Thanks to those (above) who gave me some assistance in the form of advice and pictures.
Also, the additional suggested thread (
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=7769.msg44529#msg44529) was a wealth of information! I thought I'd provide a little feedback after having installed my stripes.
Per the suggestions in the thread mentioned above, I bought my stripes from "class-tech-cars". I called the owner before making the purchase and he was very helpful. The decals actually come from a business in Virginia called "Decal Magic" and are produced on 3M film. The product is licensed by ford.
I ended up buying fours sets of decals for my '67 GTA application. They were all purchased within about one month of each other. The first set suffered from the protective backing peeling off of the decals and this made me nervous, so I ended up using them as "practice pieces". Installation of the 2nd set was going well until I cut them too short trying to wrap them around the door edges and thus I had to start over. I was installing them with soapy water, hence removal was simple.
Installation of the 3rd and fourth sets is when I really began to become familiar with the product. I'm not impressed. While I did end up with a set on my car, I'm not happy with them. Here are a few comments which could perhaps help others:
(1) The product is shipped rolled up into WAY too small of a box, hence the decals are rolled up into a ~2" dia circle. This causes the protective film to begin lifting. Get them out of the box and unrolled ASAP!
(2) Three pieces from two different sets had debris stuck between the vinyl decal and the outside protective film. This really stinks because you can't tell until the decals are already on the car and you've removed the protective film. At that point you discover that the debris had embedded itself into the decal while you were pushing the squeegee across them as part of the install process. The debris left marks I wasn't willing to live with, so I removed them and started over.
(3) During the install, apply soapy water, squeegee like crazy and repeat the process. When you think you've got all of the air bubbles out, do it again anyway. As long as you keep everything wet, you can continue squeegee-ing. The issue with the decals from this company is that the protective film is opaque, thus you cannot see whether or not air bubbles have been eliminated. This is where a spare panel and a spare set of decals is handy to practice.
(4) In my small sample size of four sets of decals, I discovered that even though the 3M marking on them is identical, the gloss of the vinyl is drastically different. In my efforts to select pieces which where the least damaged from shipping (see item #1), I mix-n-matched pieces from multiple orders (orders spanning one month). As stated in #3, the protective film is opaque, thus you can't tell the black vinyl has different sheen to it until it's too late.
(5) Most frustratingly, even after many hours of practice -such that you can repeatedly install these decals perfectly... I found that almost every piece has a 3" long grey-ish vertical mark/rub on them somewhere. I can only assume this is due to the way they are processed during manufacturing. I've exhausted hours of reading on-line and come to the conclusion that there is no product on earth which will remove or polish out these marks.
(6) With some types of vinyl you can pop a tiny air bubble with a sewing needle and the defect is not visible. This is NOT the case with this particular product! Trust me, I tried every trick and practiced many times. You either install them without air bubbles, or you live with the visible mark of an air bubble being popped.
So, in the end, I'm thoroughly disgusted with the decals. They look good from 10ft away. But, after 1000 hrs of paint and body work, I kinda wanted the decals to look excellent as well. But, as my father once taught me.... things can't be perfect and when we repeatedly do things over and over hoping for perfection we sometimes make it worse than if we had just left it alone. I've kinda reached that point. I could remove the stripes (again) but each time I do so I run the risk of removing paint with them. And, as stated in item #2, even if I do my part perfectly, there are sometimes defects and debris in the decals which nullifies my efforts.
My advice for anyone applying these decals is to order at least one extra set, practice on a test panel, use the soapy water approach and squeegee MUCH longer than you initially think is necessary. Don't mix-n-match pieces from one order to the next, even though the 3M product marking on the back is identical. Dry fit them and mark where you think you'll need to trim them.... but don't actually cut them to length until they're on the car. A heat gun helps get them to stick as you wrap them around the door and fender edges.
If other folks used decals from another source, please add that info here..... I for one would like to know for future use. I'm sick about how this item turned out, but they probably look as good if not better than the factory installed them and I think the risk outweighs the reward of me starting over (again).
Hope this helps!
