Low-cost, non-vacuum bulk solution technique has been developed to deposit epitaxial Gd 2 O 3 and La 2 Zr 2 O 7 (LZO) buffer layers directly onto both textured Ni and mechanically strengthened biaxially textured Ni–W(3 at.%)–Fe(1.7 at.%) (hereafter referred to as Ni–W) substrates. A reel-to-reel continuous dip-coating unit was used to produce meter lengths of highly textured, crack-free Gd 2 O 3 and LZO buffers on Ni and Ni–W tapes. Auger electron spectroscopy analysis of the textured Ni–W substrates indicated the presence of sulfur segregation to the surface, which possibly facilitated the growth of solution seed layers directly on Ni–W substrates. On dip-coated seed layers, a reel-to-reel sputtering unit was used to deposit epitaxially 200 nm thick YSZ layers followed by 10 nm thick CeO 2 to complete the RABiTS architecture. Pulsed laser deposition was used to grow YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7− δ (YBCO) films on these tapes in short lengths. YBCO films with J c values of 1.2×10 6 and 1.9×10 6 A/cm 2 at 77 K were obtained on Gd 2 O 3 and LZO buffered Ni–W substrates, respectively. YBCO films grown by ex situ BaF 2 precursor process on 80 cm long, 1 cm wide CeO 2 /YSZ/Gd 2 O 3 /Ni tapes exhibited end-to-end J c of 6.25×10 5 A/cm 2 at 77 K and self-field. This demonstrates that the solution layers provide a very good crystallographic template for the growth of high current density YBCO films, with performance approaching that of vacuum-deposited seed layers.