Hey guys,
I've seen all kinds of beautiful xAs with body kits, 2 tones, etc., but almost nobody has any vinyl side graphics. I'd think that you could get yourself a nice looking car for little $$ that way, if you have a good eye for picking something.
xBs owners have no problem with using side graphics. Seems odd that almost nobody has posted pics for an xA, not even pinstripes. Is there a reason for this? I've been thinking about doing this myself, but was looking around for some ideas. Anybody seen any?

 

Actually I have been looking into this for a while now and it's hard to get any info directly form a human being at the shops that do stickers/vinyl. I wanted a custom job and there has been complete silence from the other end on 2 cali shops.

It's also not very popular at shows. An expensive paint job gets allot more attention.

 

I, for one, don't plan on any shows. I think the majority of xA owners are more budget-minded and are looking for more economical ways of fixing up their ride. I think I'll be playing with Photoshop and see how I can try out different designs that way. I may have to do this all by myself.

 

shoot me an e-mail and I will work with you on designs and ideas.

 

just from what i've observed around here.....

the scion community is focused on a "clean" look, and letting the car itself take front and center. You will find cars with a rollcall in the strong minority, and typically the only stickers on a scion are their club sticker. All three models have great lines and their owners put that foremost, and choose to keep the body clutter-free. Two-toning is often to accent the car's lines, and you'll notice this some in posts where there are questions about how to two-tone, where first consideration is always on where the colors hit the car's lines.

that said, i did see one sexy car on here with stars on the side. nice.

again, this is only what i've found from hanging around SL....my car's only non stock are trim rings and tint, so i'm sure there are others with far more expertise, but after a couple drinks, hell...i'm an expert on nearly everything.

 

here are some graphics that i had on my car a while ago. this was when this was over a year ago. what ya'll think?!

 

from back in the day....late '03...my 2nd car show with the xA..

 

Nice comments from all! There are always many with logos. And it's certainly easier to find something nice when you are working with a white car.
Motoskin has a lot of very nice designs. Just the sort of thing I was looking for. And a great price as well. I'll have to keep this in mind when I'm ready to go ahead.

 

The designs are good starting points for creativity. Your imagination is the key as well as your personality.

 

I had a bunch of graphics on my car for a while, you can see it in my profile (not a good picture but you get the point). I do vinyl graphics for a living so I figured it would be the bet way to advertise, I decided it was just too much for the car so I recently took it off. I'm gonna put something else on it when the weather gets a little better, I just gotta figure out what I can do that wont take away from the car itself as much.

 

I think the silver scion on the commercials looked cool. I think it had some type of checkered design on the side with rear wing,

I thought it maybe worth it to get some wraps to go over the front air dam, hood and mirrors for bug and rock protection of the pain.

Not that I know much about wraps, but I was jerked around by a guy who did them. He told me the trucking company I work for should look into it to make the truck the color the company who uses them have them that way, then we could peel them off when that company turns it back in. He also mentioned his car and wrapping cars too. I inquired about wrapping my car vs painting it since he said that was basically what he was doing with the trucks. Well, turns out when I wanted to make my black benz white, it was too difficult, would cost too much in materials, not to mention labor. He said it would be thousans of dollars and he wouldnt attempt it.

 

Yes, finding a good balance is not easy. I've been looking around and I have found some pics of xAs with vinyl, but still trying to get the right feel for it. I'm also not sure how it would look with my flint mica, being a metallic paint, how a 'non-metallic' vinyl would look on it.

 

Well there are plenty of metallic vinyls out there. They come in a ton of colors and levels of metallicness(?) Part of what I had on my car was a flake dark blue.

 

my sides are a metallic blake flake vinyl

 

Nice!! Just the type of thing I'm looking for. How do you like that vinyl, Scionpilot? Did you do that yourself, or professionally done?

I haven't seen any web sites that say anything about a 'metallic' vinyl. So it would seem that it would be a really good idea to do shopping where I can see what I'm getting in order to get a good match up with my paint.
If I did any on-line shopping for a DIY project, what level of 'metallic-ness' would be good? What unit is used for measuring that?

Nemesis XA has some vinyl as well....

 

scionpilot....what have you done with the headlights????they really stand out!

 

xa-llent: Theres no real measurement for how metallic the vinyl is. It basically comes down to the fact that theres different companies who make the vinyl all with different levels of 'metallic-ness'. A lot of companies have a metallic and an ultrametallic. Most likely regular matallic is what your looking for, as the ultrametallic would be overkill and not match your stock paint. Too bad you dont live near here, I have A LOT of books full of sample vinyls that I could show you.

 

the vinyl is made by 3M, and was professionally put on, I tried once, but failed miserably.

Bob, I painted my headlights

 

If I had it to do over again, I'd get white....that color just seems to stand out more.....

 

i was looking to get something airbrushed on my car....but this route was alot more affordable