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I have only put vinyl lettering on the widnows of my own vehicles, all of which have flat glass.
I now have a van that I am putting lettering on for a customer. It is a Plymouth Grand Voyager. The rear window is really contoured.
I put on the first row of lettering and I believe I lined it up straight. However, when you look at it the text looks arched. Is this normal or did I do something wrong?
How do you suggest lining it up? Is it a good or bad idea to use the rear defroster lines? Any tips will be appreciated.
------------------ Amy Brown AMBO Design Lake Helen, FL jabrown@cfl.rr.com
"If only my toddler was better with paint & computers!"
Posts: 3502 | From: Lake Helen, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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Amy, you'll have to find the correct negative radius. We have a formula worked out for some of the typical front windshields we do. It's easy to do. Enter a 1/16" thick 36" long straight line on your computer, then enter a negative arch figure of around -142" and run it. Do it on the bottom of the web so you'll have the upper area to run your copy. Premask just the area of the stripe, take it outside and see if it ends up tracking the convex window in a straight line. If not, correct for +or- and run it again. Once you have the figure, log it in a book. We keep one for different windshields. A quick reference gives Rosemary the right negative arc to do the job.
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
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If the window were like a tin can, your lettering would be straight and look straight.
Think of a curved windshield as being a section of a globe - it curves up down and left right. In that high school geometry class that everybody hated, they taught us that the shortest distance on a globe is not a straight line but a curve. That's all you need to know about the math.
The result is, you lay down a line of text, and, lo and behold, it either smiles or frowns at you.
We just wing it. Take masking tape and lay down your straight line. Lets say it smiles. Arc the ape frowny until it looks straight. Then lay down the vinyl on that line.
Being an old engineer, I like Pierre's way, but there's no chance of ever teaching it to most people. Pierre will tell us if I'm wrong. Vic G
------------------ Victor Georgiou AnchorBlanks.com Handcrafted Designs-Cut to Any Size Wholesale Only
Posts: 1746 | From: Danville, CA , USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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You're NEVER wrong, Vic!!..............so far. hehe
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com 800 735-8026 We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)
Whenever I do a windshield or back window with a compound curve I will first lay a piece of premask across the general area the signage is to go. Then I sketch the actual area I'd like the line or lines of lettering to appear as well as a point of reference like the edge of the glass or defroster lines if I would like the copy to concur with those lines. I carefully remove the premask to avoid stretching or tearing it and lay it on a flat surface like a table. The 3 dimensional curved surface is now made flat and 2 dimensional. I simply take measurements and draw the 'containing area' on my computer screen and create and distort the lettering as necessary to fit that containing area. Works great for me!
Happy Signing.......Marty
------------------ Marty Happy Signmaker Since 1974 Happy Ad Sign & Design Regina SK, Canada S4N 5K4
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Hi Amy...One thing no one has mentioned here and it works great for me ...since one person can only reach the center of the windhield alone I make sure all the lettering is an equal distance from the top edge using that distance to line everything up I cut my line of copy in half (or as close to center as possible) and as I work my way across the windshield (one letter at a time) I split the masking between the letters and keep laying them down as I go.
"Werks fer me it'll werk fer you."
Curious tho....does anyone else do this?
------------------ Monte Jumper SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla.
We been good!
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