Lisa Kosobudzki is used to turning heads.
That’s one reason the Aurora resident is considering adding more vinyl graphics to the banner decals on the windshield of her charcoal gray 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
“You put graphics on a car, and it’s almost like getting new clothes. You want to show it off,” she said.
There was a time when hand-painting was the main way of creating signs, logos, flames, pinstripes or any other image for a vehicle. Computer technology has changed that over the last couple of decades, however.
Unlike the more time-consuming process of hand-painting or air-brushing images on vehicles, computer software and digital technology makes it possible in a matter of minutes to create vinyl decals that replicate hand-drawn sketches, pictures from magazines or photographs. And machinery has streamlined the time-consuming task of cutting out vinyl decals by hand.
Decals also have a plus over paint because the pliable vinyl is easy to peel off with the help of a heat gun.
“They can be removed, and you can re-do them. It doesn’t hurt the paint,” said Steve Zielinski, owner of X-treme Graphics and Lettering Inc. in Villa Park, a local shop that creates the graphics and customizes cars.
Realizing how easy it is to remove decals gives his customers the freedom to be themselves, knowing they will not be stuck with a girlfriend’s name emblazoned on a door after a break-up, or if their taste for fluorescent colors dims.
“That’s a big factor in why people do this. They can change their minds,” he said.
“It doesn’t affect a car’s resale value, either. You can strip the stickers off, and the paint stays intact,” said Greg Zoetmulder, manager of Lake Zurich-based Sticker Dude Designs, owned by his brother, Luke.
Customers’ creativity often impresses Zielinski, the Zoetmulders and others involved in designing decals.
Zielinksi said he has had customers ask him to copy paintings from art books and to make colorful images from those found in video games and magazines.
“I have kids who come in with Polaroids they took of the screen of a video game to show me what they want,” said Zielinski.
While bold and outrageous are popular among young people, Zielinski said many of his customers lean toward subtle and simple–a pinstripe down the car’s side or a set of initials above a door handle.
Like Zielinski, Cheryl Owen, owner of Racing Images Inc. in Lexington, N.C., said nearly anything is possible when creating images for decals.
She recalled a customer who brought in a wallet-size photo of his father, who had recently died.
Sitting down at her computer, Owen scanned the photo, retouched it, added a background of gray mist encircling the father’s face and printed a decal that was 4 by 2 feet in size.
“That was for a racecar,” she said. “It was the crew chief’s father who died. They put the decal on the hood of the car for a race. It was a tribute to his father.”
Other people use stickers to generate interest in their cars or play visual jokes. For instance, one customer at Sticker Dude had a photo snapped of his racecar while it was parked in the trailer with the tailgate down. The company made a decal of the photo and applied it to the outside of the tailgate.
“It looks like he’s going down the road with the tailgate down,” said Luke Zoetmulder.
When people approach the car at car shows, “they get about 10 to 15 feet away and they say, `Oh, sweet car’ and then they get closer and they realize it’s a picture [of the racecar],” he said.
Size, color no obstacle
Sticker Dude also has wrapped cars in massive decals, fashioning a leopard print that covered one car and an American flag around another.
Demand for decals has never been stronger, Owen, Zielinksi and the Zoetmulders agreed.
“Everything has gone vinyl,” said Luke Zoetmulder.
Stickers can now be created that have a range of shades for the same effect as air-brushing.
“It used to be we could just go from one color to another,” Luke Zoetmulder said. “Now, we can go from black to red to purple to blue–a whole rainbow of shades.”
The Zoetmulders estimated their company applies decals to 15,000 cars a year, including fleets for car dealers, radio stations and car shows.
Sticker Dude has a 76-foot semi-trailer that it takes to car shows. The trailer contains the computers and machinery to create decals for showgoers.
Tim Huston of Lake Bluff owns a red ’98 Ford Mustang with black flames trimmed in silver running down its sides.
Photos of the car, which he said have been featured in 20 hot rod magazines, are good advertising for his business, ASSC Racing in Lake Bluff, which customizes cars for drag racing.
“Strictly from a photographic standpoint, the magazines like my car,” he said. “And that helps my business.”
John Madeley of St. Charles said he has spent about $20,000 customizing his black 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS with a checkerboard graphic on both sides. He takes the car to shows, where he has brought home trophies for categories such as Most Beautiful Car.
“That’s the best money I ever spent on a modification,” he said. “Before that it was just another black Chevy Impala. I needed to do something to get people to look at my car.”
Madeley said he has brought home seven trophies in the last year.
A personal look for everyone
Zielinski’s company, which has three employees, works on five to 10 vehicles a day in the summer and averages about one a day in the winter.
He estimated that making a simple, full graphic, such as a single-color rip tear or flame running down both sides of a car, would cost $200. A more complex decal–using one color and a shadow outlining it for the hood, roof, trunk and both sides of the car, would cost $500 to $600, Zielinski said.
X-treme Graphics is where Kosobudzki turned when she wanted to create various looks for the 1994 GMC Sonoma pickup she recently traded in on the Eclipse.
“I used to change the look of my truck every year,” she said.
The final adaptation was sapphire blue flames along its gray body.
Though her truck was not used for shows or races, Kosobudzki said it turned heads when she drove it to work or the grocery store.
“It was an old, gray truck, but it was different from everybody else’s gray truck,” she said.
