Anyone know where to get a vector file?
I'm having a hard time finding a shop here in San Jose than can print white on clear vinyl.
Any help would be great.
Thanks in advance

Max

Max-
Conventional printers, inkjet or laser printers or dye sublimation printers, all print the same four "process" colors. Cyan (light blue-ish), magenta (pinkish red), yellow, and black. That's it, everything else is made from those four.

In order to get "white" you need special dye sublimation cartridges, or the job has to run on an offset press (where you'll pay for 500-1000 pieces no matter how few you need, because of setup times), or you pull individual jobs by silk screening with a white "ink".

In your case the only feasible way to do the job is silk screening white "ink" (paint) on the clear vinyl. Might run you $50 per piece, plus the vinyl, plus setup costs which could easily run $250-500 to make the screens.

But "printing" with white ink? Not with anything digital one-see two-see.

And finding a vector file has been a unicorn hunt in the past. You're best bet is to try locating a genuine unused decal and having a scan pulled from it. Photographing a door is going to give you some keystoning distortion and require lots of manual labor to get it cleaned up right. Cheaper to buy/rent a decal from someone, and there SHOULD be a market for clean reproductions on these.

IIRC Toyparts has already gone through this and has decals for sale, although I haven't seen them.

http://www.torparts.com/GTS-Twin-Cam-16 ... -Valve.htm
http://www.torparts.com/GTS-Twin-Cam-16 ... aronly.htm

-John

Yea dealt with "torparts" Adam already
I am a pretty patient guy and did my best to communicate with him on a professional level

This guy is a nightmare to deal with
Totally unprofessional
He never has the time to reply to e-mails or messages even from repeat customers

And the fees, O the fees!!!
$50 for shipping on decals?
In a reused box with NO packing materials
And the postage was clearly marked $3.80

Anyways yea I'd rather figure something else out thank you very much

I have a decal here to be copied
Was just hoping I wouldn't have to get it digitized first

Max

Take a big clear picture of it and I might be able to clean it up and vector for you. I did the same with my Trueno and Levin decals

Max, if you are in a major city look for a "reprographics" business. They specialize in making oversize scans, plots, blueprint copies, etc. for the architectural and signage trades, and usually will be the only folks who can take something that big and just slap it in an oversize scanner, to get one seamless scan from the whole image.

Yes, that will be a raster scan, but it will be full-size and undistorted, and converting that to vector becomes a relatively simple piece of work.

In theory, you could have any really sharp (pun intended) vinyl signage place actually CUT white vinyl to make the decal, transfer that to a scrim, and apply it directly to a car. In practice, the clear vinyl acts like a stone guard so doing it the OEM way isn't a bad idea at all.

Who knows...the stickers are such a RFPITA for anyone who wants to replace one, that maybe you could take pre-orders, set up a group buy, and use that to get the silk-screening down to a reasonable price.

If there's no reprographics house or oversize scan place near you...easy enough to roll it up in a tube and ship it, right?

Yea the plan was to get about 40 pairs or so made

Max

Max if you start making these id rather buy them from you
Adam from TorParts hasn't returned Emails/Texts and i didn't
even know about the 50$ shipping fuuuuuhhhhhk

I talked to my buddy who works at a big international firm in SF
He has done stickers before
We raised $8500~9000 using his hb for Japan design
For the surnami relief

Hopefully this avenue will prove fruitfull
I'm totally down for a group buy
And to provide the first batch at cost
I'm not looking to recoup any of my costs

Max

count me in for a pair of black or grey as well Max if this comes thru!

I got to meet with my buddy who works at a big firm in SF during the holiday weekend
We are looking forward to making these
I am gonna make white ones first
But should be able to produce any other color

Max

Illegal_Garage wrote:I got to meet with my buddy who works at a big firm in SF during the holiday weekend
We are looking forward to making these
I am gonna make white ones first
But should be able to produce any other color

Max

In for a set of these, max

Max,

I distribution of the vector files will be available soon.

Dennis

Does GraphTech still exist in San Francisco (daly city) I remember that place back in 2003. They might be able to help you out. http://www.gtstickers.com/

I think so, but I'm not close with those guys

Max

EJ86 wrote:Does GraphTech still exist in San Francisco (daly city) I remember that place back in 2003. They might be able to help you out. http://www.gtstickers.com/

Very nice, thanks for the link.

Really want a couple sets of these in white at a decent price not over 180$ lol

Very interested if you get this going!

My buddy who works at a big design firm in SF is still working on these
He got the file which I'm pretty sure torparts used to make theirs
We're going to produce a set on vellum and match them up to the original decals and tweak them so they are absolutely perfect
Cost could be as low as $10 a pair

Max

This is amazing info! I'd def be interested what about the trunk/hatch decals the ones that say corolla and GT-S? Maybe those can be made up next? Should be a lot easier since they are smaller....

Illegal_Garage wrote:My buddy who works at a big design firm in SF is still working on these
He got the file which I'm pretty sure torparts used to make theirs
We're going to produce a set on vellum and match them up to the original decals and tweak them so they are absolutely perfect
Cost could be as low as $10 a pair

Max

^ this......would be fantastic!

DO want.

Any updates on this?

My buddy is doing this as a side project free of charge
His firm charges millions of dollars for design work
So I cant really rush him
LOL
Ill try to catch up with him this weekend and ask about the status

Max

How's the decals going so far?

I have the vellums which is a prototype
I am waiting on one of the locals to do a comparison
Unfortunately these guys around here don't get as fired up as I do about getting things done
Ill keep you guys updated

Max

Impatiently waiting......

Bump for updates, hopefully I didn't miss another thread on this elsewhere..

Count me in for a set of these decals, and others later on if any.

I really wish more people would start getting into the restoration industry for the AE86... maybe I should.

I talked to jay a graph tech in Daly City Calif
He has the file now
He is saying $100 a pair to make these

Maybe if we can put a large order together we can get a better price

I got he ones for $50 that's another guy was selling
Those are cut vinyl not the printed hash OEM type
Still a great buy for $50

Max