If you look carefully, you might have seen some new stickers appear and disappear on my car from time to time. Thanks to RKADE and ORCA for all the sticker sponsorship so far! These gorgeous designs are absolutely badass!

There are two basic ways to put on vinyl, wet or dry. For most folk and for most stickers, the wet method is the easiest to lay down. The use of slightly soapy water allows infinite repositioning of the vinyl (unless it sticks onto itself), so mistakes can be easily fixed before drying. This also makes removal of those tricky, tiny air bubbles quite easy if done properly. However, this works extremely poorly for complex shapes and complex curves, as the benefits of easy removal make conforming vinyl over these surfaces hard to do; the wet stickers won’t stick easily and don’t work with a heat gun. (Of course, I’m not saying it isn’t a possibility, but in my limited experience it isn’t very easy to do.)

The other method is to apply the vinyl dry, in which case it is extremely useful to have a heat gun. Heating the vinyl allows it to stretch and shrink to some degree, conforming to curves and body shapes of car panels. For large sheets of vinyl, having two sets of hands to prevent vinyl from sticking on itself and help to push out the bubbles is a huge boon.

As I might have mentioned before, I wanted to adorn my car with an Evangelion theme. So I enlisted my friend Aleks to help me apply a decent size cut of vinyl of Sachiel for my front hood and right fender. This is actually my second attempt, as the first time I tried this, I failed to apply it cleanly. I had considered trying the wet method this time around since the curves aren’t that “complex,” but I thought it would be worth one more try.

With the extra set of hands and a heat gun, we proceed to lay it out, moving carefully a little bit at a time. The result was actually pretty good from a few feet away. There were a few air bubbles I failed to poke out, though, as this sheet of vinyl doesn’t have those “air release” holes or channels. No matter, as it isn’t anything a pin or razor couldn’t alleviate at a later time.

Now these next two are just for fun. As some of you may know, I am friends with Rodeo Cars and Matsuda-san. He has generously lent me the use of his garage and occasionally his expertise to work on my crap can… I mean, Alto Works project… So in a manner of speaking, I’m here to represent my “sponsorship” with him now that the car is at a point where I am proud of it’s looks. (Or less embarrassed?)

This was the initial plan, but I ended up ordering stickers a bit smaller due to the exponential cost increase with any larger sheets. In the end, the stickers still weren’t cheap. I won’t say how much… what do you think it costs?

Like the Sachiel decal, I will do this dry to allow it to go over the necessary surfaces.If you look super carefully, you might see the mistake I made with the pink side of the sticker. Otherwise, from a few feet away it is otherwise not so noticeable. Not to mention the colors are so bright and contrasting, most won’t be staring that close...

...but I notice it...