Here’s something different ..
I am used to getting work where people want Distressed or patina lettering done to match a old rusty vehicle, but this was pretty much the direct opposite.
Restoring the old water slide decal on this old Kiekhafer gas tank was a challenge, in getting the colors correct and as you can see in the pictures there is some work still left.
The next step is leaving for a professional automotive finish taking care of matching the red on the rest of the tank and a few more layers of clear to fill in the scrapes. after that this thing will be looking brand spanking new!
While some might have trouble understanding why one would restore this old decal rather then simply replacing it? The thing is that these old water decals where printed using printing techniques of the time that are not around any more. And upon inspection there is a lot of character and depth in them which can not be replicated with todays digital resources.
I am not decided on call this technique “reverse patina” , “manual photoshop” or “swedish winter” ? hmmm
