What do you do when a very special car with unique decals is damaged. In the case of this Shelby Cobra, Signs for San Diego was able to help. 
The car had suffered some damage, it was superficial, but it required the removal of a set of die cut vinyl decals. Replacements were no longer available. Signs for San Diego redesigned the whole thing from scratch. We also did more than that. When a design starts over, we need to recreate the lines, shapes and look by hand. Even though we use computers and advanced software, the human eye and a lot of time is still required. Along the way there are opportunities to change the design to fit the application better. In this case we were able to embed a key word into the design – “Eleanor”.
For those not in the car cult, Eleanor is a name for a 1973 Ford Mustang in the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” (1974, Henry Blight Halicki, worth the time – watch it). “Eleanor” received star title credit in that movie. There is a remake using a 1967 Mustang in 2000 (not nearly as good, Nicholas Cage and some girl with bad hair)
This car is much better than the cars in these movies. It comes stock with over 600 HP and the drive train to match. The original GT500 would do 0-60 in about 6 seconds (fast), this new car will do it in 3.7 seconds (unbelievable). The quarter mile is also better (13.7 vs 11.5). This new Mustang is a total beast. Oh, I lost my train of thought, back to the Cobra decal…
The problem with this sort of thing is this design it a matrix of open space (Holes) and lines. On the flat, this is pretty easy to do, but this car is far from flat. It has side cowling that is dramatically different from a standard Mustang. This required a special material – an Avery car wrap cast vinyl. It was “available” but not really. It is a factory order only material and took a lot of time to get. On top of that, we needed to cut it. It will cut into the desired patterns and shapes, but the material is so stretchable it has a difficult time retaining that shape during the install. This is the advantage and the disadvantage of the material. The advantage is we were able to stretch it to form one complete, unbroken pattern over the entire cowling and contour of the car. The Disadvantage was that this web of material effects every other part in ways that are extremely difficult to control. It took about 4 hours per side to install this over the cowling.
The results were dramatic. The Cobra motif was much better than the original, It was a unique design and the installation (thanks to the material and the time) was not spliced anywhere. This took a lot of time, time to get the design right, time to get the correct material and time to do the install. It is also the only Shelby Cobra to have this design. Was it worth it? I don’t know. Is it worth it to have a car that scares small children and grown men?
Have a special car wrap need? Or maybe you just want to advertise on your commercial vehicle – give us a call.
