# Vintage Decals that crumble! Help page



## zagar (Aug 1, 2009)

Those of you that know me know I sell a lot of vintage decals. Many have already seen this post elsewhere. But some may not have so I will add it here. This is a gonna be a little helper post for real old decals. One because finding that old bike decal can get really hard. And two because they offten just crumble to a gazillion pieces when they hit water like this:




Now water transfer decals are made by silkscreening lacquer onto a treated paper. In the old days the paper was coated with a vegetable oil. They silkscreened a clear boarder they sceened each color if more than one, and then rescreened the clear. Now to use these old decals take the decal and pin all four corners down on a piece of card board. Using an aeorsol clear laquer (I use Rust-oleum brand. Specialty Lacquer. Easily excessable at Wallys and hobby shops. It's a green and white can with pic of black chair. It has an excellent tack time) spray the decal with 2-3 coats of clear. Allow proper tacking time between coats:



Allow to dry. A hour is good if you used lacquer. Now when you sprayed the entire decal you have bridged the old boarder for the clear. Simply cut the decal from sheet using the old boarder:



Now you are good to go to apply only now with a decal that isn't likely to crumble to bits:



Applying your Decals

Before starting your tools are: squeegee or thumb (squeegee works best), flat bottom water contained a little larger than your decal (sink or pan), and a non porous work top (eg formica counter top). Run room temp water into your container. Soak your decal in water until it is saturated only. Be sure to hold ends so your decal does not curl up this can cause older decals to crack instantly. Set your decal on your work top to allow the bond to release from paper. If you paper continues to want to curl you will have to hold/or weight edges while it soaks. Allow a couple minutes for it to saturate so the bond is totally gone. Take your decal to the object you are wishing to apply it to. Now slide the decal to the edge of the paper so that you can actually slide the paper out from underneath the decal thus allowing the decal to land in place. Work air bubbles to edge with squeegee or thumb.​


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