hihoslva

Okay - if you're reading, I hope you can gimme some ideas.

Ever since day one with my silver P5, I've wanted to color the center section of the hood. Black is nice, and someone recently posted a pic of their Yellow P5 with the center of the hood painted black, and the Wings West Protege on the WW site has it, too:


But I want something different. I would like to have the center of the hood start black near the grille, and shade back to the stock silver color just before the windshield in a nice gradual way. If anyone knows what the 1982 (pretty sure) Corvette looks like, you might understand - that car had a large side decal that extended from the fender vents behind the front wheels - it starts a solid color, and shades to nothing down the length of the side of the car. This is what I want to do with the center section of the hood on my P5.

I know I could have it painted this way. The only problem is that hand-done shading is very difficult to do well, and I've only seen the rare car with a "shaded" paint job that looked nearly perfect. If it isn't going to look perfect, I don't want to do it at all. I haven't done that much searching, but a quick look around my area has not revealed the type of painting expertise needed to get this to look as good as I want it to be.

So - how about vinyl? Could a vinyl graphic be made on clear stock, that simply shades from solid black to clear? I'm guessing that the piece would need to be about 3x3 - it would not need to be shaped to the hood, as I could align it and cut it myself during installation - a square piece would do.

Is such a thing possible? Does it already exist? Can clear vinyl be "printed" on in such a way that it'll last for at least a few years? Approximate price?? Can a graphic like this be removed later on without damage to the car?

I'm looking for answers from anyone who has any experience with this type of thing. It seems like it could be done so easily, but I might be way off.

Any info on a vinyl decal like this or other ideas on how to create the effect I want would be great.

~HH

quikmp5

I know a guy that could do it for you. Look up White's Autograph in Columbus Ohio and ask for Ed or Darren. Sorry, I don't have the number, call information.

hihoslva

Is there any way you could try to get the phone#? I have tried online yellow pages w/no luck

hihoslva

Stealing my pics again I see - HAHAHA!

No but seriously - that is totally what I want to do. The slight color difference between the silver paint and the silver that will wind up having a "clear" vinyl on it is of no consequence to me - I won't be trying to hide the fact that it's a decal, and it'll still look great to me.

It'd be really great if you could talk to your buddy who does the screen printing and find out about the practicality of doing something like this, the approximate price, etc. Hopefully it can be done in one piece, but even if it was two pieces with a seam in the middle - I guess that might be acceptable. That might even be much more cost effective. Of course, one piece is the best!

Again - I can cut it myself, so special fitting is not necessary - so long as the piece is long and wide enough to cover the area.

And lucky me! - maybe he'd able to take a look at your car to get a feel for what I'm talking about? Like size, shade gradient, etc.?

Anything you can do would be great man - much appreciated.

~HH

hihoslva

The "dots" thing is nothing to me. Truth is, I almost like that better, because I know that a digitally screen-printed "shade" like this will be 100% accurate, as opposed to a hand-done spray-painted shade, which will always have slight variations.

No worries, man - the "gradually decreasing size dots" type of shading is A-OK with me.

I appreciate the effort!

~HH

hihoslva

I'd have to measure the hood - but the piece would have to be as wide as the widest section of hood between the "creases" - up near the windshield, and as long as the hood also.

I'm assuming about 4 feet long, by maybe 3 feet wide would do the trick with plenty to spare - but either of us could measure the hood and find out - I will tomorrow, but finding out the max size your buddy can do is a good first step.

Thanks!

~HH

hihoslva

Kinkos can do it for $40 you say? That's not too bad.

What I am going to do is investigate the actual dimensions, gradient, etc - take some solid measurements. Then, I can hunt down a local Kinkos or similar place around here and see what I can do - I can always mail you the full-size image in a tube.

Gimme a few days - I am definitely interested, and the win/win thing would be great, too - I could easily have your stuff painted and on it's way back to you within three days of when I get it - I'd use the SEM paint, and it acheives maximum adhesion in 48 hours - I wouldn't want to send it back to you until it fully cured.

I will be working on this over the next few days, for sure - I'm send you a private message when I get some details worked out, and we'll go from there.

Yay!

-HH