As I mention in my Rear Chop Job page, my rear fender got all scratched up so I wanted to create a "distraction" away from them.  

Here's the story:

 I looked around in catalogs and elsewhere to find that decals were so expensive. I didn't want to spend the money just to find out I didn't like them once put on! Then I sort of stumbled upon an idea...

I went to a local *auto* detailing shop in town. I just asked the guy what types of decal material he had. He told me that I could buy some of the stuff he uses when creating custom auto decals. There were plenty of colors to choose from. He said I could cut it out into any shape I wanted. It applies permanently, but he said it could be taken off with some hard work if need be. The back of it says, www.averygraphics.com. At the site, go to "Sign Making" when you get there. I'm not sure which is mine, but that's the stuff. It has like metal specks in it and I thought the gray I bought would be too dark on the bike. But once on, I liked the contrast and feel that a lighter gray would be too light on my dark blue bike. Just keep that in mind when you choose a color.

I bought 3-4 feet of the sheeting for 25 bucks! Now I can experiment with designs and if I mess up, no biggie! If you can dream it, you can decal it! I found many tribal flame stencils on the Internet and I settled upon these.

The material can be cut with scissors or exacto-knife. The shop worker's application advice was to fill a spray bottle with dishsoapy water. Spray the clean surface and the back of the decal. That way you can move the decal around a bit, but I guess you can't be pokey about it. Then he said to squeegee out the decal to flatten and let dry. I didn't need to do that
for my side covers, but I will for the fenders and tank.

I used a blow drier and scraped off the Suzuki decals from under the clear coat with my finger nails. I had to use Goo-Gone to get the adhesive residue off. Make sure that the tank is near empty or tilt the bike so the gas is off the area of the tank you are getting the decal off of.  The gas keeps the metal from heating up to the point where you can simply peel off the decal.  There is a depression where the Savage logos were, but I'm not concerned about that.

Reflection on my job:

• It wasn't too hard, but harder than I thought.
• I "eyeballed" it, so the decals are not perfectly symmetrical, but you'd have to look hard to notice.
• The spray bottle on the decal backing and bike surface made the job possible.  You could move them around and re-apply them over and over!
• I was sloppy cutting out the decals with my scissors.  It's my impatient nature.  Next time I would go really slow and carefully.
• I didn't really know how to handle the decal material, so I stretched it and tore it in several places.  But once down it looks okay.
• There's air bubbles under some areas of the decals.
• I'm concerned that the many sharp corners of the decals will lift.  When I wash the bike, fibers from the cloth get caught on them.  I'm looking for a wax or something I can put over them to keep the corners down. UPDATE:  I just use a sponge to wash the bike and the corners have been fine.
• I'm really happy with the look for price and time investment.
• With the materials being so cheap, I may redo it this summer or reincarnate it every new riding season!
• NOTE: -- I've noticed "browning" at the edges of one decal right below my gas filler cap.  I guess gas discolors, so clean the gas right off quickly.