Post by bondoman2k on Mar 21, 2012 4:54:53 GMT -7
I don't think they want anything to do with this hobby, or the people in it. After what happened, and the reasons they had to 'close up shop', I think it left a VERY bad 'taste' in their mouth, and I really don't think they trust anyone after all that mess. 
As far as tips on printing decals, here are a few quick pointers. First...if you want to print decals that will work on any color car, or print gold, silver, or white..you HAVE to use an Alps printer (or equivalent, I think there is one other similar brand out there). Now comes the probs with these printers: VERY hard to setup, takes a LOT of time, ink is close to impossible to get (has to come from overseas..somewhere near Sweden I think), any major 'repairs' will need to be performed by either the owner or the ONE guy in the world that fixes them (he DOES live over near Sweden) and you will need to pay his flight here, his motel room, food, AND still pay him for working on it, there are close to NO parts available, and the ones that are out there, are not sold in the US by ANYONE (will need to import them), the company stopped selling ANY replacement parts and printers to the US about 5 years ago (that MAY have changed now, but I haven't heard any different), and the BIGGIE..the ink is VERY expensive!!
That is one of the reasons any decals done with this type of printer can be expensive if you buy from someone doing them.
There aren't really a lot of guys out there printing them anymore, due to these reasons, not to mention the copyright laws involved in reproducing images from the 1 to 1 cars. Costs a lot of money to 'obtain' the rights to print stuff like Sox and Martin lettering. All of these guys have copyrights and trademarks on their names and images. The ones that are printing them, are probly doing it with a printer that hasn't 'broke' yet, and old ink 'ribbons' (that's another thing, they use ribbons instead of cartridges, much like old typewriters). Rick (Hairy Canary) still does some, not exactly sure how much he is doing as of now as he did have a printer prob a while back. He could probly tell ya a whole lot more about them. That's why I NEVER complain about the prices of 'aftermarket' decals, since I KNOW these guys pretty much GIVE these things away..they would have to charge 20 bux a sheet, just to break even!
There are some tricks you can do to print your own, on white or clear decal paper, but you still won't be able to print gold or silver lettering. And, unless you can use some type of photo editing software (something along the lines of Photoshop, I use "GIMP". it's a free download from the internet) and add in a 'colored' background, you will be limited to either only using them on a light colored car, or printing on white decal paper, clearcoating it, and painstakingly cutting the exact edges of the image. Or possibly putting them on the car after cutting, then carefully painting around the edges. While you can usually do a somewhat 'ok' job like this, this method still doesn't have the quality look of the more 'professional' decals.
Ron (Bondo)
As far as tips on printing decals, here are a few quick pointers. First...if you want to print decals that will work on any color car, or print gold, silver, or white..you HAVE to use an Alps printer (or equivalent, I think there is one other similar brand out there). Now comes the probs with these printers: VERY hard to setup, takes a LOT of time, ink is close to impossible to get (has to come from overseas..somewhere near Sweden I think), any major 'repairs' will need to be performed by either the owner or the ONE guy in the world that fixes them (he DOES live over near Sweden) and you will need to pay his flight here, his motel room, food, AND still pay him for working on it, there are close to NO parts available, and the ones that are out there, are not sold in the US by ANYONE (will need to import them), the company stopped selling ANY replacement parts and printers to the US about 5 years ago (that MAY have changed now, but I haven't heard any different), and the BIGGIE..the ink is VERY expensive!!
That is one of the reasons any decals done with this type of printer can be expensive if you buy from someone doing them. There aren't really a lot of guys out there printing them anymore, due to these reasons, not to mention the copyright laws involved in reproducing images from the 1 to 1 cars. Costs a lot of money to 'obtain' the rights to print stuff like Sox and Martin lettering. All of these guys have copyrights and trademarks on their names and images. The ones that are printing them, are probly doing it with a printer that hasn't 'broke' yet, and old ink 'ribbons' (that's another thing, they use ribbons instead of cartridges, much like old typewriters). Rick (Hairy Canary) still does some, not exactly sure how much he is doing as of now as he did have a printer prob a while back. He could probly tell ya a whole lot more about them. That's why I NEVER complain about the prices of 'aftermarket' decals, since I KNOW these guys pretty much GIVE these things away..they would have to charge 20 bux a sheet, just to break even!
There are some tricks you can do to print your own, on white or clear decal paper, but you still won't be able to print gold or silver lettering. And, unless you can use some type of photo editing software (something along the lines of Photoshop, I use "GIMP". it's a free download from the internet) and add in a 'colored' background, you will be limited to either only using them on a light colored car, or printing on white decal paper, clearcoating it, and painstakingly cutting the exact edges of the image. Or possibly putting them on the car after cutting, then carefully painting around the edges. While you can usually do a somewhat 'ok' job like this, this method still doesn't have the quality look of the more 'professional' decals.
Ron (Bondo)
