What is the best method of applying graphics on finished carbon fiber products. in terms of -
- Quality
- Ease of application
I intent to clear coat on top
Do you have any experience?
I have experience with decals and paint but would seem this would be the same principle. You can get a vinyl decal made, but they are thick. You would have to clear coat 3 layers (first being mist coats to lock it in), sand, clear coat 3 more, sand and buff to hide the line. This takes days.
If what your wanting is simple say just one color, you can get a negative vinyl stencil made. You lay this up and use paint to spray the image on like a stencil. Once the paint is dry you take 1000 grit and lightly sand the paint to smooth out any edges made by paint building up on the edge of the stencil. Then 3-4 layers of clear and sand and buff.
I have also heard of people printing the image on rice paper and sticking that to the carbon by a layer of clear. Set the image and reclear like normal. I have done this with paint and when wet is semi transparent so you can see the carbon kind of where you didnt print on it.
Alternatively, high build clear coats would give you a thick enough coating to simply sand flat and polish.
The way it used to be done was with a water slide decal. Water slide decals are screenprinted with screenprinting inks on specially prepared water slide transfer papers. Like the kind found on model airplanes, etc.
The decals look great, are paper thin but have limited durability where abrasion can be a factor. On the other hand 50 year old decals are common. Rice paper decals are water slide decals.
Unless you do them yourself, very few companies are left that even know what they are or how to make them.
Right now i use stencils but the result is not that good , sometimes i get it right , sometimes i get it wrong - this is not acceptable . I must find a solid process.
Water transfer seems to be the way for me.
Thank you
I use a waterslide decal with a patch of 1oz or .5oz fiberglass cloth (i forget but its superthin) over it to protect it from abrasion. The reason I don’t use the ricepaper is because i need the logo to be white, and my printer doesn’t do that 
Do you have an idea what kind of decal or color transfer is this? https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s640x640/sh0.08/e35/12479607_1523362477972318_481868670_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTIyMjk3MzgwODk3ODc5Mzg2MQ%3D%3D.2
That’s possibly a print on rice paper or something similar, laminated over with fiberglass. In all likelihood they’re printing on top of the finished product.