clear coat over graphics?

[69hurstolds]

Dam, that bike looks great! Although, other than Rktpwrd, I doubt very many painters would go to all that trouble on your car unless you had money to toss around. Labor and materials cost money in retail world. I don't see clearing over vinyl attempts very often, but I've never seen a successful clearing over vinyl paint stripes in my life on any G-body. Zero.

So, as usual, it pretty much comes down to quality of materials and the correct prep, at a minimum. Something many painters don't have or take time to deal with. And even then, without testing, you have no idea how the paint will react with the vinyl.

I suppose living in warmer climates doesn't help. I'm sure my gray 85 didn't get that sort of love needed to prevent the issues it had with the clear. It bothered me in the sense that it wasn't clear-coated from the factory to begin with, why not just repaint the car? It was likely done in the mid-90s, you know, when clearcoat was at its "highest" quality. 😆 The decals were OEM, and they were discolored by clearing. Even where the clear didn't lift/crack. The clear was done probably in those "tween" years where GM stripes were drying up and aftermarket wasn't interested, or just too cheap/lazy (circle all applicable) to replace them. They were still kinda pricey even when available from GM.

Anything is possible, and it's not my money, but I'm still a NO. Don't do it. It's a lot of money to be gambling with. Especially if you use NOS decals. And having it turn out well seems to be the exception, not the rule.

 

[melloelky]

I can see both sides.doubling down on what Rktpwrd said given "proper" amount of clear mils, that decal will be protected from the uv creeping it off.if it's not a print(as in it's more than one color and/or doesn't have a clear film over it)I'll scuff it with a pad to knock the shine off/aid in the process/aid in me sleeping at night.it's always been small(er) scale too,never anything bigger than say a box of tissues.if it 's going over an existing clear it's important to lose that skinny ring of shine where the decal meets the clear.if it's over base there's no worry of that.I try and keep that 1st coat on kinda light and go from there.

 

[L05edSS]

Ok so the 87 442 is going back to the body shop now that I was able to get the engine, trans, exhaust finished and a bunch of wiring, the question I was having is, has anyone ever clear coated over their stripe graphics? I called the manufacturer who stated the obvious "we don't recommend it" however he did say some people have done it and it looks good.
I was hoping there was more info here from the group about it. I would like to have them under clear coat so they don't get damaged with washing and polishing.

Thanks in advance for the input.
Now I have to go look up what the factory placement of the graphics was, I'm sure that info is in one of these previous posts

imo from things i've watched such as vice grip garage. personally i would not put stickers under clear coat. not sure the cost of a hand paint artist but orig replacement stickers aint cheap either. if you could get the stickers redone by an artist;s had painting then clear it. another thing you can do is hit up someone who does custom wraps maybe they can reproduce orig stuff and add a personal twist that could be cheaper than orig repros... what i did with my ss.

i have a 86', never liked the factory stripes but the 85&86 monte carlo logos are pretty cool and so are the 83&84 logos. never cared for the 87&88 logos but like those lay down spoliers.

i found on ebay 83&84 homebrew logos for less than $40 in red to go on black, hired a local sign guy to put em on in the general vicinity of originals for $150ish (he did a few other things with clear paint protect film as well). i love what i got.

 

[spongbob]

I don't know " but ther is a clear sealer might just be the thing for intercoat ?maybe scrub the aplicah ( easy on edge) befor clear sealer and urethane clear? ...it's your call even if it's not 100%...I'm sure light coats and extra flash possibly: work at 60 degrees if possible ...but not over all just in the aplicah over lap ?