NOT A TA
10-24-2009, 08:41 PM
Most track events require numbers on the car so they can be quickly identified by corner workers, emergency personel and other track personel if you do something wrong on track or go off track. You can get away with something cheap like blue painters tape or the shoe polish type stuff thyey use at the dragstrip track rentals and test and tunes but what fun is that?
We're building race cars with license plates so why not spend a couple bucks and a little time to make the car look really cool in the pics you will have forever afterwards. I change the stickers on my car before every track event. It's fun and makes it easy to figure out where a pic was taken as the years go by.
I recently attended a Land Speed Racing event out in the Everglades and needed to switch the numbers on my car so I figured I'd take a few pics and write a quick thread based on my experiences.
First of all the magnetic things used on your favorite plumbers truck are ok for slow stuff like an auto-X but they tend to fly off at somewhere around 100 MPH depending on the car. So if you're just going to slower type events they're a quick , easy reusable way to put numbers on. If you show up at a road course or land speed event they'll probably tell you in tech inspection to tape the the magnetic sign thing so they don't fly off.
I've been using vinyl stickers made with with what the sign guys call low adhesive. It's a very thin vinyl used by real estate companies to change the agents name and # on the signs they stick in the lawn in front of homes for sale. They can be die cut or printed on depending what type of look you want. For the stickers in this "how to" I wanted individual numbers that look like they might be painted on.
Once a design has been set up by a sign shop they keep the program in the computer so you can easily get more stickers or go back and tweak the look you're after before another set is made. Prices have ranged from 45.00 for a set of 4 for the circle type with the 14 I usually use for road track events to 125.00 for a fancy die cut set with printing and a 4 digit number. If you think it's expensive just try another shop. There's also online shops but I like using local shops so I can work with them to get the dimensions right to get the appearance I want.
Here's a sticker I'm about to install. The stickers are sandwiched between 2 sheets of special paper. The small numbers are regular stickers for the front and rear windows at this particular event. Different organizations have different requirements and if you don't follow them they'll put the shoe polish wherever they require the numbers to be for their event.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird058.jpg
Use some automotive masking tape to get the sticker in the position you want as shown in the pic below. Stand back a ways from the car and look at it to see if you like the positioning. Move as necessary and then use several pieces of tape over each number to hold the top of the sticker. Then cut the sticker between the numbers. It's harder to try and apply all of the numbers at the same time so why try if you don't need to? The tape you put above each number will keep them all in line.
Then remove the top of the backing from one of the numbers. Do not take it all the way off because it adds rigidity to the bottom of the sticker as you smooth the number on to the car with your thumb by going back and forth to prevent bubbles.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird054.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird055.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird056.jpg
Once all of the numbers are on the car peel one corner of the paper then slowly and gently peel it off till you get to the number. Keep a very tight angle when you peel off the area where the number is almost folding it back on itself. If you pull it straight out from the car it might peel corners on the numbers and stretch the vinyl.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird057.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird052.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/Sebring%2009/Sebring10309008.jpg
We're building race cars with license plates so why not spend a couple bucks and a little time to make the car look really cool in the pics you will have forever afterwards. I change the stickers on my car before every track event. It's fun and makes it easy to figure out where a pic was taken as the years go by.
I recently attended a Land Speed Racing event out in the Everglades and needed to switch the numbers on my car so I figured I'd take a few pics and write a quick thread based on my experiences.
First of all the magnetic things used on your favorite plumbers truck are ok for slow stuff like an auto-X but they tend to fly off at somewhere around 100 MPH depending on the car. So if you're just going to slower type events they're a quick , easy reusable way to put numbers on. If you show up at a road course or land speed event they'll probably tell you in tech inspection to tape the the magnetic sign thing so they don't fly off.
I've been using vinyl stickers made with with what the sign guys call low adhesive. It's a very thin vinyl used by real estate companies to change the agents name and # on the signs they stick in the lawn in front of homes for sale. They can be die cut or printed on depending what type of look you want. For the stickers in this "how to" I wanted individual numbers that look like they might be painted on.
Once a design has been set up by a sign shop they keep the program in the computer so you can easily get more stickers or go back and tweak the look you're after before another set is made. Prices have ranged from 45.00 for a set of 4 for the circle type with the 14 I usually use for road track events to 125.00 for a fancy die cut set with printing and a 4 digit number. If you think it's expensive just try another shop. There's also online shops but I like using local shops so I can work with them to get the dimensions right to get the appearance I want.
Here's a sticker I'm about to install. The stickers are sandwiched between 2 sheets of special paper. The small numbers are regular stickers for the front and rear windows at this particular event. Different organizations have different requirements and if you don't follow them they'll put the shoe polish wherever they require the numbers to be for their event.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird058.jpg
Use some automotive masking tape to get the sticker in the position you want as shown in the pic below. Stand back a ways from the car and look at it to see if you like the positioning. Move as necessary and then use several pieces of tape over each number to hold the top of the sticker. Then cut the sticker between the numbers. It's harder to try and apply all of the numbers at the same time so why try if you don't need to? The tape you put above each number will keep them all in line.
Then remove the top of the backing from one of the numbers. Do not take it all the way off because it adds rigidity to the bottom of the sticker as you smooth the number on to the car with your thumb by going back and forth to prevent bubbles.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird054.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird055.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird056.jpg
Once all of the numbers are on the car peel one corner of the paper then slowly and gently peel it off till you get to the number. Keep a very tight angle when you peel off the area where the number is almost folding it back on itself. If you pull it straight out from the car it might peel corners on the numbers and stretch the vinyl.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird057.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/LSR%20Everglades%20oct%2009/Firebird052.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff292/NOTATA/Sebring%2009/Sebring10309008.jpg