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Johndenmark

Clear coat on abs-body after stickers on

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Hello my friends....:)

Will clear-coat after stickers is on, protect the stickers?.... Or do i risk, that the stickers will crack?

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I spray all my vinyl inkjet decals with halfords clear lacquer and so far they have been great. Cant testify about other decals.

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1 hour ago, kaylon said:

I spray all my vinyl inkjet decals with halfords clear lacquer and so far they have been great. Cant testify about other decals.

This process is for the inkjet paper, the clear coat seals the ink onto the paper so it does not run off. 

 

The he question about can it be done, yes it can. It will seal them but will not stop them being scratched off. 

You have to give them a few very light coats first so they do not shrink. 

Then once happy build the coat up. 

I have done it many times. 

James. 

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I'm not sure it will make much difference to protecting the stickers. Any impact that's hard enough to scrape off bits of sticker, will

also be hard enough to scrape off the clear coat. What it probably will help with, is the unsightly peeling at the edges that allow dirt

to get stuck under them.

To clear coat on top of the stickers or not is a personal choice with pros and cons. Personally I don't like to do it for 2 reasons.

-If there is anything at all trapped under the sticker like dust or a tiny hair, or even just a crease, then you may end up with a tiny air pocket sealed

under the paint. Changes in temperature will make this air expand or contract, which may crack the paint.

-There is no way to key the clear coat to the sticker's surface. A gloss surface has nothing for the next layer of paint to grab on to, but stickers

should always be applied to a gloss surface to avoid trapping air. Flatting the rest of the painted surface, where the stickers are not, then becomes impractical

unless you can wet sand inbetween them.

The risk here is that the clear coat will delaminate from the underlying gloss surface. It may or may not happen, whether you want to take that chance is up to you.

Vauxhall had a problem with this on 1:1 cars in the late 1990s early 2000s where the clear coat delaminated from the roof of quite a few cars. No stickers involved

of course, but clearly there was a keying issue.

 

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I had a bad experience with this, despite building up light coats and allowing to dry in between, the stickers wrinkled / shrank over the course of a week after I'd finished :(

Not worth that risk if your stickers are difficult to obtain (or bespoke in my case!).

Follow the tips on applying stickers and a seal coat shouldn't even be needed. A heat source makes the world of difference, almost activating the glue in the stickers more than room temperature can and (provided the stickers are good quality, like Tamiya's own) the edges stick hard, to the point where you'll struggle to remove them even if you want to (so use soapy water and position them right from the start!).

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I spray my stickers before I apply them to the body,even before I cut them out. I leave then for several hours after spraying 3 thin coats using a warm hair dryer between coats.. I've had decals done in this way on cars for over 4 years ... and they still look as fresh today as they did then... granted I don't drive in the wet if I can help it just in case :) 

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I have been clearing over the decals on hard bodies for as long as I can remember. It started with my first grass hopper and I have done it with every one I have done since with no issues. I tend to stay away from hobby grade paints as I tend to get much better results with Automotive paints. Here in the states we have a brand called Duplicolor that makes hundreds if not thousands of colors and they are really great products. Never had an issue using their products. 

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1 hour ago, racer1 said:

I have been clearing over the decals on hard bodies for as long as I can remember. It started with my first grass hopper and I have done it with every one I have done since with no issues. I tend to stay away from hobby grade paints as I tend to get much better results with Automotive paints. Here in the states we have a brand called Duplicolor that makes hundreds if not thousands of colors and they are really great products. Never had an issue using their products. 

Totally agree. 

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