Hi Dave, I've got a cutout on my battery too, I imagine the same type as yours but had also been looking into a remote isolator. Mine, like a lot of smaller jobs has sat on the shelf for a couple of months now. Ive got all the new cable and everything. My thoughts were either to have it inside the ear on the roof on the battery side, on the rear crash bar, or on the flat surface to the side of the rear window. I think I prefer the idea of having it hidden attached to the rear crash bar.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Nick, I think I’m going to go with the crash bar as you are suggesting. The cut outs in my air intakes aren’t big enough to get the key through for the isolator I have in mind. I just need to find a spot on the battery side of the car behind the crash bar that I can easily reach and won’t get drenched in mud/water off the road. If it’s on the top surface of the crash bar there’s not many places where it won’t be visible through the grilles in the lower cut outs of the clam

You could always fit it through a small electrical box and seal it all up. I suppose then it's a bigger thing to try to fit/hide but at least you wouldn't need to worry about it getting wet.

Thanks Nick - I’ve also just found some 12v cut off switches for marine/boat applications that look a bit more waterproof.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/marine-batt.../bn_7024943528

As you say though they are larger and not very inconspicuous - I’m not really using it as a theft deterrent just to save my battery so might give one of these a go. Just off to look exactly where to fit it and will order one and the right sized cable and have a go at fitting once the bits arrive.

See if you can get one with a resistor in so that you can still keep power to stuff like the clock or radio. Worst thing about taking the battery off is the clock is always wrong and I lose all the radio stations.

I spent some time today assessing the paintwork I did earlier in the week using the blue Plasti Dip. I knew I needed to re-do large parts of the passenger side of the car, particular the door areas where there were large runs, but on closer inspection I reckon I need to apply at least another 2 - 3 coats on the drivers side, and as I need to start again on the passenger side, that’s another 5 - 6 coats at least.

Calculating the amount of Plasti Dip I need for this, it’s getting a bit silly given that this is an interim job until I get the car professional painted.

So I’m currently debating either leaving it as-is, taking all the Plasti Dip blue off (as I said on an earlier post the good news is that it does peel off the fibreglass as it’s supposed to do off normal paint) or attempting to recreate the same effect using vinyl.

Looking at the first option here, to be honest I can’t really bring myself to taking this out on the road given the state of the passenger side. So that really only leaves taking it back to white (but leaving all the decals/stickers on) or trying to recreate the same effect in vinyl.

The stripes and door areas are quite simple as I can get vinyl in 50mm and 100mm widths which makes the majority of the stripes pretty easy to deal with, and having spent a day masking the car up for paint, it’s not that much more effort to get a decent job using vinyl. The trouble areas are the ears next to the intercooler.

The other challenge is matching the colours, as I can’t find a supplier who can do same colour vinyl in 50mm, 100mm and standard 1520mm widths.

So this I’m currently leaning towards having a go with vinyl (which means pulling the Plasti Dip off first) but going with this colour scheme (which is still Ford Original from what I can remember).

https://i.ibb.co/yd38kx8/DAD59-D21-4...5676538-D8.jpg

....

https://i.ibb.co/wKf8nkJ/85-E1-D636-...F2056-FFAB.jpg

Any thoughts and feedback from you all would be gratefully appreciated as they say!

I managed to spend a couple of hours at Rally Day at Castle Combe today, where there were no less than 3 original RS200s as well as the new Retro RS200 kit.

Seeing the exact same stripe colouring on a genuine car (C200 RAN) has swayed me into deciding I will be taking the Plasti Dip off and replacing it with vinyl. I also managed to speak to the owner of DMB graphics who had a trade stand at the show and he has also used vinyl stripes on his RS200 replica.

https://i.ibb.co/Y8f74vF/BE098-BA3-9...F6-C19-BAA.jpg

It’s going to take a couple of days to get the vinyl so I will press on with putting the door cards back in and sorting the interior out. I will post some updated pics once I’ve done the vinyl swap.

Too wet today to get the car out of the garage to give myself enough space to put the door cards in, so before pressing the button on buying the vinyl I thought I’d better be 100% certain on what it’s going to look like with a bit of Photoshop editing....

https://i.ibb.co/61v4Hfg/706-FDA19-3...27-F3-D200.jpg

The light blue here is probably a bit lighter/vibrant than the colour I’ve decided on for that specific vinyl strip but should look ok. And I’ve had to go for gloss rather than matt vinyl as it’s proving difficult to find the two 50 and 100mm vinyl stripes in the right width in matt rather than gloss.

I reckon the gloss will add a nice contrast to the matt finish you've got on the bodywork.

That's what I would have been going for on mine. I also struggled with finding the correct widths from the same company so ended up buying some very big strips with the intention of cutting them down to fit. This of course can cause a problem if I even got a mm difference on a strip as I think it would be very noticeable.

Looks good with the three colours, I like it!

Thanks Nick - the gloss is certainly adding a contrast from the 100s of stickers/decals I’ve now got on the car :-)

I know what you mean about cutting the vinyl rather than sourcing the right width stripes. I did have a go using some spare black vinyl I had and I could probably manage the 100mm stripe but the 50mm one was too thin and kept moving about slightly as I cut it to the right width.

In the end I did find a UK based supplier of an Italian manufactured vinyl that could do the 50mm and 100mm stripes as well as standard 1.22/1.55m vinyl on a roll but unfortunately the stripes were a slightly different colour swatch/palette than the larger vinyl and I couldn’t get a close enough match on a dark blue.

All said I think I’m happy with what the effect should be using the three colours and having gone through the pain of masking it all up for when I made the Plasti Dip attempt, I feel more confident now that I can get a decent finish on the stripes using vinyl. There’s also a couple of tricks I picked up from the owner of DMB Graphics who used vinyl stripes on his about where to make some joins that shouldn’t show.

Will still leave the “ears” though which I know will be a pain particularly pulling the vinyl round the front aperture where the grilles are.

Hopefully the vinyl should be turning up tomorrow so I need to get on and pull the rest of the Plasti Dip off, marking up of course with masking first where the vinyl needs to go!

Quick question for folks following my thread here ... can anyone recommend a custom vinyl decal / sticker printing shop who are prepared to do low quantity runs?

I can get to any number of bulk order shops on eBay but so far struggling to get a response from the couple of suppliers I’ve used in the past.

I’ve managed to source high quality .tiff images of the last 3 decals I am missing - they go on the sills either side, and so far I’ve used some alternative ones on each side.

https://i.ibb.co/rdJjTFb/20419-DF1-0...D519-AEC14.jpg

Each sticker/decal size isn’t that big - approx 245mm - 280mm wide by 130mm deep. The Speedline one ideally needs to be die cut but I could live with it on a white background.

I’d have a go myself with my home inkjet printer but past experience has been that they are never waterproof enough even after treating the waterproof vinyl after printing.

Try the image works they are good

For £5.99, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bulk-Stic...53.m1438.l2649 will print as many as they can on a single 1300mm x 150mm sheet. Just send them the artwork as a tiff or jpg and say what size you want.

I had my Italian PROVA number plate printed across 2 sheets (I split the image before ordering).

For the same money I got a few dozen trident badges printed on one sheet. They are weather-resistant as well. My car lives outside.

Thanks for the responses so far on the vinyl printers.

I’ve emailed Image Works and will give them a call this morning.

For £5.99 I will also give the eBay supplier a go - I wasn’t sure about print quality and how they would hold up so really helps to know someone has used them before.

A quick update on the couple of hours I managed to spend on the car this afternoon.

Unfortunately only the vinyl arrived for the stripes - the dark blue vinyl on a roll is now not due to arrive until tomorrow. That gave me more time to get all the Plasti Dip off, and even left some time to paint the inner edges of the headlamp cowls.

https://i.ibb.co/F4VZJMY/71732885-AA...-C76705836.jpg

I’ve decided to not paint the inside edges of the lower air vents in the bumpers - it appears majority of original cars had these left white.

When the dark blue vinyl does arrive, I need to make a decision on what colour to use for the three smaller stripes. When ordering at the weekend I couldn’t decide between a dark grey and a silver based on the colour palette I was choosing from online. In the end I ordered both. Here they are with the wider 100mm sky blue vinyl against the intercooler intake on the rear clam, still with the Plasti Dip on. The vinyl for that area will be a much darker blue, hopefully close to the original Ford dark blue.

https://i.ibb.co/vYQZ8Yt/7664-C289-3...30-A79-A35.jpg

I need to wait until the dark blue vinyl arrives to decide, but I think I’m leaning towards the dark grey rather than the silver.

https://i.ibb.co/0sJVvz0/9-D378-B81-...3-E254-FF3.jpg

It looks brighter when you hold it up to the side of the car, and it’s also a lot glossier than the silver vinyl which is a bit more matte in appearance.

https://i.ibb.co/C9SdT4k/06668103-14...455794-BCB.jpg

All that said, maybe if the dark blue really is a “dark blue” I will need the brighter contrast of the silver vs the dark grey. Decisions decisions :-)

IanA - that was a great recommendation on the eBay vinyl printing company. It turned out they were only 10 mins from where I live as well. I uploaded the images yesterday morning and today 14 stickers turned up for the pricely sum of £13.50 incl postage! They even had an offer on with discount for buying 3 lots.

https://i.ibb.co/gy1zL15/2-DFD3845-F...8-F42-C412.jpg

Quality looks very good and they’re even ready cut (you can specify what shape/outline to have them cut on the vinyl).

https://i.ibb.co/n15vH99/0-BFDD41-F-...A047626555.jpg

Mid afternoon the remaining blue vinyl on the roll turned up and and it’s spot on in terms of the colour I was aiming for. I think I’ve decided on the dark grey for the thinner stripe but will apply the dark blue first to get a better idea.

https://i.ibb.co/MV0Wcym/A6-CC7-F77-...C5-DD4-EEC.jpg

I couldn’t resist having a go at a couple of easy parts just to see what the quality was like. It’s pretty good for the price but doesn’t have the air release channels you get on the expensive 3M stuff. So far it’s going on ok and I’ve accepted there will need to be some overlaps in less visible areas particularly around the ears next to the intercooler which will have to be a separate piece of vinyl.

https://i.ibb.co/vwqJpN1/85-A3128-E-...-E6-D2-F61.jpg

I think for the larger areas like the roof panel and the door skins I will try wet application of the vinyl with a little spray of weak soap solution as it looks like it will be difficult to apply without air bubbles. That’s helped before but I need to test a sample of the vinyl to see how it reacts.

https://i.ibb.co/WVQQjtx/210-F3988-4...D79-B38594.jpg

The Plasti Dip is still on the door panels as I decided to make the dark blue stripe wider than I’d originally done in paint and I still need to mask up where the large white square now needs to be cut out on the door.

Slow but steady progress yesterday applying the vinyl to the drivers side. Just about there now and will post some pics later today when I can get to the car.

Pleased with the outcome, and applying the larger dark blue pieces wet (very weak soapy water in a fine spray bottle) was much easier both in terms of being able to reposition the vinyl to get it lined up, and also getting rid of the larger air bubbles on application. Seems to be holding up OK and I even managed to fold the blue piece on the door skin in and out of the channel that runs along the middle of the car.

All the parts for the remote battery isolator switch also turned up yesterday. I managed to find a nice junction box rated at high enough Amps that I will use to extend the current negative wiring without having to cut that off and remake a lug/connection point. The isolator switch itself will be mounted on the rear crash bar low enough that I can reach it from the underside of the clam - should be a job for later today or the weekend. Here’s it prior to going on the car.

https://i.ibb.co/xq6fm29/957546-EA-7...C69-B739-F.jpg

Here’s the pictures of the drivers side now fully striped up. Pretty pleased with it so far. I know the two “ears” either side of the clam roof will be a bugger to wrap but I’ve already decided where I will need to piece it, and the blue is pretty forgiving being dark in colour so join pieces don’t really show up unless you are very close up.

https://i.ibb.co/H78THkb/0-B7-C4448-...C57-F32-CB.jpg

I also redid the sill stickers on the drivers side sill to include the new, closer to original versions of the 1986 car.

https://i.ibb.co/Z64cDMK/5-D991161-8...0-ABCEFAD9.jpg

Will aim to do the roof panel on the top of the rear clam and hopefully both of the ears over the weekend, then I’ll plan to crack on with the passenger side next week. The one thing with wrapping using vinyl is you get much better and accurate at it the more you do :-)

https://i.ibb.co/W6g2zXQ/C7162-BF0-4...E5453394-B.jpg

Hi we have used Sticky Fingers and have been impressed with the service , might be worth a call

Thanks Ned - in the end I got the guy at DMB Graphics to produce me a set as well as the ones I got via the eBay vinyl printer, so all sorted now.