New Vinyl

Instead of finishing the posts I've been working on for like 6 months, or even the one I started 3 months ago titled 'a quick post while I finish the longer ones I've been working on for months'... Some shots from my cell phone of the new decals I installed.
There's a great guy named Don who runs a company called Pixel Decals. They have a number of pre-made exterior vinyl decals for Jeeps, from recreations of old logos (eg. the Sahara 'dunes' graphic and Willys badge) to movies (Star Wars faction logos) to full custom work.

Last year I'd ordered one of their 'semi-custom' stickers - custom text in the 'Rubicon font' sized to fit the edges of the hoods and thought the quality was pretty good. I miffed the install a bit, ended up with a bunch of bubbles, so I knew I'd eventually have to replace them.

Driver and Passenger side cowls

A few months after that I worked with him to get a custom graphic made to see how that process went - it went pretty well also, a couple back-and-forths so I could get the sizing appropriate for what his cutting machine could do. I was surprised that there were no good American flag images out there, so I had to make my own - my effort is your gain, they are now available on his site as a standard option (in a 1-color version or Don colored them).





Last month I decided to fill out my 'Zombie Killer' theme in time for the local April Jeep Show. I didn't want to follow the same path as all the other 'Generic Zombie Vehicles' that just go to eBay and buy one of the same 4 stickers that you see all over the internet, nor did I want to just put some ugly zombie face on the side.

Rubi-style hood lettering

So I decided to go meta. Instead of getting graphics to match the 'Zombie Killer' theme I came up with some graphics that would turn the 'Zombie Killer' banner (and plate) in to a 2nd level joke.





Everyone (well everyone who doesn't suck) loves the Half Life mythology that Valve created. In this world Black Mesa is not an Army base in Utah, it is a secret research facility in New Mexico that does pretty questionable research. The most famous portion is the Anomalous Materials lab where some 'Bad Stuff' goes down in the game.

I assume that there is also section that studies (and creates, it is 'super smart scientists without real oversight' after all) various diseases/viruses/etc. I've decided those guys would be named the 'Anomalous Disease Research and Development' team.

Med/Fire logo over the rear tire / below rear window

I then assume that since these guys are investigating man-made and 'alien' (from the Half Life storyline) diseases that they would need some quarantine protocols. So they'd surely be carrying at least minimal first aid equipment on their vehicles.

Quarantine logo on the passenger side above rear tire

And since they were weaponizing some of these things their quarantine protocols would be more than just some body suits & bio-hazard caution tape. They'd also have more 'active' responses to quarantine breaches.









For this theme I've decided that 'zombies' are really test subjects that have been exposed to a particular anomolous disease, and that containing these aggressive subjects would warrant serious response.

My interpretation of a Black Mesa vehicle identifier on the front doors

So in my head the door badge and the two 'gear' badges would be what came stock on their vehicles and that the 'zombie killer' banner would be more like the old military plane names/imagery that the specific teams got to make.

Skull & Shotguns behind front tires 

So for some 'zombie killer' imagery this team gets a modified Skull & Crossbones logo, with bones replaced by shotguns.










Now final thing... If this is the kind of stuff that goes through my head that I actually act on, can you imagine the crap I think about all the time that I don't act on? ;)