Paint vs. Vinyl

I am shopping around now that I have my design completed and on CD to get my graphics either painted or on vinyl, and am leading heavily towards the paint at this time. All this depends of course on the boss, my wife! I spoke with several paint shops and individuals in my area who are known for their good work. I was really impressed with some back yard guys who used to work for some of the local body shops and saw their work on their rides (an old chevelle, a new dodge and a few others). They looked at my work and said they could do it and definately appear to be as anal as I am about detail and perfection in art work and paint jobs. I am veryyyyyy picky! While going over the vehicle, it became apparent that more would have to be taped off than at first thought. One interesting obstacle is the plastic fender guards on the rear fenders. If they are removed can I purchase them from GM parts direct and if so what is the part no.? They said they could paint right over them but that it would be best to remove them and do the clearcoat. They plan on using a combination of the createx autoair paints and some house of color products they have found to be compatible with the createx brands. The clear will obviously be the urethane type. I figure I can leave the vehicle with them while I go to Costa Rica in July and when I get back it will be done. Time for job is approx. one week or a little more.

If I choose vinyl, then regardless of dpi, and I do have a version of my design at 1200 dpi to size (not scaled) that is so enourmous in size I had to break it up into four CD's on my mac to get it all down. Even with that being actual size on the cd of the actual vehicle, vinyl is hopelessly pixelated but a whole lot cheaper and can be removed later and changed or upgraded, especially if I get into an accident. I can do stuff on the computer that simply can't be duplicated by hand but then, the quality is the issue.

A third option is to do "One Shot" enamels directly over the clear coat. This looks good but they fade after four years and can also come off very easily. The paint is also brittle and tends to chip a good bit which is why you often see nice pinline jobs with bits and pieces missing after a while if they have not been clear coated over. If I clear coat over the one shot, the fading is still the problem but the cost is less.

All in all, I will know soon before I go on my anual surf trip to Costa Rica, but hey, I found a great place that is always head high and double and triple overhead most certain on each trip out of the 9 that I have taken there!