Vinyl - Cheap, Clean look, Great color

[dhchin]

Hey guys,
I made some eyelids and vinyled my Mazda emblem last night what do ya think? I also bought some of those rain gutter guards to make a new grill, but I saved that for tonight. I can't believe how cheap those gutter guards are. I bought two at $1.17 each at Home Depot. I can't believe that some custom grills cost up to $200 for the same look.

Anyways, the vinyl was cheap too. I paid $15 for it at a sign shop, did the sun strip at the top of my windshield, the eyelids, the emblem, and still have like 3 square feet left over! I highly recommend getting it from a sign shop too because they can match the color of your paint. They had about 20 different shades of red to choose from. Feel free to ask me some questions.

(redp5)

 

[smithers_0990]

HEY!
Cool Where did you get the vinyl? Im going through Madison today 11-1-02(fri). Im in Plattville now. What shop did youg get it at i might be able to get some on the way thru.

Let me know, ill be back thru there on sunday also.
Feel free to stop down at UWP some time.


Later

 

[dhchin]

Sweet, we should get a meet going sometime!
The store was FastSigns on Odana Rd. The address is 6150 Odana Road
Madison, WI 53719

Their phone # is 608-276-sign

P.S. our p5's are going to be really similar looking. You even have the blue under-dash neons (rockon)

 

[twizyours]

Since I have never really been to a sign shop, what is one like so I know what I am looking for. Is it like a hardware store. I want to do a 7 in. vinyl sunvisor but cant seem to find that or a 6in.

 

[mp3girly]

Wow, that red emblem looks awesome! The eyebrows are cool too, that's something I've always liked..

Be sure you post pictures of the grills when you're done.. I wanna see how it turns out.

Was the vinyl stuff easy to do? How long did it take?

-edit-

Hey I didn't notice before that you got the vinyl at a FastSigns.. bitchin', there's one right around here, haha, I even went to them with a friend of mine to see about vinyl graphics for a car club.

 

[mikesmazda155]

I like it, it looks like a PISSED off Protege'. Now all you need is to eat up some Honda's BRO.

 

[Equinox]

I like it, it looks like a PISSED off Protege'. Now all you need is to eat up some Honda's BRO.

I'm sure you can do enough of that for all of us, heh

 

[mikesmazda155]

I'm sure you can do enough of that for all of us, heh

Well you know I am representing for all MP-3's and MP-5's. It's just my representation is down here on the Gulf Coast. Hopefully I can get tranferred to some place soon where there are more of you guys around to chill with.

 

[dhchin]

A sign shop is any place that specializes in making signs. I'm sure that if you look in the yellow pages under signs, you might be able to find something.

It was very easy to do.

FIRST-- WHEN APPLYING VINYL, YOUSHOULD SPRAY DOWN THE BACK OF THE VINYL & THE AREA TO BE APPLIE DWITH A SOLUTION OF WATER MIXED WITH A LITTLE DISHWASHING DETERGENT. tHEN SQUEGEE OUT THE WATER AFTER APPLYING THE VINYL. IT SHOULD TAKE ABOUT A DAY TO DRY.

For the sun visor strip, I just slapped it on there, making sure that it was the same length from the top of the winshield on both sides, and then used an exacto blade to trip around the top and side edges. (pic of sun visor not included) - will post with the new grill

For the eyebrows -
I opened the hood, taped saran wrap to the light with scotch tape
used a perminant marker to trace the edge of the eyebrow that I wanted, took off the saran wrap, taped the marked saran wrap to a piece of cardboard, used a thumb tack to pierce the saran wrap through the traced lines and the cardboard, after the complete eyebrow is traceed with the thumb tack, take off the saran wrap and then cut out the pin hole template for the eyebrow.
Now you have a stencil for tracing onto the vinyl. I used a dry erase marker to trace the outline onto the vinyl because after I cut out the eyebrow with scissors, I could easily wipe off the left over marker.

The emblem-
I used a butter knife to pry the embelem away from the black grill
Then I used small pieces of vinyl in the shape of the emblem to wrap around the embelem. Use a hobby or exacto blade to help make the small incisions.

Have Fun!

 

[twizyours]

Got my vinyl today at a sign shop. Was a piece that was like 15inches by 5 ft. for $8.00. They even gave me the solution and squeegee. I cant believe I was going to pay a local shop $25.00 for it. Glad they were out and told me they didnt know if they were going to get more. I have enough to do two cars and headlights.

 

[dhchin]

WOW!
That was a really sweet deal!

 

[dhchin]

hey smithers, I pm'd you

 

[dhchin]

Okay, here is the pic of the visor I promised, and go here

http://www.protege5.com/vbb225/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9478

to see the finished custom grill

 

[smithers_0990]

dhchin

I didnt get your IM.

Please re send it