Decals can be decorative items like the Taylorcraft logo shown here, or can be functional items like instrument panel placards. Either is easy to make yourself on an ordinary inkjet printer.
You'll need decal paper and spray varnish. Decal paper is available from Bel decal for about $8 for 10 sheets. Get a mixture of clear and white paper. The spray varnish is available at WalMart. You'll want to get "Krylon Crystal Clear", the gloss spray works great, but you might want to get some Matt finish spray too for doing your flat finish instrument panel. It's about $3 per can.
I wanted to make a T-craft logo for the center of my yoke centerpieces. I first made a scan of the old logo. (Photo 1). It was scratched and faded, so I printed an enlargered version (5X) on photo paper. Then I went over the black portion of the logo (on the photo paper) with a Sharpie felt tip marker. (Photo 2) I also touched up the white parts with typewriter correction fluid (White-out). While I was at it I made the outer black ring thicker and more defined. The resulting cleaned-up drawing (Photo 3) was then scanned back into the computer.
I printed the logo on clear decal paper. I increased the contrast to about +60% and decreased the brightness to about -30% to get the black parts completely black. I set the size at 1.7 inches, slightly larger than the original 1.2 inch logo. Careful! The ink stays wet a long time on the decal paper and I ruined several decals by touching them too soon. When the ink does dry (30 minutes?) spray the decal with Krylon to seal it.
When you're ready to transfer the decal cut it out carefully with sissors. (Photo 4) Drop the decal in a bowl of water for 1 minute and then slide it off the backing paper onto the finished surface. You'll have a couple minutes to move the decal around into exact position and to press out any bubbles or creases. After the decal dries give it a couple more coats of Krylon to seal it onto the surface. (Photo 5)
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