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Most self-adhesive decals (this includes reflective striping, by the way) are easiest to install if you wet the metal and decal with water, possibly with a drop of dish detergent to break surface tension. This doesn't sound right to most people, but the water allows you to continually reposition the decal until you're satisfied that it's perfectly aligned. Then squeegee the water out (your fingers work fine for the Ford script) from center to the edge. The water goes away, leaving a perfectly-aligned decal. That's the way the pros do it, and once you've tried it you'll never go back applying decals dry, in which case you have to have them perfectly aligned before the decal touches the sheet metal. Not easy. It's even harder on 8N fenders, which are compound curves. By the way, if you do a good job with the decal aligned accurately, and have no bubbles or dirt under the decal, they usually look better than paint (to my eye, anyway). It's very difficult to recognize it as a decal (remember that a couple coats of red paint have thickness, too), and there's no way a paint edge will be as sharp as a decal. If you're restoring a true show tractor, go with paint, but otherwise...
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