If you haven’t tried making your own PWD car decals you might want to consider it. All of the artwork on the two cars below are decals that I made on my cheep computer. I designed the decals in Microsoft PictureIt 9 (a very inexpensive and simple photo editor for less than $30) then printed them with my printer onto special decal paper. The decal paper works with both laser and inkjet printers (I’ve had better results with the laser).

The decals are the wet type. They’re very easy to apply and are very durable. After a clear coat, they have a great shine and they will not come off.

These photos are not good quality but the decals are very crisp and clear.

Any photo editor will work. Microsoft PictureIt 9 is a discontinued program but you can find them very cheap on eBay.http://cgi.ebay.com/Waterslide-Inkjet-Pa….1742.m153.l1262 But you can get it at most hobby stores and many places online.http://www.decalpaper.com/category-s/3.htm

On my photo editor I set the canvas dimensions at 1.75″ wide by 2.5″ tall. I then fit everything within that canvas. Then I used the Google image search to find all of my images. You have to be the judge on which images you can comfortably use without some type of copyrite infringement.

For example: For the Derby Monkey car, I first did a Google image search for “monkey clip art”. I found the monkey I wanted. I had to buy the image for $9. There were others that I could have used for free but wanted the 9 dollar one. I wanted a checkered flag in the background so I did a “checkered flag background” Google image search. I found the flag and simply copied and pasted it into my project free. My editor allows me to ad text. So, just working with it for a while, I came up (with the help of my son) the final decal.

For the other cars, the images were all free. I just copied and pasted to my photo editor.

I then printed the decals directly from the photo editor. You must make sure the decal is printing actual size.

I bought mine on eBay:

Now, it come in clear sheets and white sheets so you must decide which ones you want… perhaps one package of each. Clear sheets work great if the decals are going on a light colored car… white, yellow, etc… White sheets work best on darker car bodies.

With the white sheets you must cut out everything on the decal that you don’t want to be white on the car. White sheets will not allow the car body color to show through the decal.

On clear sheets, it does not print the color white at all. The white parts of the decal are actually clear and will only be white if you put the decal on the white area of the car body.

I personally like the clear sheets the best. They are easy to work with on light colored cars. On dark bodies, I paint the decal area white before I put the decals on. For example: On the Derby Monkey car I first painted the body black and then painted the sections where the decals were to go white. Then applied the decals on the white. It worked great.

Here is a great FAQ on decal paper:

No comments yet.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI