So my Camaro has been mostly parked due to multiple factors. Safety rules changes have prevented me from hillclimbing her and frankly driving her stopped being fun. I've been kicking around the idea of selling her. Then I brought her to a downtown main street style car show and had an absolute blast.
People were looking at her the way I used to. Children were super excited to see a race car and lost their minds when I let them sit in it. It's given me a renewed interest.
Between the wheels and the spoiler she's always had this sort of Saturday night short track aesthetic, and when my magnetic numbers began to crack I leaned into it with the permanent numbers.
Now I'm considering doing the full sticker package and giving it that real early 90's riverside park speedway look that caused me to fall in live with racing to begin with.
Here, dear readers, is where I finally get to the point. I don't want to be a ricer and just plaster my fenders with any ol stickers. I only want to represent parts or products I actually use. Many of those parts came with no or only 1 sticker which found its way onto a toolbox at some point.
Where would I go about finding these stickers without paying like $5 a peice for them?
To add another complication, it was suggested to me that I should decal up the fenders, but I should only use the era specific logos of the various manufacturers. Intriguing but exponentially more difficult.
Advice and guidance will be appreciated, criticism begrudgingly tolerated.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
Find an independently owned vinyl shop. I suggest the independent because they are more likely to play fast and loose with the whole copyright thing. With the help of the internet, a good shop can make you most any logo.
In reply to John Welsh :
That is precisely what I don't want to do. Full colour stickers would be $15+ a peice.
Focusing mostly on the modern iterations, is there a source for such things?
The independent vinyl shops are the best and cheapest option for anything you can't find pre-made from the usual online retail places (including Aliexpress where copyright is little more than an abstract concept). If you look at what goes into it, $15 for a one-off or small-batch multi-color sticker isn't bad.
Riverside Park was one of my favorite places to go. Having the amusement park right there made a fun weekend.
For the contingency stickers on the front fender, eBay is a pretty good source. There's usually a few sellers that have them grouped by era, late 80s, early 90s, etc. sometimes they get pricey or come in large lots but I'd start there. As for numbered and lettering I'll echo everyone else and find someone local. There's usually someone that does most of the field at every short track. They're going to be able to help with design work and often have the artwork to make up many of the small part decals as well.
For a Camaro id be tempted to do an IROC series car. The schemes were simple, a handful of decals in either black or white depending on the body color.
Some of those decals are from companies that are still around, and their decals pretty much look the same. Moroso, Quarter Master, GoodYear, and Tilton for instance
I also want to clarify, I'm not trying to replicate that red and white car, I'm trying to replicate the feel of that car.
I've made custom decals before when I worked for a sign shop. I know the work that goes into it. $15 per times 20 or so stickers on each side and we start talking significant money for something that doesn't make the car any faster.
While I do get lucky in that some companies haven't changed logos and some others offer 'throwback' logos (I just got a neat one from Summit) some companies have the opposite problem. Almost all of my suspension is UMI
UMI is about 20 years old. In that situation would you leave them off entirely? Just use their modern logo? Do I imagine and design an alternate history faux vintage decal?
Why is every simple thing secretly complicated?
You could try simply writing a letter to the companies and ask them nicely if they could send you a couple stickers. Tell them what you're doing and that you're using their products, you never know - it wouldn't hurt them to slip a couple stickers in an envelope and mail them to you.
As far as that goes, manufacturers often include stickers in the box when you buy something - for instance, when I bought a Hurst shifter for my old Pontiac there was a Hurst sticker in the box when I received it.
I'd find a local vinyl print shop.
In reply to AClockworkGarage :
That is awesome about using UMI. I bet if you sent ashley or ryan an email they'd send you some decals or work with you. I'll be at the KOTM event next week.
