[ta-kid]

Anybody ever painted the hood decal on a Trans Am to add different colours to existing factory colours or restoring colours?
This is done all the time on RV motorhomes to change decal colours or to restore faded decals.

[VCho455]

It may be easier or cheaper to get a wrap for the hood.

[MUSLCAH]

Saw it done on ...Iron Resurrection....all air brushed.

Looked great too

[ta-kid]

Thinking of adding some more colour and the 2K clear it instead of a new decal.I like to persnalize it a bit for a more interesting appearance.But still debating with myself over the idea.Can always replace if I am not happy with it.Its a 78 standard Martinique blue T/A with the standard blue bird.I am just finishing up the paint correction and changing to Gold decals with a camel interior.The bird change on the hood is a bit of a pain to get done locally so I was thinking of adding some gold paint touches.

[Sirrotica]

I didn't do it myself, I had a bodyman and painter friend of mine do the one on my 73 T/A. It was 4 colors on a black car, (originally a buccaneer red car).

It was all done in gold, silver, red, and blue metalflake. He accented it with air brushing, and then seperated the color borders with pin striping. I wish I had pictures of it, but the guy I had do it had his brother in law take professional pictures of it. I was supposed to get copies, but you know how sometimes good intentions get overidden by life occurances, I never got any pictures of it.

The inspiration of the bird came from an old iron on transfer T shirt I purchased back in the mid 70s with a bird all done in metalflake colors. I showed him the transfer on the shirt, and we went from that. It was a real work of art, but unfortunately the clear shrank over a period of years, and water got behind the bird and the hood started to rust. Once the rust got a foothold, it just slowly deteriorated from the backside. When I sold the car it was almost completely destroyed, The car was painted in the winter of 1979, and I held on to it through a divorce, and finally sold it in 2019. So it was 40 years old when I sold the car. Probably 25% of the bird had lifted, and peeled away from the hood in flakes. Every time I looked at the bird, it made me sick that it deteriorated over the years. It was the same size as the 73 decal, he took the tracing from the OEM hood decal.

He had almost 2 weeks worth of work just painting the bird, and the hood. It was done in lacquer, so the clear used in 2 part paint nowadays would probably have held up better. I had the same problem with lacquer clear shrinking on my 69 GTO with candy flames on it, same end result, water got under the paint, and caused rust. If you look in the backgrond of my 69 GP dirt car in the third picture in my signature pics, you can see the black 69 GTO with candy flames on it.

Two cars I had custom paint done on, and neither stood the test of time. Having seen some older custom paint from that, era done with lacquer paint that also the clear shrank, and crazed, and cracked, especially metalflake because the clear is so thick to cover the rough texture of the flake. After 2-3 years is when the problems started with both cars.

[ta-kid]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

I didn't do it myself, I had a bodyman and painter friend of mine do the one on my 73 T/A. It was 4 colors on a black car, (originally a buccaneer red car).

It was all done in gold, silver, red, and blue metalflake. He accented it with air brushing, and then seperated the color borders with pin striping. I wish I had pictures of it, but the guy I had do it had his brother in law take professional pictures of it. I was supposed to get copies, but you know how sometimes good intentions get overidden by life occurances, I never got any pictures of it.

The inspiration of the bird came from an old iron on transfer T shirt I purchased back in the mid 70s with a bird all done in metalflake colors. I showed him the transfer on the shirt, and we went from that. It was a real work of art, but unfortunately the clear shrank over a period of years, and water got behind the bird and the hood started to rust. Once the rust got a foothold, it just slowly deteriorated from the backside. When I sold the car it was almost completely destroyed, The car was painted in the winter of 1979, and I held on to it through a divorce, and finally sold it in 2019. So it was 40 years old when I sold the car. Probably 25% of the bird had lifted, and peeled away from the hood in flakes. Every time I looked at the bird, it made me sick that it deteriorated over the years. It was the same size as the 73 decal, he took the tracing from the OEM hood decal.

He had almost 2 weeks worth of work just painting the bird, and the hood. It was done in lacquer, so the clear used in 2 part paint nowadays would probably have held up better. I had the same problem with lacquer clear shrinking on my 69 GTO with candy flames on it, same end result, water got under the paint, and caused rust. If you look in the backgrond of my 69 GP dirt car in the third picture in my signature pics, you can see the black 69 GTO with candy flames on it.

Two cars I had custom paint done on, and neither stood the test of time. Having seen some older custom paint from that, era done with lacquer paint that also the clear shrank, and crazed, and cracked, especially metalflake because the clear is so thick to cover the rough texture of the flake. After 2-3 years is when the problems started with both cars.

I hear ya,Re-Thinking and may just put a new bird on the hood anyways.Original bird is checking and is 45 years old.Hopefully it will come off ok with a heat gun,

[1965gp]

Getting the old bird off the hood is tough- best of luck to you on that. Putting the new one on isn’t that bad as long as you mark the measurements with painters tape first.

[HWYSTR455]

Phoenix Graphix are the best, and they can do any color variation you can think of. They do many custom designs, and using an OE pattern as a starting point makes it pretty easy.

First thing is deciding on which pattern you want to use as a base:

https://phoenixgraphix.com/gm.php#trans_am

If you remove the existing old decal, you may end up being limited to the same pattern, or bigger. (Because you won't be able to match the shade(s) under the decal.)


.

[HWYSTR455]

Hitman has a pretty good breakdown of decals:

https://www.78ta.com/Pages/decals.htm

.

[ta-kid]

ordered new decals from phoneix