Decal Adhesion on Curvaceous Lexan Shells - Fiat 500

[Pintopower]

Good morning folks,

I have been working on a Fiat 500 shell. I have completed all of the paint work but have had a heck of a time getting the decals to stay stuck down on the body. The shell is very curvaceous and that makes it tough for them to stick. Are there any tricks I am not aware of? Adhesion promoter? Hair dryer to melt the decals into shape? I really need this shell to be mint. It is not a runner.

Here are some images:

Lic. plate chrome trim:

Fog lamp and bumperette

Tail lamp decal

The black window beltline trim decal:

Can't wait to hear from the experts. Thanks again!

[SteveU30]

Bowl of tepid water with a couple of drops of fairy liquid in, peel off the decal and dunk it in the water. Put it on the model wet, move it around until you're happy with the position then work out and soak up the excess water with some absorbent kitchen roll. Once it's 90% dry hit it with a hair dryer and it'll both dry out and take the shape of the curves at the same time.

Works every time!

[Raman36]

fair liquid? I don't think we have that here in the states.. we have palmolive disk soap.. would that work?

[SteveU30]

Sorry, forgot to generalise, just regular washing up liquid that you use to wash your dishes. Not too much though, just a couple of drops.

[mongoose1983]

I wish I knew that trick by the time I built the Bronco! Here's what I got when trying

[mr crispy]

Yep I've used that method exactly as SteveU30 describes and it's the best way I've found to apply decals and get them to fit curved surfaces.

[Mokei Kagaku]

With no intentions of being rude when mentioning it, but I see you have bleeding of (fluorescent) pink through white on the body. This typically happens when fluorescent pink is applied behind white, yellow and possibly other light colours too. More layers of white (or yellow) won't stop this from happening (guess how I found out... ), but the bleeding can be prevented by backing white with silver before applying fluorescent pink.

[Mokei Kagaku]

I wish I knew that trick by the time I built the Bronco! Here's what I got when trying

The main reason I dislike precut stickers. For lines cut from "solid" areas of coloured sheet which don't have clear film around the edges, precuts are OK, otherwise not. When there's no options to precut stickers for a certain body, I always remove the clear film from their edges, keeping just enough film to allow rounded corners to prevent peeling. Some prefer to cut stickers with a knife/scalpel, but I personally dislike the typical distortion that often results from this, with force applied in just one direction, compared to the virtual equilibrium of forces from both directions caused by scissors.

Buying the best scissors you can afford is a good investment. Tamiya's Decal Scissors (# 74031, pictured below) are rather good and far better than any "household" scissors, high quality surgical scissors even better.

[Pintopower]

Thanks for the info guys. I should have been clearer. The decals are all applied and went on perfectly with a heat gun. The next day, all the edges were peeling up again. The car look perfect before but I guess the decals must have started to shrink up after I was done. I was thinking more heat but that can be dangerous.

With no intentions of being rude when mentioning it, but I see you have bleeding of (fluorescent) pink through white on the body. This typically happens when fluorescent pink is applied behind white, yellow and possibly other light colours too. More layers of white (or yellow) won't stop this from happening (guess how I found out... ), but the bleeding can be prevented by backing white with silver before applying fluorescent pink.

Actually, the pink went on first. It was a pin stripe that I made but when I had it masked off, I missed a spot that showed up when the white was applied. I saw it before I painted but totally spaced out and forgot to mask that area!

[Pintopower]

I wish I knew that trick by the time I built the Bronco! Here's what I got when trying

Looking at Mongooses images, That's the problem I am having.

The main reason I dislike precut stickers. For lines cut from "solid" areas of coloured sheet which don't have clear film around the edges, precuts are OK, otherwise not. When there's no options to precut stickers for a certain body, I always remove the clear film from their edges, keeping just enough film to allow rounded corners to prevent peeling. Some prefer to cut stickers with a knife/scalpel, but I personally dislike the typical distortion that often results from this, with force applied in just one direction, compared to the virtual equilibrium of forces from both directions caused by scissors.

Buying the best scissors you can afford is a good investment. Tamiya's Decal Scissors (# 74031, pictured below) are rather good and far better than any "household" scissors, high quality surgical scissors even better.

Yeah, cutting your own decals does give you the freedom to add decal to account for areas that have difficulty not adhering.

[Mokei Kagaku]

Actually, the pink went on first. It was a pin stripe that I made but when I had it masked off, I missed a spot that showed up when the white was applied. I saw it before I painted but totally spaced out and forgot to mask that area!

Sorry, I was a bit unclear. I didn't mean the pink that can be seen between the white and blue, which is clearly a masking issue like you put it yourself. I meant the pink "shadow" in the white paint on either side of the pink stripe, and knowing this phenomenon all too well from my own mishaps, I reckon that was the result of first painting white, then pink? If the pink stripe was painted before white on both sides, that pink "shadow" shouldn't really occur.

If my assumption is correct, this can be prevented by backing white with silver before putting on pink. Other metallics might work as a "blocker" to prevent fluorescent pink from bleeding through white too, whereas normal opaque colours won't. Silver is however the safe bet as it won't darken white like other metallics might.

As for the poor adhesion of the stickers, while it may still happen, degreasing the area just before putting on the sticker clearly helps, even for bodies that have their clear film removed just minutes before sticker application, and should be pretty free of grease from handling etc.. I used medical benzine, which is harmless to plastic, leaves no residues and evaporates very quickly. Wiping is done with soft cosmetic tissues, as normal paper towels can scratch the lexan surface. But I reckon you do this or something similar too! :-)

[CoolJetta3]

I cut each letter out on my Bronco body to prevent all that air under the clear parts of the sticker. I did lay them down with liquid dish soap and water method.

[mongoose1983]

The problem isn't that new decals are pre-cut (an unfortunate feature, by the way), but they are also thicker than the ones from the 80's. I learnt that comparing original Bruiser decals with re-res. They are much less prone to really adapt to the body curves, therefore they are almost useless if you want a perfect boxart Toyota Bruiser. They simply won't stuck on the sides of the Toyota body!

[Vrdetailing]

So you soak the decal in soapy water and you an move it around but it dries and the glue is fine...

Must try this out

[mr crispy]

I put the slightly soapy water onto the bodyshell, then apply the decal as normal and the water allows you to slide it around easier and reposition if needs be. I then use a kitchen paper towel to dry off the water and squeeze out any water & air bubbles. Then I warm it with the hair dryer on a hot setting, obviously don't let it get too hot. To gauge this I keep a finger next to the decal and if it's too hot for me then back off the dryer.

[March75]

Does nobody else use window cleaner for this then?

[THE SMOOTHEE]

There are products from Tamiya you could try that are designed to help achieve the result your looking for.

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/87102mark_fit/index.htm

[mr crispy]

I'm pretty sure that is for water slide decals as used on static model kits. Ive used similar decal softeners in the past. I don't know what if any effect it would have on vinyl backed RC decals tho

March75, yeah I also use Windolene to clean bodyshells before applying decals and instead of the "soapy water" as mentioned above.

[March75]

I've always used lots of Windowlene for stickering up my bodies and had great results.

Just done a little experiment....

I've got some Humbrol decal solution for my static modelling and have just tried it on some spare Tamiya stickers out of interest - no noticeable improvement to their flexibility and it seemed to be removing the glue! Be warned!

[lawdog]

I'm pretty sure that is for water slide decals as used on static model kits. Ive used similar decal softeners in the past. I don't know what if any effect it would have on vinyl backed RC decals tho

March75, yeah I also use Windolene to clean bodyshells before applying decals and instead of the "soapy water" as mentioned above.

Yeah, I don't think you want to do the soapy water method on vinyl decals. On bodyshells, I think trimming and maybe heatgunning them is the best you're going to do in curved applications. Even then, they will probaly not adhere/look exactly like you want.

[Wobbleboxer]

Er, yes you do.

Have a look here, I found this video thread while I was building my Viper recently and followed this and had no problems.

[lawdog]

Er, yes you do.

Have a look here, I found this video thread while I was building my Viper recently and followed this and had no problems.

I stand corrected, and not for the last time, I am sure. I thought it would adversely affect the glue, but apparently not.