Car Door Decals: Pair Sizes and Prices for Work Trucks

What Is a Car Door Decal?

A car door decal is printed vinyl applied to the painted door, not a full wrap and not a window graphic. The film bonds to the panel and it stays until someone removes it with heat. It has no thick edge the way a magnet does, which is why it is the piece for a vehicle that stays a work vehicle.

The page sells that decal as a pair because a work vehicle has two doors and both should match. Quantities step in twos: 2, 4, 6 or 8 decals. Two is one truck. Four is two trucks. Six and eight cover a small fleet that shares one mark. You upload a logo, or you send the name, the phone number and one tagline and the layout is drawn before the proof.

The pair can be mirrored so the design reads toward the front on both doors. A logo with type in it needs that decision on the proof. A symmetrical mark does not. Either way, both doors are one order, not two files that can drift apart.

This is a print order. The vinyl ships to you, or to whoever installs it, anywhere in the United States. There is no install visit attached to the product. A hood, a tailgate, a whole side, or a USDOT number in its own size are different products and different files. Order the door pair for the doors, and add those other pieces only when the truck actually needs them.

Decals ship on the full vinyl sheet with the cut lines plotted. Remove the extra vinyl around your design before applying. Most applications need transfer tape, which is not included.

Which Size Fits the Door?

Measure the flat area of the door between the handle and the body crease. That rectangle is the box the decal has to live in. A decal that looks right on a screen and then crosses the handle is a decal that gets trimmed by hardware.

An 18 by 18 inch decal is the usual pick for a full size pickup front door. It clears the handle and the body line and still reads across a parking lot. The pair is $148.39.

A 12 by 12 inch pair, $84.19, is the compact logo. It fits a smaller door, a cab where the flat panel is short, or a mark that does not need a phone number inside it. If the number is the point of the door, this square is often too tight and the 24 by 12 is the better shape.

A 24 by 12 inch pair, $137.69, is the long line: a name and a phone number in one row. It suits a door that is wide and not very tall, and it keeps the type large because the height is only 12 inches. Do not stack a paragraph into that short band.

A 24 by 24 inch pair, $233.99, fills a van or box truck door. The extra height is for a logo plus one line, not for a list of every service. The reader is in the next lane. One mark and one number is the design that survives that glance.

If your flat panel is none of those four, type the width and height the tape measure gave you. Keep a little margin inside the flat so the contour cut does not land on the handle, the crease or the trim.

How Should a Car Door Decal Be Designed?

The reader is in another vehicle, or walking past a job site. They get one glance.

• The phone number is the largest text on the door. A logo that wins and a number that loses is a design that does not ring.
• Keep the art simple so it stays recognizable at a distance. A photograph of the truck, a list of services, and three taglines will not resolve from the next lane.
• Place each decal on the flat of its door, clear of the handle, crease and trim.
• Leave the lower rear panel and the glass out of this file. Those are different products. This pair is the doors.

The page will lay out a name, a phone number and a tagline if you do not have a finished file. If you do have a logo, upload it. Either way you see a free proof with every order before anything is printed. Look at the proof at the size of the decal, not zoomed in. If you cannot read the number when the proof is the width of your phone, the driver in the next lane cannot read it either.

A contour cut follows the outer shape of the art. A logo with a lot of thin islands, or type with no shape holding it together, becomes many small pieces. A simple outer shape, with the type inside it, is the file that applies as one piece. Tell the proof notes if you want the background of the logo left in or cut away.

Paint, Washing and Removal

On factory paint in good condition, 3M IJ-180Cv3 comes off with a little heat. Removal pulls the film, not the clear coat. A repaint, or a panel whose clear coat is already peeling, can lift with anything that sticks to it. Say so before you order, and consider leaving that door plain.

Clean, dry paint is what the adhesive was built for. A dusty door, a door still wet from a wash, or a panel in the cold is a poor surface. Let a fresh wash dry. Apply when the panel is moderate, not frozen and not sitting in full sun that makes the film grab before you have it placed.

The truck can go through a car wash, including a brush wash, once the vinyl has set for a few days. Keep a pressure washer wand about two feet back and do not aim it at an edge. A jet held on the edge is the usual way a good film starts to lift. Hand washing is the kindest to the laminate.

The film is rated for up to 5 years outdoors. That is the material rating on the page. It is not a promise that every truck, every climate and every car wash will look new in year five.

What Do We See Go Wrong on Door Decals?

The failures are usually the file or the panel, not the film.

• A phone number set smaller than the logo, so the one thing a driver would call is the thing they cannot read.
• Artwork drawn across the door handle or the character line, then trimmed in real life by hardware the file ignored.
• A decal ordered for a repainted door. Weak clear coat can come up with the film later. Say so before you order.
• Applying the film to a dirty panel, or in the cold. Clean paint and moderate temperature are what the adhesive was built for.
• Treating a door decal like a full wrap. A pair covers the doors. A hood, a tailgate or a whole side is a different product and a different file.
• Ordering one decal and planning to photocopy the second door. The quantity starts at a pair so both sides are printed together, and a mirrored pair is a setting, not a second guess at install.

Production and Lifespan

Production is 48 hours after you approve the proof. Nothing prints before that approval. Add transit on top of the 48 hours. The decals ship to any US address for a flat $10, and you or your installer apply them.

Approve the proof with both doors in view. Check the phone number digit by digit, check that a mirrored pair still reads toward the front, and check that the contour cut is the shape you meant. A change after approval is a new proof, and the 48 hours starts over.

Each pair ships to any US address for a flat $10. Order the pair on car door decals.