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Vinyl Tank Wrap (Updated)

  • Thread starter Thread starter GMSKEE
  • Start date Start date
Its just like wallpaper, it is only as good as the surface under. There was a couple of spots where the paint chipped as I was positioning the vinyl. Mind you the paint was a shotty job. But I would recommend either taking the paint down to bare metal or repainting or priming. That way you would get an amazing outcome. See I was impatient and skipped that step and there are a few imperfections but whats nice is that when ready Ill just peel it off and start over, only with having redone the paint.
 
That is beautiful!

Is there any distortion of the image when it is applied to the tank? I can't imagine you would take the curves into consideration when designing it. Sounds like a lot of work.

Great job!
 
How would it stand up to being covered in clearcoat? If it would handle it (and im assuming it's possible as alot of the stock decals are made from vinyl) then a nice deep automotive clear would protect it from petroleum product damage as well as give yet another level of UV protection. If this is the case then I will be seriously looking into this for a 750 and 1100 tank I have.

Also what did you design this in? Do you have a template for that tank and how did you come up with it? Sorry to bombard you with questions but this is a pretty major step IMO at having one off owner created graphics on our bikes. I think if you can possibly draw up templates for different tanks you could be making some coin from this. A something in between the huge cost of custom paint and do it yourself stuff. I have a tank or two I'd loan out to do templates from.
 
TheCafeKid said:
A something in between the huge cost of custom paint and do it yourself stuff. I have a tank or two I'd loan out to do templates from.
Click to expand...

Could make big bucks I would guess. Anyone can do a simple one color paint job, put these on and clear over that.
Instant beautiful bike for a fraction of the cost of a professional paint job.
Get a template for all the different Kawasakis and Hondas that are so common, and crank these out by the thousands.
The Harely crowd will probably pay about a thousand dollars apiece if it has that FPPB logo on it.
 
First, let me say it looks pretty good.

Now, to my opinion on clearcoat. I have my reservations as to that working out properly. I say this because normal graphics on tanks do not cover the entire surface. The clear adheres to the graphics AND the tank. Clear coating over these graphics would mean the clear is only on the graphics - all of the adhesion is graphics to tank. If you can peel off the graphics and use them again, I doubt the adhesion is good enough to clear over and not have problems over time.

Oh, and the decals/graphics I've used do not peel off without destroying them so there is a difference in there somewhere.

Again, just my opinion.
 
Last edited:
Reddirtrider,

that is a great point, if it was a small decal then the clearcoat would stick to both tank and vinyl but you can clear rightover the entire graphic but you wouldnt need to as the vinyl is laminated. but you could go over it as an added protection. As for peeling the graphic, NO, you would nt be able to use the graphic again.

TheCafeKid,

Yes you can clearcoat over the graphic, and I used a few programs but mainly corel draw and adobe photoshop. Getting a template is relativly simple though. In my case I took an old sheet and drew out my lines and when I opened the sheet flat I had my template. I then took photos and brought it into my program and designed in the designated area. When I printed this I oversized the print and trimmed off the waste.

Jeremiah,

Of course you have to take the curves into consideration when designing, but yes it could distort if your not carefull. Its not easy work by all means but just like anything, if you take your time and enjoy what you do it will come out awsome. I had a little distortion in my design but it actually worked out good.

Everone,

thank you all for the compliments, input and questions. If your interested in getting something like this done Id be glad to take on a few projects. I live border city to Detroit in Canada so location may pose a slight problem but there are ways to work around that. It would all have to be though email and phone but if your interested drop me an email:

dgraphics@cogeco.ca
 
As a painter, I've been following this thread with interest. Not downplaying this procedure in any way because it's definitely a unique approach. For those who can't paint, this might be an interesting alternative. I don't, however, believe it can take the place of a really nice paint job. Paint, in some cases, may be more expensive, but with most (higher-end) jobs, you get what you pay for. There's just something about a meticulous, well done paint job that can't be denied. Photos are nice, but a hand-painted original by a gifted artist is always going to be more desirable in my opinion.

An alternative? Absolutely. But as a replacement for an award-winning paint job? Probably not. With that being said, I wish you the best of luck with your product. It is indeed very interesting. ;)
 
nvr2old,

painting is definatly an amazing way and probably the preferred way to go for most. On the contrary doing a vinyl wrap can be just as good if not better in some cases. Im sure your a very good artist but I have seen some pretty shotty jobs out there in both applications. The nice thing about my method is you can have that real nice paint job and wrap over it. The day you decide you want something different you can just peel off the graphic, have an untainted paintjob underneith and start from fresh, its as easy as that. On top of that your protecting the paint and getting a custom design. As being a Graphic Designer I can produce an award winning design that looks like it was airbrushed in half the time and probably 1/3 the cost. By all means Im not knocking your method as it is traditional and when done right it looks great. But just like anything, when done right things come out nice. I do vinyl wraps everyday on all types of transportation, from Big Rigs to Boats to everyday vehicles. This is just another avenue that Im getting into. I ride dirtbike and have done alot of my friends bikes and they turned out really good.

The only time I heard of replacing a High end paint job in the thread was from you. It never crossed my mind, I just posted my ideas I had for my bike to pick my fellow GS Riders brains and get some feedback, possibly invoke some creative motivation for the next enthusiest. The inquiries just followed suit.

Thank you for the reply though, I do appreciate the comment and that you took the time to check it out. I too wish you the best of luck and who knows, maybe both methods together might blow some minds. LOL
 
Better than a high end paint job? No. Better than most paint jobs? Probably close. Certainly the results are more consistent. I'm sure some hillbilly could find a way to screw this up too. I have a few painter horror stoires as do most people who seek out custom painting. I don't think the guy is talking about replacing a show quality paint job though. It looks nice and definitely opens up some possibilities for some people. I think most buggy whip makers weren't too pleased when horseless carriages came along either.
 
So who would be the demographic for using these overlay’s? At $300+, it’s not for somebody on the cheap. And a restorer wouldn’t want to do it either. Not bagging on this idea since it seems pretty cool. It’s just that I can’t figure who would want to do this, particularly when some body work would most likely need to be done regardless.
 
I would think the big advantages of this style would be that for $300 it is a cheap way of laying down a complex design on a tank.

$300 is chump change in the airbrushed tanks world... There is a BA pilot who lives 50% of his time in San Diego paints tanks for Harley's in his spare time. His price starts at $500 for airbrush simple design & clear on a tank far as I understand. That's using the original paint as a base. No body work. Some of his tanks/body work goes into the 1000's. (Dave was telling me that he flew in with the bloke last trip & he had one on the go at $3,000).

Probably not a huge market within us cheap *ss Suzuki GS crowd but in the world of Harley's, Ducati's etc it might work out quite nicely...
 
GMSKEE said:
nvr2old,

painting is definatly an amazing way and probably the preferred way to go for most. On the contrary doing a vinyl wrap can be just as good if not better in some cases. Im sure your a very good artist but I have seen some pretty shotty jobs out there in both applications. The nice thing about my method is you can have that real nice paint job and wrap over it. The day you decide you want something different you can just peel off the graphic, have an untainted paintjob underneith and start from fresh, its as easy as that. On top of that your protecting the paint and getting a custom design. As being a Graphic Designer I can produce an award winning design that looks like it was airbrushed in half the time and probably 1/3 the cost. By all means Im not knocking your method as it is traditional and when done right it looks great. But just like anything, when done right things come out nice. I do vinyl wraps everyday on all types of transportation, from Big Rigs to Boats to everyday vehicles. This is just another avenue that Im getting into. I ride dirtbike and have done alot of my friends bikes and they turned out really good.

The only time I heard of replacing a High end paint job in the thread was from you. It never crossed my mind, I just posted my ideas I had for my bike to pick my fellow GS Riders brains and get some feedback, possibly invoke some creative motivation for the next enthusiest. The inquiries just followed suit.

Thank you for the reply though, I do appreciate the comment and that you took the time to check it out. I too wish you the best of luck and who knows, maybe both methods together might blow some minds. LOL
Click to expand...

I agree with you completely. :D I was doing my best to not downplay your skills or throw a wet blanket on this thread in any way. You're obviously a very talented graphic artist. I saw your posts. Maybe I'm being over-sensitive. I get the feeling from others that have posted that they think this might be a way to get the same kind of work I do for way less money, and that's what I was refering to. I, too, have seen many "custom paint jobs" that were poorly done, took months to do, and then having the customer angry and thinking everyone who does custom paint is just out to make a ton of money off of it. That's not the case. My normal procedure for most bikes (even one color) takes 60-80 hours of meticulous prep, paint, and finish work. My S model with it's tri-color design probably took twice that long. Spraying the paint is just such a small part of it. It's the prep and finish that make paint jobs like mine stand out, and even at $1,000 you can do the math and figure how much it works out to as far as dollars per hour. Figure in the cost of materials, and I'm not making a ton of money doing this, and yet there are no corners cut for the standard that I demand from myself. One of the main reasons I posted the entire start-finish process on my own bike was as much an attempt to help people understand exactly what's involved in a paint job of this caliber. It's a lot of work. Your method is way quicker and certainly more affordable, there's no doubt about that what-so-ever. For owners looking for an alternative, I find your technique very interesting and I highly encourage you to continue. Who knows, it might be the way of the future as more and more demanding controls on painting might lead to it as the only alternative.
 
salty_monk said:
I would think the big advantages of this style would be that for $300 it is a cheap way of laying down a complex design on a tank.
Click to expand...
I think that's it too. For $300 (at least) you could get a single color, opaque, no clear coat paint job. Maybe. If oyu were willing to do some of your own body work, you could get something that is pretty decent and a little more complex. Of course it's not show quality, but for an everyday rider this would be a pretty good way to go. Personally, I wouldn't want the paint on my bikes to be so nice that I would be afraid to ride them. I can see a pretty big market for this kind of thing. It fills a nice void between the top notch artist and the cheapo spray job.
 
nvr2old,

Thanks for the reply, I dont get offended easily so your thread was very much appreciated. I didnt take it in a negative way and I love hearing different opinons likes or dislikes. I know sometimes its hard to try and be diplimatic and not offend someone with a response as emails and texts are very easily misinterpreted. Thanks for spending the time, I plan to keep this thread going as long as riders/non riders have questions so keep dropping a line as yourfeed back is appreciated.

drhach,

you make a great point in regards to not wanting to ride your bike with having a show shine paint job. I ride to have fun and enjoy it. I dont want to be focused on not getting a chip or fingerprints all over the bike. Having an award winning paint job is great and I would like to have a bike to do that to one day but that bike would be a showcase bike. Also just want to correct the Quote you replied to, it said:

I would think the big advantages of this style would be that for $300 it is a cheap way of laying down a complex design on a tank

" I just want to say it is an "INEXSPENSIVE" way and not cheap, cheap is a sign of low quality and this process is far from cheap, but yes a lot less expensive

Originally Posted by salty_monk
I would think the big advantages of this style would be that for $300 it is a cheap way of laying down a complex design on a tank.
 
:D Lets settle on comparatively low cost then (compared to a paint job of the same complex design).

I wouldn't say it's inexpensive or cheap but then I don't mind messing with my own paint.

Dan :)
 
salty_monk,

well said. doesnt matter what it is, its always fun to do it yourself, and rewarding at that.
 
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