stencils

wow, has it been a long time since i've posted. and, yes, it has been that long since i've touched the bug. i've had good intentions but a new kid and some pretty big responsibilities at church have been taking up my time.

however, enough with the excuses. i've never really done anything with spraypaint and i'm not what you would call an artistic person. so it was a whole new realm for me.

after a little research and a great idea from Jason, i got some stencils that i wanted to put on the bug. so, while the rest of the family was up in Michigan visiting relatives, i got busy doing some stenciling. below is how i did it and my comments about what i learned.

1.) once i got the images the way i wanted and the size i wanted, i printed them out onto transparancy film. big note here... don't use transparency film! it's just too thin to make a good stencil. harder to cut out the smaller stencils and the little bit of breeze outside really blew it around. using some spray mount would have helped but next time i'll definitely get real stencil film to print the images out on.

2.) using an ex-acto knife and a self-healing mat, i went to work cutting out the stencils. this actually wasn't as hard as i thought. but it was more time-consuming than i thought. but, once you get in a groove it's not bad. just remember to take breaks so your hands don't get cramped too bad. doing the 3 stencils that i did, it took about 3 hours. not too bad for my first time.

3.) if the stencils are significantly smaller than the piece of film, cut it down as this will make taping easier.

4.) once i got the stencils all done, i taped them onto my car using the blue painters tape. i then taped a bunch of cardboard around them. but, as you can see, i still got some bleed through. not a big deal, though since my paint job isn't showroom quality by any means. so the blurring and ghosting kind of go with the car.

5.) then i just sprayed. next time i'll definitely use less paint. that'll help with bleed through and i realized that it just didn't need that much.

so that's about it. pretty easy but time consuming. in case anybody wants the stencil images i used, i have them all here with a few others i've collected. enjoy!


weimar eagle


passenger side, celtic cross


driver side, celtic cross