Cost of decals?

[gullarm]

My NC29 fairings and tank are finally being painted and now I need to sort out the decals.

I have been quoted £120 for a full set of type 8 graphics, from image works, is this about right?

Is there anywhere cheaper/better?

[Davez29]

ok, I paid £109 a few yeas ago for a set of type 7, white/red/purple so its about right. You will struggle to get them anywhere else. OEM Honda are frankly OTT price wise and hard to get. This price was for the pre laquered version.

Now I dont know what your expectations are and if your after pixel perfect renditions then be prepared to be dissapointed but if you just want a close resemblence then they will be fine, if the ones I bought are anything to go by. Dont get me wrong they look FAB and quality was superb but they are not exact to what you might be thinking. Asking for pictures of a finished set proved pointless and to be honest they blanked me when I questioned some of the errors I got, when I bought mine I found a few problems, such as white Honda decals (on a white bike??) The nose decals never fit and had a drooped moustache look. I had to recut the nose, mid and lower panel to suit and eventually it looked ok, and had to buy extra decals for the honda nose and fireblade, so it was not stick and play for sure. But hey despite this its better than Honda prices and looked ok for a while, durabilty was a problem but that was more than likely my fault.

If you do buy make sure you get them pre laquered if putting them over your clearcoat.

edit...here is pic of my bike with recut imageworks decals highlighting the problems, the imagework set look like the one on the front of the haynes manual. http://i41.tinypic.com/3029nh3.jpg

[thunderace]

www.pittys.com

Contact Nige, he'll make up virtually any graphics you want. Much better quality than the likes of ImageWorks and much cheaper too.

[gullarm]

Durka, I read your post a few months ago and found it quite interesting, it isnt until you compare the HONDA ones with the copys you get an idea how wrong they can be.

Yours looks really good to me.

Did the nose graphics not fit at all, I noticed a prev post with the droopy low down nose decals. I thought on yours you had just cut them shorter? Or are you talking about the white HONDA decal.

I going to lacquer over them when they are fitted, the guy spraying my fairings didn't really want to fit them, as as he put it "they are a pain in the arse", so Im returning to him when the decals are fitted so he can lacquer them.

Plus having read your post I figured if I fit them at least I can take my time and cut out and fit where Im happy with and not just whack them on like they would do.

He also advised leaving the fairings for 2-3 weeks for the paint to settle, he reckons they will look good but if the decals go on too soon they can bubble underneath.

Ill email www.pittys.com and see what he can do. image works quoted me the £120.

[Davez29]

I suppose it depends on how fussy you are. If you just want a close resemblace they will be fine but I wanted them as close as possible. I generally expected them to be right as when you see restored bikes they are very rarely wrong in the graphics dept.

The red/purple graphics on the nose were too big and I had to cut them to a better looking graphic, more like the oem version, even so they were a cm or 2 too short and never went too the end of the fairing. Note the smaller pic in the main one above that shows the graphic before I cut it, it looked like a 1970's moustache. The Honda nose graphic was sent in white, I questioned this but they never sent a replacement. The Fireblade decals sent were 12cm, they should be 24cm, the oem are also purple but I prefered them in black anyway. the RR to the rear was in opposite colours and various cuts needed as mentioned before.

If buying and adjusting the supplied decals get yourself a large cutting board, scalpel and a few number 10 blades and change blades before they lose sharpness. THe main laying problems will be dust and bubbles, dont panic and do a few dry runs, so you can visualize what you need to do to lay the vinyl into position. I actually downloaded the best picture of a type 7 I could find on the net and spent an evening tracing on a laptop at full size the shape of the graphics on tracing paper, rubbing the tracing onto the new decal covering paper, cutting it out and while im not an expert or sometimes did not have enough vinyl to get the correct shape I think overall it was a success.

I think the reason they might bubble after fresh paint is because the paint is realising gasses for a short while.

If you need close up pics of type 7 fairings for reference just say, I now have oem decals on my bike.

The biggest problem with most vinyl places is that they will only cut solid colours and dont always print, which is what these graphics need. A good vinyl printer will do them but it will cost as set up is expensive just for one set and may cost as much as imageworks anyway.

[Drunkn Munky]

@ gullarm, you really shouldn't be leaving paint for any length of time with out putting the lacquer on, certainly not a couple of weeks, that's madness. Your lacquer will peel and flake in no time at all.

[gullarm]

He said he was going to put one coat of lacquer on to seal the paint, but then to leave them for at least a week before putting the decals and then returning to lacquer over the decals. Gasses from the paint as its now water based crap, not like in the good old days ( his words )! He said something about 2-pac as well, which I thought was an american rapper.

Im picking them up friday 3rd so will see what he says. He wants them gone as they will get knackered lying around, people are drawn to shiny fairings and pick them up for a look.

He wasnt keen on fitting the decals - he kept reffering to how fussy people can be with the decals not 100% right. And he didnt want them hanging around whilst he waited for them to come in, last lot took 3 weeks.

Wether or not he will just flash over the decals and not do the whole panel I dont know.

He seems to know his stuff, and he has been around for years. The paint supply shop gave me 3 numbers to call and he was only round the corner so bobbed round for a chat.

How did you get the OEM ones they cost way to much for me, if I can even find them. Can you upload some pics and post them on the forum, its hard to spot the OEM from the clones.

Got no luck from www.pittys.com they can only do plain decals. There would be no money in it for them to start from scratch.

[Davez29]

How did you get the OEM ones they cost way to much for me, if I can even find them. Can you upload some pics and post them on the forum, its hard to spot the OEM from the clones.

In this totally unrelated post I did go off on a tangent and put a picture up of one of my new mids against my old reworked imageworks.. viewtopic.php?p=229825#p229825

BTW your painter sounds like mine, must be painter speak around the country.