How are pictures and logos painted on vehicles?

July 15, 2015 6:58 AM

I've been curious for a while about how pictures and logos are painted on trucks, company cars, etc. Is it done by machine, and if so what is this machine like? I've noticed on some trucks that, when viewed at a close distance, the pictures have Ben-Day dots (think color comic strips in newspapers, or Roy Lichtenstein's work), so I'm imaging a machine akin to a printer, except I don't really know how that would work for painting a vehicle.
posted by st elmo's fire to Technology (5 answers total)

Generally this is done via vinyl wraps.
posted by julthumbscrew at 7:02 AM on July 15, 2015 [8 favorites]

Almost none of the graphics or logos you are seeing is painted these days. The majority (if not all) are vinyl graphics that either printed in one go or composite printed (a layer of one colour with detail done in a different colour) and then the flat sheet is kind of moulded and stretched onto the shape (heat guns and manual stretching only) so that you don't see the folds that would make it obvious it is an additional layer.

Race car graphics are done the same way and I have put many a vinyl graphic onto a car this way.
posted by Brockles at 7:33 AM on July 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

The dots are actually Halftone. Contemporary vinyl printing presses can use lots of different color inks, but creating the illusion of a full color spectrum by Halftoning CMYK 'process color' is still fairly standard practice.

Here's a video of a couple of yahoos trying to apply fake carbon-fiber vinyl wrap to a car hood for the first time.
posted by j03 at 8:11 AM on July 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Water transfer printing previously on the blue. Really interesting process. Might not be exactly what you're asking about, though it is used to put designs, logos, etc. on cars and other three dimensional objects.
posted by skewed at 8:26 AM on July 15, 2015

This may be exactly what the Asker is looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzleiGCplM
posted by TinWhistle at 8:41 AM on July 15, 2015 [4 favorites]