Challenge Livery Help Needed ! (maybe some Photo Shop help too?)

Team Barely Functional Racing needs your help. (link to build thread)

We're leaving for the Challenge in 17 days and our car needs some Race Livery to be photogenic for the magazine / Concours judging.  We won't be painting the whole car this year, so we'd like some suggestions for vinyl application of simple themes to help the car pop.  Here's our current thoughts, best idea, but we could use some help developing it further or some alternative ideas.  It's a Miata chassis running gear with a Volvo hat car on top. (hence the Japanese rising sun in Swedish flag colors, thats to Micheal Dusterb13 for the idea )

It'll have to wait until after working hours, but I might have a few ideas. 

First of all, are you sure you want to do something that complex over the whole car? You might want to just do a design like that on the hood and do the rest of the car in a solid color. You should also choose a base color to cover up the whole car in and then do the rising sun pattern in the other color - I'm thinking a blue car with a yellow rising sun.

Also a parody Ikea logo and some reference to a meatball need to be snuck in....maybe some parody Ikea instructions too

Do the whole car in white epoxy primer with a big Swedish flag laid out catty cornered on the hood to make it look like the Japanese Rising Sun flag but just Swedish

A couple of more angles of the car for photo shop fodder 

We do have a hood. 

Doing the whole car in blue with the yellow cross overlaid like sports stripes could be a cool look and would be fairly easy to do. The rising sun pattern could be put on part of the hood partitioned off by a stripe.

I think you nailed it.  However, I'd maybe simplify it a little with less "rays" that are wider.  Make make it pop more.

Very crude, but we were thinking maybe the trunk:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

The car will eventually be painted blue. Just not this year.  We only want to hit the remaining bare metal bits with epoxy primer (gray) and use vinyl laid on for this year.  The vinyl is easily removed after the challenge, when we have time to do a good paint job.

In that case why not use some blue and yellow plaid vinyl And just half ass wrap the car Period Then a couple of Large round meatball Number panels for your numbers On the doors

Unless most Challenge cars, this one has naturally good lines. You don't need much livery for it to shine compared to its competition. A single, solid color would look great. A meatball for the number, and maybe a single strip. The sponsor stickers will fill in the rest. 

That leftover turqoise on the door would be great on the whole car.

Blue with yellow stripes  motif works for me as a minimalist thing.

Will the writing/notes remain on the sides or will they be removed?  

How about some simple Mazda lower graphics just to clearly call it out?  $60, I'm not sure of the is $60 gets you two sides (not a bad price) or $120 for two sides (steep.)  

Geometric shapes like these or these, sort of randomized can get you more coverage than a solid but can be solid where needed

I never did but I had planned a similar, self cut triangle sort of motif for an Inifiniti that never made it to the show.  The car had significant sections of clearcoat gone and I was going to hide that (in pictures at least) with triangles of vinyl but leave the good paint still to be seen in other areas.   

In reply to Indy - Guy :

So for a minimal vinyl decal package this year, maybe a Swedish flag on the hood and a Swedish-color rising sun on the trunk or vice-versa...you'll just need 2 colors of vinyl for that.

Tom's Guide to getting on the cover:

Don't paint it a dark color. Period. Definitely don't paint the hood black.

Don't sticker it up with anything controversial, like the rising sun flag. Doesn't bother you? Doesn't matter--we pick cover photos for a worldwide audience. 

Do properly apply the sponsors decals.

Do paint the car with a single, cohesive theme.

Do leave room and plan for the sponsor decals.

Do make it visually interesting.

The official GRM livery is fairly intentional, and purposefully easy to replicate if it provides any inspiration for what you're going for.

Stripes in duct tape would be my easy button. Or duck tape over painter's tape so it's easier to remove.

Wide blue painter's tape with red & blue duct tape can get you a cheap Martini livery.

So following Tom's advice that the rising sun pattern is too spicy and after careful study of NOHOME's reference materials, I'm thinking that a Swedish flag hood and parody Ikea instructions in white on a blue background on the trunk could work. Maybe the trunk instructions could be about putting a Miata frame and Volvo body together, or running an autocross course and then a drag race?

I think IKEA sells finger paint, let the kids paint it! 

Might I suggest a couple turbo cans in white and then do the details?

Whatever you do, make sure the meatballs on the door are actual meatballs....

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

Yes, 100% this.

(Actual Meatball tm) meatball decals with the numbers done in gravy.

Sneak a link to the build thread into a flag?

(Sorry, it's busy/dense because I'm not a fan of URL shorteners.)

The roof could be interesting, although the shape might be a bit too square for the scale of the flag to fit in an eye pleasing way.

I like the idea of just incorporating an elongated version of the flag as a racing stripe rather than covering an entire panel. Something like this could be used down the center, offset to one side, or even along the rockers. It would be eye catching, without being shouty:

I also like the idea of using the colors without the flag itself. It opens up some more ideas for liveries, and/or subtle accents.

If the car will have a grille, then accenting a couple of the grill bars in the right colors can add a little pop:

If the car will eventually be blue, then something like this stripe would visually pop now and could possibly be retained for the full paint job in the future too. It can be used in small scale for subtle accent, or large scale to draw the eye. For a street vehicle I'd keep it subtle, but a track car can afford to be more bold. You could fit it on the front fenders behind the wheel wells, or go even bigger and do something like the GRM livery above, but base yellow with blue accents rather than red/gray of GRM: