water slide decals over powdercoat: they work?

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I've always heard that decals won't stick to powdercoat, but some say they do.
So, I'm interested to find out to.
 
Water decals need a smooth surface for them to stick on. powder coating is not smooth so therefore it should not work. I'll have to try it sometime, maybe with a heat gun you might get them to stick
 
I spoke with Pete at Hyper-Formance, THE man for all things Schwinn Sting-ray and asked him about this.
He sells official decals and knows about their applications.

He made it pretty clear to me. PCoat is like a plastic coating, so not much will stick to plastic. He likened it to the surface of a plastic Clorox bottle. Kinda makes sense. I asked if I clear coated the PCoat before the decals and he said that would work. He recommends an automotive quality clear or the one he sells, which I bought. I’m doing a helmet, so I’ll let ya know how it turns out.

Spin
 
Send me a decal & I will find out, or send me your address & I will send you a powder coated piece of metal & you can try it yourself. PM if interested. When we get that figured out, we will solve the rest of the world's problems! :lol: :mrgreen:
 
MIGZ said:
What is the difference between water slide and vinyl?

I will try to answer this to the best of my knowledge.

Vinyl: is a soft rubber type of material which is mostly available in 3 types of flexibility. The most expensive is the most flexible and thinnest giving it the ability to contour to oddly shaped objects. The middle type is the most used in the industry which is slightly thicker than the most expensive but can still be used on some curved items. The least expensive is used for flat signs but can still be bent to some degree. All of them can be used on a surface that has been powder coated and in most cases a heat gun will facilitate the vinyl to contour to the surface. On any paint job you can cover it under the clear coat making it last virtually for ever. That is unless there is an accident and it gets scratch hard enough.

Water slide decals: they are basically a print out of the art on a special type of paper. Then it gets sprayed with a special type of clear coat. When you do the hole process of inserting the decal in water then ink holds on to the clear coat and the paper is left behind. So basically you are transferring a piece of clear coat on to a surface. This piece of clear coat is stiff and it has very little flexibility. Being that a power coated surface is not smooth the decal which is nothing else than a piece of clear coat does not have the flexibility to mold to the surface.

There is 2 types of water slide decals.

The old. that if you get to find an original one you will see that it has turned slightly yellow. This is caused because back then they used lead in the clear coat used to make it stronger to the elements and that it would not fall of your bike when it got wet in the rain.

The new: you can buy the paper on ebay and make water slide decals with your inkjet printer. You will also need to get the special clear coat. It turns out that this new ones are not very durable and in most cases not waterproof.in some cases they tend to start cracking in a matter of days ruining an expensive paint job. They work good on model cars that don't get wet.

Most people here have a bit of experience doing rattle can paint jobs so what happens if you paint today, wait for the paint to dry and then hit with clear coat. You will have a shiny surface. But what would happen if after a week or more you shoot it again with clear coat. Yes the paint will start to lift. That's what happens when you shoot clear coat over a water slide decal which is basically a piece of clear coat. The instructions provided by hyper performance indicate that you can clear coat over his decals but only one coat. Any body that knows a little about that would know that if you only to one coat of clear you will loose it after you have buffed it. That is why professional car painters shoot 7 coats of clear. You loose 2 or 3 coats when you sand down the clear coat and then loose 1 or 2 more when you buff. Leaving you a smooth and shiny surface. In my opinion on coat of clear over the paint job just so the decal doesn't get messed up will prevent me from having a really shiny paint job.

Hope this helped and sorry if I made any typos as I didn't read after I wrote.

Peace
 
Side note: reflective vinyl falls are different from the rest. They way more expensive, they are a bit stiff but have a stronger glue than any other. Chrome vinyl would fall here but it has a normal sticky side and are less flexible than any other.
 
here is a waterslide decal I made on my inlkjet printer. The directions said to coat it with 3-4 coats of Krylon Crystal gloss clear spray (which I think has some UV protection in it) after it had dried overnight. No problems with cracking after being on for a 3 months or so. I did have one let loose and had to redo it but that could have been something I did wrong when I applied them. These seem to be sticking so far. I did make sure the area they were going was smooth. No lumps or bumps.
Tank_final.jpg

tankcloseup.jpg
 
I keep accidentally clicking into this thread because I LOVE WATERSLIDES!

Then I remember there are no waterslides in here... and I leave.
 
it's worked on my Baron with no problems. Just let it dry completely.
 

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