VintageLOTUSbicycles.com
Lotus Decal Info
The LOTUS Restoration Decal order page is here.
We're extremely pleased to bring you our first series of the highest quality reproduction decals for your 1980-82 Lotus America, Grand Prix, Excelle, Eclair, Unique, Classique, Legend and Odyssey!
We are currently working on decals for the 1983-84 Lotus bicycles and the artwork is at the printer as of 5-20-2012. The decals will be available in Navy with Gold Outlining and Black with Gold Outlining. We are reproducing complete bicycle sets for most models that will include the outlined top tube, seat tube, and down tube decals plus the head tube decals found on some models, as shown in the photo below.
Models covered for 1983-84 will include the Challenger, Excelle, Eclair, Unique, Classique, Legend, Legend Compe, Aero Sport, Competition, and Supreme.
We're extremely pleased to bring you our first series of the highest quality reproduction decals for your 1980-82 Lotus America, Grand Prix, Excelle, Eclair, Unique, Classique, Legend and Odyssey!
We are currently working on decals for the 1983-84 Lotus bicycles and the artwork is at the printer as of 5-20-2012. The decals will be available in Navy with Gold Outlining and Black with Gold Outlining. We are reproducing complete bicycle sets for most models that will include the outlined top tube, seat tube, and down tube decals plus the head tube decals found on some models, as shown in the photo below.
Models covered for 1983-84 will include the Challenger, Excelle, Eclair, Unique, Classique, Legend, Legend Compe, Aero Sport, Competition, and Supreme.
The decal art was carefully reproduced using NOS (new old stock) decal sheets and high resolution photographs of original decals, when necessary.
The seat tube stripe decals are being printed on Mylar by a company that specializes in making industrial and commercial labels. They are a faithful reproduction of the original and will be available in Blue, Black, Red and foil blue with beautifully detailed mini lotus flowers. They will have a protective clear Mylar covering, just like the originals.
The Lotus frame decals were originally water-slide decals, a printing process now made mostly obsolete by modern technology. The restoration decals are be screen printed exactly like the originals, but we use a superior pressure sensitive (rub-on) adhesive that will make the decals more durable and easier to apply than the originals, yet still look exactly the same as when your bike was new.
It would have been easy to make the decals from cut or printed vinyl, but the thickness and appearance of that type of decal just wouldn't be authentic on your vintage Lotus.
We searched everywhere for someone we trusted to print our decals and finally found Screen Specialty Shop in NC, they have been printing bicycle decals for 30 years and print decals for some of the biggest names in the industry.
Frame decals will be available in Gold, Blue and Black and a limited supply of two-tone gold and black/blue Lotus flowers for seat tube, down tube and fork blades. These decals were most commonly found on the Lotus Odyssey.
The seat tube stripe decals are being printed on Mylar by a company that specializes in making industrial and commercial labels. They are a faithful reproduction of the original and will be available in Blue, Black, Red and foil blue with beautifully detailed mini lotus flowers. They will have a protective clear Mylar covering, just like the originals.
The Lotus frame decals were originally water-slide decals, a printing process now made mostly obsolete by modern technology. The restoration decals are be screen printed exactly like the originals, but we use a superior pressure sensitive (rub-on) adhesive that will make the decals more durable and easier to apply than the originals, yet still look exactly the same as when your bike was new.
It would have been easy to make the decals from cut or printed vinyl, but the thickness and appearance of that type of decal just wouldn't be authentic on your vintage Lotus.
We searched everywhere for someone we trusted to print our decals and finally found Screen Specialty Shop in NC, they have been printing bicycle decals for 30 years and print decals for some of the biggest names in the industry.
Frame decals will be available in Gold, Blue and Black and a limited supply of two-tone gold and black/blue Lotus flowers for seat tube, down tube and fork blades. These decals were most commonly found on the Lotus Odyssey.
This is what a proof layout sheet looks like for our new decals. This proof is used to determine placement of the decals on the page. It's important that the decals be spaced properly, yet still maximize the number of decals on one page.
There is an error on this proof sheet, can you spot it?
The sheets will be screen printed and the two-tone decals will need two passes through the print process in addition to the adhesive and clear layers.
We've added a few of our own design custom LOTUS decals in both script and block font for placement on pumps, stems or other bicycle accessories. They can be seen in the lower right and upper left of the page. One of these custom labels will be included free as practice decals when you purchase complete sets.
Depending upon supply, some decals may be available individually or in pairs for those bicycles that don't need a whole set, but sets will offer a considerable savings over individual prices. If you need less than a whole set of decals, please send us an email and we'll try to work something out for you.
Only a limited supply of gold two-tone decals will be available. (3-10-12: Blue/gold two-tone decals are sold out, we still have some black/gold in stock).
The sheets will be screen printed and the two-tone decals will need two passes through the print process in addition to the adhesive and clear layers.
We've added a few of our own design custom LOTUS decals in both script and block font for placement on pumps, stems or other bicycle accessories. They can be seen in the lower right and upper left of the page. One of these custom labels will be included free as practice decals when you purchase complete sets.
Depending upon supply, some decals may be available individually or in pairs for those bicycles that don't need a whole set, but sets will offer a considerable savings over individual prices. If you need less than a whole set of decals, please send us an email and we'll try to work something out for you.
Only a limited supply of gold two-tone decals will be available. (3-10-12: Blue/gold two-tone decals are sold out, we still have some black/gold in stock).
Here is a scan of some of the new old stock (NOS) decals we used as artwork for the new reproductions. The blue set for the Classique is screen printed on water slide decal paper. You may remember these if you ever built any model cars or airplanes. The decals are soaked in water to loosen the decal from the paper and activate the water based glue.
Lower on the sheet are Mylar seat tube decals in black and red. The colors for our restoration decals will be matched to these rare originals.
There were two patterns of lotus flowers used on the seat tube decals. The triangle pattern shown here and a staggered pattern that used 11 flowers and covered more of the decal. We chose to reproduce the second style because we think it looks nicer.
We'd like to send a special thanks to Jill and Yo from Proteus Bicycles in College Park, Maryland for helping us find these original Decals.
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