Calipers painted…decals not sticking

[Hollowdweller]

Got my new calipers painted but the decals didn’t stick. Never had this problem, maybe bad decals or I screwed up lol. Put them one after last coat of painted and put 3 coats of clear over them. Started peeling up then falling off…

 

[AHaze]

Can't give you an answer on why your decals peeled but I just use the decals as masking. I.E. paint the face of the caliper whatever color I want the logo to be, apply decal, paint main color, remove decal, clear coat.
The decals tend to melt if you actually use the brakes hard.

 

[Cum Grano Salis]

HATE when that happens. Even with the thermal-developed label makers, if surface isn’t silky smooth nothing sticks. So I label this 120V outlet (metal cover, wrinkle look) and within say 5 minutes the thing is curled up on the floor. After 4 tries, nope. It’s the porous surface/rough, guess not enough contact area…

 

[Hollowdweller]

Can't give you an answer on why your decals peeled but I just use the decals as masking. I.E. paint the face of the caliper whatever color I want the logo to be, apply decal, paint main color, remove decal, clear coat.
The decals tend to melt if you actually use the brakes hard.

Hmmm very good idea!!! I’ll mask off around the flat surface, get some sand paper and rough it up, paint it white, apply decals, shoot red paint, then remove decals…didn’t think about that. Never seen it done that way in the 5 billion vids I watched. Kinda worried about paint trying to peel off with decals buuuut seems better than the way I did it in the long run.

 

[AHaze]

Hmmm very good idea!!! I’ll mask off around the flat surface, get some sand paper and rough it up, paint it white, apply decals, shoot red paint, then remove decals…didn’t think about that. Never seen it done that way in the 5 billion vids I watched. Kinda worried about paint trying to peel off with decals buuuut seems better than the way I did it in the long run.

Definitely peel the decals while the red is still tacky.

 

[pass1over]

that's odd. bad batch of stickers or wrong material I'd guess. I put brembo stickers on my calipers almost 4 years ago and they're still there.

 

[Hollowdweller]

that's odd. bad batch of stickers or wrong material I'd guess. I put brembo stickers on my calipers almost 4 years ago and they're still there.

yeah the S550 calipers I did turned out just fine. No problem with decals at all. Decals came from different sellers. Waiting on 1st S500 decal guy to respond to eBay message.

 

[WJBertrand]

Can't give you an answer on why your decals peeled but I just use the decals as masking. I.E. paint the face of the caliper whatever color I want the logo to be, apply decal, paint main color, remove decal, clear coat.
The decals tend to melt if you actually use the brakes hard.

Great idea! I had the same issue with stickers lifting with my previous car.


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[Jwood562]

Im gonna also agree that the surface needs to be smoother for the declas to stick better. Im in the same boat as we speak, restoring some old brembo 4 pistons, my decals stuck fine to a smooth surface face but i had another issue with my clear coat wrinkling on top of them. weird and i have never had that happen before.

I would try and get that face of the caliper as smooth as possible

 

[Jwood562]

also a little light sanding of the raw surface and some primer would do wonders for a smoother finish.

I do like the looks of a wrinkle appearance on the rears though

 

[Hollowdweller]

Can't give you an answer on why your decals peeled but I just use the decals as masking. I.E. paint the face of the caliper whatever color I want the logo to be, apply decal, paint main color, remove decal, clear coat.
The decals tend to melt if you actually use the brakes hard.

Id like to get your/everyone’s opinion on what to do from here. I’m going to try and do what you suggested and use the decals as a stencil. I taped off the area to paint white (shouldn’t have used duct tape but it’s all I could get to stick) and painted. Peeled the tape off and the edges are really rough. Plan to sand edges, re-tape further bad with masking tape hopefully, apply decals and shoot red if it gets warm enough today!! Totally wrong approach, other ideas…?

 

[AHaze]

Why mask the edges for the logo color at all? Just make sure the area the logo will be in is fully covered with white. Any overspray outside that area will get covered with red anyway.

 

[Hollowdweller]

Why mask the edges for the logo color at all? Just make sure the area the logo will be in is fully covered with white. Any overspray outside that area will get covered with red anyway.

Just so I don’t have to disassemble them again really. Not hard I guess, could do it that way. Still have the plugs I used for the holes. The calipers have been clear coated already, didn’t really want to spray over that with red. Was just gonna mask, spray red, unmask, then clear coat again. Don’t really care if the clear gets on the hardware except the rubber. Hmmmm may just disassemble. Couldn’t do anything today, winds blowing to hard

 

[Robert Larimer]

Just so I don’t have to disassemble them again really. Not hard I guess, could do it that way. Still have the plugs I used for the holes. The calipers have been clear coated already, didn’t really want to spray over that with red. Was just gonna mask, spray red, unmask, then clear coat again. Don’t really care if the clear gets on the hardware except the rubber. Hmmmm may just disassemble. Couldn’t do anything today, winds blowing to hard

If you want to keep the red from seeping in under the decals spray them with clear after you put them on to seal the edges.

 

[Hollowdweller]

Well…using the decals as stencils didn’t turn out real well for me I guess, not to bad though! The red started getting into the white, prob needed to let it dry alittle more. Used a razor blade to get under sticker, then peeled up with tweezers! Figure I’ll run them & when I do paint I’ll pull them back off and get them powder coated. Got frustrated & impatient and ended up dropping one in dirt (still tacky) b4 clearcoat.

 

[Hollowdweller]

and just cuz posting pics is cool..got my brakes lines in!!

 

[Stranger]

A little late to the conversation...

HEAT.
After installing/applying the decal, especially if the surface has a "textured" or less than perfect surface, heat the decal with a heat gun.
Heat will cause the vinyl and the adhesive to soften and become more pliable.
Once it's softened, you can use a microfiber towel or equivalent and press it "into" the texture.

I work for a decal manufacturing facility and this technique is used daily.

This video demonstrates the concept.