Well, it happened. I couldn’t wait to get the decal on to see what it looked like so I ended up applying one side once I got home from work. I decided that it was “warm enough” and I could get one side done in no time. It was about -15C outside and just barely 0C in the garage so it wasn’t too bad. I know that it’s kind of difficult to apply decals when it’s cold cause it doesn’t stick well, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
Because Bill had cut the decals into 4 separate pieces – fender, front door, rear door, and quarter panel – I had been trying to think of a way to line it all up properly without it looking like there was a break in the pinstripe. In hindsight, it’s a pretty simple idea but at the time, I couldn’t think of anything until I was in my car on the way home. I ended up using masking tape all the way from the fender to the rear tail light and lining it up just below where the decal would be placed…
Here’s a look at what I mean. Helped a ton… Without this, I’m sure it would’ve been a disaster.
Didn’t take too long to line it up. I basically taped it, pulled it straight and placed it down. I stepped to the side, made sure it looked good and made adjustments if needed. My car is a little different because my side mirror is on the body line so the pinstripe can’t follow that line like I had originally planned. Instead, it had to sit a little lower. Not a huge issue…
I started at the fender and made my way down. Bill cut it so that we would have some extra vinyl if we needed it which helped a lot.
A shot of the main piece on the rear quarter. By this point, I was pretty anxious to see what it was going to look like. Little did I know… this was the longest part of the whole install.
Here it is peeled off and it looks AMAZING. In this case, pictures don’t do it justice because the chrome/mirror finish is awesome and matches the chrome trim and the SSR’s perfectly.
A side shot of the decal – looks great! It ties in all of the chrome nicely. The most difficult part of all this is peeling it off and getting it to stick onto a cold surface. That, and when the vinyl is cold – it tends to start to crinkle up so you have to work quick. I ended up getting one tiny bubble but it’s no big deal and barely noticeable.
Shot of the fender – super clean.
And one more shot of the main piece – which is quite the eye catcher. Love it or hate it, it’s another one of my favourite little additions to the car this year that is rather inexpensive.
Thanks again to Bill for putting these together for us! Can’t wait to see it on JC and Punit’s cars!
