Hi Doug,
Good luck with CyclArt! They will only sell decals (expensive) if you ship them the frame so they can supposedly verify authenticity. Other CR members have encountered frames damaged in transit with that crazy store policy. The cost of the decals and the risk of shipping/handling damage does not make this viable. CyclArt supposedly does not even reproduce the decals now, they farm out the custom work to several art/graphics shops.
The general process to recreating decals goes something like this... A high-quality scan is made of decal or facsimile, the image is tweaked in Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator or CorelDraw, and the final image is output on selected media. There are at least five approaches to choosing media used to recreate vintage decals...
First, water transfer decals (using Bel decal company clear sheets 2 mil or higher) can be printed on better quality inkjet printers. These decals may last only 4-5years before color shifts occur. While cheap and relatively easy to use, color matching can be difficult and subject to color fade/change due to age, sun, and/or ultra-violet radiation exposure. This may be the easiest & cheapest way to make decals, with drawbacks.
Second, varnish transfer decals can be made but I have no experience with this... Nick at H Lloyd Cycles in England can do this or water transfer decals at a price $$$. May last like the original, but they are difficult to apply.
Third, a 4-color process or lithograph printing can be run on bel decal sheets by a professional printer. These can be very expensive with pre-press setup charges and large production runs required. A run of 500 decal sheets using three colors was estimated at $700 by a local printer in my area. Maybe other CR members can expand on this, but I believe there are several CR members involved in the printing industry who can do this work...
Fourth, there is a CR member who had custom Teledyne Titan decals printed onto an adhesive backed clear sheet by a custom graphics shop. Please check the CR archive for "Teledyne Titan" and more info with his name...
Finally, the method that I am experimenting with uses a vinyl sign plotter/cutter (Roland PNC-1100) to cut the image on cast vinyl. I use 2 mil Oracal 851 vinyl that lasts over 10 years in direct exposure to sun with no color fade for white or black colors. Other colors and metallics are subject to shorter life spans. I prefer this method of using solid vinyls because it allows me greater control to make my own when I want to and in the way I need. I can control the colors better because I use a Paasche AB Turbo and VL airbrushes to better control enamel paint colors for closer pantone color matches. The initial equipment purchase can be somewhat pricey, but I use the vinyl cutter for additional projects. I have successfully reproduced exact duplicates of Raleigh decals for single colors and I am experimenting with multiple colors (vinyl overlay of colors vs airbrushing the colors).
Please email me if there are additional questions that you want me to address...
Regards, Steve Neago
Cincinnati, OH
> Or simply try CyclArt in Vista, California (San Diego). They have every
> bicycle decal ever made or have made perfect reproductions from in-house
tracings
> off vintage frames.
>
> Bob Fulghum (ful-jum)
> San Diego
> California
> USA