Legends for Aluminum Amp Face

This is an amp question, but it's about finishing.

I'm trying to figure out how to put legends on the front of my latest amp. It's bare aluminum. I might stick a piece of wood veneer over the aluminum. I have also considered painting the aluminum before applying legends.

I have been looking into decals. I have a photo printer (inkjet) and a plain old black and white office printer (laser). Will laser waterslide paper work with a monochrome printer?

If I keep the aluminum look, I assume I'll need to put decals down and then clear-coat over them. Is there such a thing as a non-yellowing clear coat that sticks to bare metal?

I don't want decals just hanging out there, proud of the surface.

I fooled with some inkjet decals today, and they're useless. Any solvent will take the lettering off. Wondering if acrylic clear coat will work with them.

The way the pros do it is via silkscreening.

Acrylic would work fine to clear coat decals, so would poly.

I just found out decalpaper.com is located a few miles from me, so I'm going to give their product a shot and see how acrylic spray works.

I attached my decals to a clear piece of plexiglass then spray painted the back with gold paint.

130089

i'm really lazy ... i would just use a Sharpie ...

That plexiglas idea is great. This is the kind of thing that makes Internet forums worth visiting.

Yesterday it occurred to me that somebody out there had to be making engine-turn decal sheets, and sure enough, I found them on Ebay. I ordered some. I'm thinking I may slap this on the front of the chassis, put decals on it, and cover it with clear coat.

Example from random website: http://www.hotrodworks.net/decal/dash.html#

i'm really lazy ... i would just use a Sharpie ...

Someone told you my secret method!