— Has anyone attempted to design custom graphics for their panels? My wife is a graphic designer and she’s looking to create a custom scene that covers the three panels of our GFC camper. We’re thinking it will be two (maybe three) tone and we’re hoping to keep things pretty clean looking.
Ideally, we want to find a place that accepts a vector file and will print the with a resilient paint — we’re not sure if that exists. I’ve seen some GFC-branded vehicles with nice looking paint jobs on the panels, so I’m assuming something like this is possible!
Looking for insight, images, and experience on the topic!
Most powdercoaters can do more complex designs. We did a blue than a clear on this motorcycle tank and it had nice crisp lines, but you would probably have to have them do the entire panel so they had a clean slate to start with.
I gave a guy I know who owns a local sign shop a rendering of my idea and he tweaked it on his computer to fit the measurements I wanted for the panels, ordered the vinyl decal material, and even installed them for me. Came out super professional looking & pretty bombproof too.
@bikedogtaco — We initially thought we would go for vinyl, but were unsure whether or not it would peel off the panels. I’m guessing you haven’t had any issues with heat/water/dirt/wear causing issues?
When I had the whole entire panel wrapped in camo, I had issues w/ the vinyl peeling on the edges, but that’s because that was a heavier, less sticky vinyl that I did myself. and it was super difficult to go around the edges because of the way the inside of the panels are made. The 2 times I had the sign shop print me up designs that were sandwiched between the wax paper, they came out great & were even a bit difficult to peel off when I wanted/needed too. I JUST peeled off the orange/yellow design to get it ready to be sold and I was super impressed how well they were on there. No way they were coming off by anything other than human intent.
This is great to hear. We had sorta canned this solution because we were worried it would peel over time — sounds like we should keep investigating though!
Nice! We built an XS400 also. great little bike! For both bikes we stripped the paint, then used an orbital sander to clean and get the finish we wanted. Then they were able to powder on that without blasting. Sorry to get the post so off topic!
— I’ll have a post a picture of the rough design we’re thinking of going with on the panels to re-center things on GFC. Definitely just trying to sponge up any/all advice folks have!
— Has anyone attempted to design custom graphics for their panels? My wife is a graphic designer and she’s looking to create a custom scene that covers the three panels of our GFC camper. We’re thinking it will be two (maybe three) tone and we’re hoping to keep things pretty clean looking.
— Also, your ride looks awesome.