I left this part of the restoration at the end of my holidays in September. At the time I was waiting for new plotting foil to arrive. And this was because I was in need a new right hand rear wing stripe (…) and the two slightly adjusted short stripes on the front wings. I also wanted to change the TR7 logo underneath the blanking plates on the rear wings. Sadly at the time we had run out of black cutting plotter film. But since previous week that problem was solved.
As the plotting file shown above had been prepared already a few months ago, it was quickly loaded into the plotter. And the outlines of the remaining pieces (and a few spares) where cut into the film within a few minutes. But due to the gloss black finish of the (PVC) film it was rather difficult to determine the exact position and outlines of the various separate pieces.
This didn’t really help with the next stage of converting the digital file into separate striping pieces and decals: The time consuming task of removing all the excess film material from the sheet. To start with the larger “outside” sections on the sheet. An hours’ worth of carefully removing excess film produced the clear outlines of the various pieces.
After which came the next task of removing the various “inside” pieces. Though again time consuming, with the correct tools (shown in the picture at the top of this post) this too went very well. Have to admit that it was a rather fiddly job. But also rather rewarding. An evening well spent!
The next stage was cutting up the sheet and adding the application film to the various parts. Despite all the correct tools, this clearly took much longer than expected.
But all the parts are now ready to be applied to the car. And I have a few spare sets in case they wear of or get damaged somehow. Another evening well spent!
Can’t wait to see them all fitted to car! But another (short term) project in between first. Probably more on that soon.
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