how do i apply vinyl onto van bonnet properly?

[Hugh Potter]

you’re not so much doing it wrong as far as i can see, but i find if you cut it straight, as you have it laid out, it will inevitably look like a sad smile, for that reason i draw a straight line and the curve it to suit the curve of the bonnet, then fit the text to the path, that way the text should lay level on the hood, … sorry, bonnet ! dont worry about making the curve too high at the end, it’ll just make it a happy smil instead ! if you use corel 12 i’ll help you out with it,

[John Childs]

If I have lots of them to do them I will shape the lettering to suit the curve of the bonnet.

The trouble is that this is time consuming so if it is only one, or a few, then we just draw a line on the bonnet and curve the text as we apply it.

[J_J_O]

Thanks for the quick replies!

John: what do you mean with curve the text, I tried this but the applicationtape did not want to follow the curve very nice.

Hugh: I looked in the dictionary and it showed two options, hood and bonnet, picked the wrong one … bonnet it will be from now on.
Do you mean like this? (using Illustrator CS2)

[Hugh Potter]

i find it better to curver it before you cut it, it takes about 30 seconds in corel, draw line, bend it to suit the curve of the bonnet, then lick on text, ‘fit text to path’, done !

use as little app tape as possible, that way there’s less material to pull the graphic about with the curves etc, fwiw, i normally do them wet, they can be a little awkward to hinge, so i normally put a bit of tape whyere the two top corners of the tape/decal are, and one at the bottom of the curve, peel it back, spray a light spray over the area to be applied, and then position it slowly, squeegy as you go, but hold it reral low down to be sure you’re straight, ten mins max !

ps,
hood…. american car engine bay covering panel, clothing for head.
bonnet, euro car engine bay covering panel, clothing for ladies heads !

[David McDonald]

Hi

I usually make sure I tell the customer up front that the lettering will follow the curve of the bonnet, however, if they insist it must look “straight ” then I do the following:-

Just cut a thinnish strip of vinyl the same width as the text / logo to go on the bonnet. You can just tape a pice of string over thebonnet but doesn’t follow the curve exactly the same as when vinyl is applied

Apply this to the bonnet where it would effectively be underlining the text/logo. It will look like a sad smile – ie, following the curvature of the bonnet.

Then measure the distance between the end of the line and “straight” by line by eye. Sometimes I’ll draw a “straight” lline with a Stabilo write on anything pencil (wipes off) so I can stand back and make sure it looks OK.

Then take this measurement into Flexi and distort the text/logo to make it a happy smile shape with the ends the same distance from the horizontal as was the sad smile.

Cut it and apply as normal and one distortion cancels the other out.

It isn’t exact but the distortion is hardly noticed.

If I get chance I’ll post some demo pictures but hopefully the above makes sense.

Cheers
Macky

[John Childs]

I’m not sure how to explain this, but here goes……….

It can be difficult deciding how much curve to put on the lettering. Your drawing, the one showing the top view, looks fine but that amount of curve will not look good from the front which, after all, is where it will normally be viewed from.

As an added complication, often the top and bottom edges of the bonnet have different curves and whichever curve you follow the lettering will look wrong when compared with the other. In these cases the best lettering shape will be somewhere between the two.

Usually it can be done satisfactorily by eye, but can sometimes involve a bit of trial and error to get the right shape. We have had some success with using a laser level to project onto the bonnet and marking a line to fit the lettering to so that, whatever the bonnet shape, the lettering will always be parallel to the ground. The beauty of this is that if the customer complains that the text is not straight you can demonstrate that it is and that it must be his eyes at fault. Saves a lot of arguments and having to re-do jobs that there is nothing wrong with. 🙂

As for curving the text, I mean that you have a straight line of text that you want to fit to a curved pencil line on the bonnet. I would start in the middle and squeegee the first letter down. Then pull the lettering up so that the bottom of the next letter follows the pencil line and squeegee that one and work my way to the edge like that before doing the other side. Of course, you end up with the application on one edge, usually the bottom, being tight and lots of spare at the top but that doesn’t matter. Just peel off the application tape and you have the lettering following the line you want whatever the shape of the panel. It can be fiddly, but with a bit of practice, it is the quickest way to go.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

another pet peeve, a frowning bonnet (hood)…….
I always distort the graphic in my program to a smile.
Then it comes out fairly straight.
Sometimes you may even have to slit the app tape between letters as you apply to get the right curve.
Love…..jill