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Best/Cheapest Source for Cooley Graphics ??

Gregory

Gregory

Forum Mentor
Past Site Supporter
As many of you know Chuck H is working on restoring a basket case Cooley and we are approaching the expensive painting phase of the project.

I am wondering if anyone knows a way to save money on the expensive decal sets?
 
Basically, we were mulling over a more cost effective source other than Diablo ( formerly Reproduction Decals ) price. As i mentioned to Greg, graphics places can probably make them..but at what cost?

The plus side of the kit is that the pinstripes come die cut and preshaped for places like around the fairing..and they include all the tank and side cover lettering in one neat package.

We are looking for as many places that have the kits and thier pricing. Need to decide a plan of action so we can get them in the painters hands.
 
Time is money. If your painter can apply all the decals correctly, and w/o wrinkling them, then go for it. They make it easier to determine the dimensions of the stripes, too..especially the gas tank..which is the most difficult part to say the least. I just never liked the seams and the fact that they're pretty thick..which is why I painted them, but there's something to be said about the decals making it easier in the long run. You'd have to, I assume, paint the parts white, apply the black and white decal stripes, cover them with a bit of clear, then spray the blue in between them and clear again. You don't want to put masking tape directly on those freshly applied decals or you chance pulling them off when you remove the tape.
 
Paint the white, tape off and paint the blue then add black 3M tape stripe and clear the whole shebang?

DSC04136.jpg
 
Thats been my arguement as far as just getting the kit..

Proper stripe width.
Already die cut for the curves around the fairing...laying nice without glumpy chitty looking curves.
Ease of application...usually.
Right colors.
The original bike were decals and are SUPPOSED to be felt thru the clear. Its my belief that thats the way it should be done.
Either way trying to skimp and save 20 or 30 buck is gonna backfire and cost more in the end run.
 
Last edited:
Dale, the stripe around the fairing is actually a black and white combo deal. Me and Aaron just went over my bike with a fine tooth comb yesterday for him to see whats what as an example.
 
The Reproduction Decal kit is high quality, and worth the money in my opinion. The tape stripes go down on top of your own paint mask lines and give you an opportunity to correct any minor misalignment or bleed through spots that may show up. The graphics themselves are sort of fiddly, and there is a learning curve associated with dealing with them, but overall they are a real timesaver.

One warning is that the white color is pretty bright so you either need to color match your paint against that, or live with a mismatch. In talking to the owner at RD about the color, they claim to have matched against a NOS set of Suzuki decals someone provided. The white paint on both 1000S's I've restored was quite a bit more yellow, which I think was in large part do to yellowing clear, but I'm not sure if that explains the full story.
 
rustybronco said:
Paint the white, tape off and paint the blue then add black 3M tape stripe and clear the whole shebang?
Click to expand...

My only concern with that approach would be that if you don't lay the blue out correctly, you can't really manipulate the decal stripes much to fit the blue. Those decals only go on one way and if you try to make them fit, because they are so thick, they'll fold and wrinkle. Another reason I didn't use them was because the white on the decal stripes (as mentioned above) is more true white then the color of the bike which is more of an off-white. I saw that on every one that I did. It's subtle, but they're different. Most people wouldn't even notice that or the seams, or the thickness. If you're going for an "authentic" restoration, the decals are the way to go, even with the flaws :D. I just always wanted it to look factory correct, but with a custom show finish.
 
Gregs intention is to sell it at some point ..but its gonna be so nice he may just want to keep it a while. In any case, and its, just me, I dont like cutting corners on the cosmetics. Im a "its right or its not" kinda guy when it comes to bikes and repairing them...but then again thats just my way of doing things.
 
nvr2old said:
My only concern with that approach would be that if you don't lay the blue out correctly, you can't really manipulate the decal stripes much to fit the blue.
Click to expand...
That is the issue, laying out the blue properly and will the painter want to take the time to do it properly. At least Chuck has a nice a specimen to go by.
 
Ive never used Aaron before but I did see his 450 he painted and he has gone to school for body and paint work. I am working on his bike doing all the brakes, calipers, and repaired a broke float post..and doing his valves for him. the bike is on my lift right now.

His 450 is gun metal gray and its a real nice job. So as far as the painting and getting it right, I am not worried about it at all. Pinsriping freehand versus die cut is a whole world of difference though.

Revelation is his screen name here on the fourm. Add is in the services section. Heck of a nice guy too.
 
I have a set of Reproduction Decals for the "S" I probably will not need for a while and rather than let them go bad, I could sell them at a discount.

What's your budget, I have the full set.
 
This one will be the US Blue and White...sorry. under the ugly green spray paint stuff there is actually the original blue paint on the frt fender and the under side is also solid blue, so it was blue originally.
 
Vmass said:
Oh, man!!!! That is really tempting..........Maybe doing a red one will entice Larry t o set up shop.:pray:
Click to expand...

You have no idea how close I came to painting my own S red. :D I want to do one really bad some day. Was that a Euro/Australia only paint scheme..? Would serial numbers reflect that..? I ask because it would be so cool to do a red one but only if it doesn't completely trash the authenticity of a blue one.
 
nvr2old said:
You have no idea how close I came to painting my own S red. :D I want to do one really bad some day. Was that a Euro/Australia only paint scheme..? Would serial numbers reflect that..? I ask because it would be so cool to do a red one but only if it doesn't completely trash the authenticity of a blue one.
Click to expand...

Larry, the Red & White one shown in the pictures above has the same paint scheme as the Blue and White, there is also the inverted paint scheme seen in Australia and maybe some countries in Europe which comes in both red/white or blue white.
I prefer the traditional scheme personally, just because that's what I'm most familiar with.
I'm not sure if they brought the Red & White to N. America, and not sure if the Red & White schemes were limited to a certain range of VIN's but I would guess they just ran them as a normal production run along with the Blue & White bikes.

If some-one is doing a "perfect correct restoration" then yes stay original colour, but it's definitely factory and period correct.

Here's my 1979S with the Red & White paint job, the bike came B&W but I had an off and decided on the new colours and it looked great.



PS. I saw a nice Red & White one for sale on ebay UK last month and the front fender was painted backwards, with the rounded part of the decal at the front, as if they had bolted it in backwards, but the speedo grommet was in the correct place, it looked all wrong.
 
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