Decal How-To?

Maybe this is a stupid question, but...

I'm going to repaint/decal several passenger cars for which the decal stripes cross the window area. The first approach that comes to mind would be to remove the shell, remove the "glass", apply the decals across the gaps where the glass used to be, then at some point when safe to do so, trim the decal and reinstall the window.

Some of the decals I have applied lately are so very fragile, however, this makes me a bit apprehensive.

On the other hand, trimming to fit around up to ten or so windows a side seems a bit too tedious.

Any hints, tips, or techniques you can provide would be appreciated.

Thanks

your first concept will work, I have done this with good results.
lay the stripes the whole length of the car right over the window opennings. Apply Microscale Micro-sol with small paint brush, the parts over the window openings will melt and you can remove it with a toothpick.

brittle decals: Microscale also makes a product called "liquid decal film" you brush it on the sheet before wetting. works great.

As Eliphaz mentions, you have the procedure right. However, unless you're talking about applying pinstripes, have you considered simply painting the stripe? I find that when dealing with all of the window breaks, masking and painting the stripe is (to me at least) a lot less hassle! Long decal strips can be unweildy beasts and easily broken and torn. Also, a decal might not uniformly and neatly mold itself uniformly around the edges and corners of the window openings, so you may have to carefully match the decal color and apply touch-up paint in these areas anyway. Or, if appropriate to your car design and era, you could hide any decal oopsies by painting black "gaskets" around the window openings.

In this photo, the wide green stripe is painted, and the pinstripes bordering it are decals. Yes, those pinstripes were a bear to apply, but I wasn't going to attempt to mask and paint a stripe that thin!