Vinyl Tank Wrap (Updated)

[GMSKEE]

The print is laminated so the ink will not run. The gas might dull the surface a little over time. The installation on a full wrap is not easy by all means, but if your tank is red and you want the decals for the sides, that would work also. But if you wanted the whole tank wrapped like mine then installing it your self would pose alot of challenges. You could always go to your local sign shop and see how much they would install for you.

[coolksprt]

gmskee, yea I understand what you mean now. Final product looks great. Wish I could do that on my own.

Kev

[jwhelan65]

Hey fellas and ladies,

Here is the latest on the tank wrap. I had printed and laminated the design yesterday and applied today, installation time was approx 2.5hours.

Coolsprt - The original design was good but there was just something not working for me. I wanted to uintegrate the colour into the seat and white seat top sounded cool but the whole dirt thing turned me off. I really like the idea of red and black and drew up several ideas and this was the one that came out of it.

Pricing - If a customer had brought me the design and said here print it I would set it up and print it for $75. If a customer wanted me to design it print and apply it I would charge $300-$600 depending on the complexity of the artwork and time involved designing it.

Check out the attached pics, these pics are of the actual tank wrapped. It turned out pretty sweet.

Man Im diggin that can you do one for an 82 1100e?

[jwhelan65]

Do you have more pics?

[drhach]

How sensitive are these wraps to imperfection in the paint below? In other words, would a chip or dimple in the paint below show up in the vinyl pretty readily? Or do they tolerate that stuff to some extent?

[GMSKEE]

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.

[850 Combat]

Wow...

I like it a lot

[Jeremiah]

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!

[TheCafeKid]

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.

[tkent02]

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.

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.

[reddirtrider]

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.

[GMSKEE]

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

[nvr2old]

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.

[GMSKEE]

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

[drhach]

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.