looks crappy but I'm sure that other vinyl cut with a high quality machine can produce outstanding results... Am I wrong?
 
#9 ·
I dont have the money for a fancy paint job. I'm just looking for black, that's it! 8)

a big fat stripe to cover up the white stripe down the middle and maybe some decals on the fenders, something like a swoop/swish tribal design...
 
#10 ·
Iam getting ready to decal my 9 with Gray/Silver LE stripes my seats is getting covered in Ash gray ostrich. If you get good quality vinyl it will last and look good iam ordering vinyl with a 7 yr outdoor life span it should only cost around $60-70 to stripe the bikewith LE decals
 
#11 ·
Hey guys here is the idea that I've been playing with as far as what I mean by using vinyl. Feel free to comment, give me idea's or tell me it looks like crap! I'd like to do something a little different then a paint job and lose the white stripe (it will be covered by vinyl)





 
#14 ·
Those are some great designs man, great use of contrasting colours. I just traded my black and yellow Honda Aero for my new black 9, and I'm doing the reverse on my designs by accenting the black with some yellow. So far the only thing in common is the yellow rim ring.

Keep up the great work. Perhaps I'll run into you when I hit TO throughout the summer.

Capn
 
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#20 ·
Wow thanks for the comments guys, I didn't think I'd receive the "Vinyl" route as a positive one but it seems to make sense for me since I dont have too much money to spend on mods, I think vinyl could work out nicely at least for what I'm looking for.

Can anyone tell me what its like to put vinyl on? How do I get both sides to be perfectly even when being applied? Also, designing something in Illustrator is one thing but how do you get a 2d surface to conform to a curved surface like the gas tank? :dontknow:
 
#21 ·
It's really hard to do. May want to consider having a local vinyl shop do it for you. let them cut and apply. That way if they screw up, it's on their dime to fix it. It has to be heated and stretched to fit over compound curves and it needs to be high quality vinyl brands like 3M or Avery with 7-9 year warranties
 
#24 ·
Heres a response I got from the stripe guy. I wish I can just find someone who actually acts *Confident* and knows how to get the job done with out that sense of "Oh geez.. not another biker". I dont think what im looking for is really that difficult is it? I'll keep looking and speaking to more people as I do my research and keep you updated.

"Typically, motorcycles are a pain. We usually have them in our shop for template making. We wrap them with paper, draw the area of coverage then digitize the shape into the computer.
Its a long process. Depending on the image design, we may have to print and wrap the tank more than once as the material gets stretched during installation. So the image may look completely wrong on the film until applied."
 
#25 ·
Not many want to try this

I went to the World of Wheels show in New Orlenes and saw some great vinyl but none want to try the nine. I sent pictures of what I wanted , trying to add some spice to my nine on a budget, they responded but everyone of them was crawfishing(back tracking)
 
#26 ·
You'd figure that in todays economy everyone would do what it takes to get a job done, but then you get these guys who would rather not even try then to even get a potential business customer and word of mouth? :dontknow: :-[
 
#29 ·
That's the point of this whole post, I don't want to paint the white stripe I want to be able to keep it so I figured vinyl would be the way to go!
 
#30 ·
13 years graphics design experience :bigthumbsup:
 
#35 ·
Learned something interesting today. After speaking to the local decal guy here he told me that stripes on all the cars and trucks he's done have been different sizes on the front, top and trunk. I went to check that out on my LE and apparently it was true, the front stripe was close to 4 1/2 inches and the back around 5 3/4 inches.. I'll need a flexible ruler or a piece of string to measure properly next time.

Now I need help with this next task: Apparently there is no one here who can do a tank wrap for this bike. He said that the surface of the fenders would need to be traced, unwrapped and then scanned into a computer so that when you output the final design it will fit properly and not warp the images. Does anyone know of who would specialize in this? :dontknow:

My goal is to be able to have / make a custom template for the paintable surface of each fender that I can use in illustrator and make new designs for my bike when ever I get bored of the current one! If anyone can suggest anything helpul I would appreciate it :bigthumbsup: PM me if you want as well
 
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