advice on fitting vinyl on vans in freezing conditions

[Colin Crabb]

Put fan heater (safely!) inside van to warm stuff up.

[Mark Johnston]

Thanks Colin its worth a go mate.

[Martyn]

Not a lot you can do apart from go over the panels with a heat gun before applying the graphics. Its a pain but it helps a lot.

[Mark Johnston]

thanks martyn thats what i do mate.

[Hugh Potter]

even my fitting bay with a gas heater would get cold, and the fumes would be a bit much if spending several hours in there.. my preferred option (at my place) was to put an oil filled rad in the back and leave it overnight, it warms it nicely from inside out, more importantly, evently. A heat guns’ heat is lost almost as soon as you remove the gun.

If caught out by cold, I’d use a fan heater, like colin Says.. safely. Remove any gas cyliners that may be in the van! Also worth building a £50 contingency into vans during the colder months.. heating, jobs take longer and theres more chance you’ll have to remake something during the install!

[Mark Johnston]

thanks hugh

we have a gas space heater and you are right, after a while the fumes start to sting your eyes.
if you turn it off, the room quickly gets cold again. 😕

[RobertLambie]

As Colin says, some form of heater in the back of the van is a good way to keep the chill off of the panels of the van, on the outside.
The likes of an oil-filled-heater is a good option. but the key point is to do it at least 30 minutes prior to lettering the vehicle. Pop it in the back as soon as the van arrives. it gives you time to clean down the vehicle, take sizes and mark it, then when you get to fitting the graphics the severe chill of the metal has reduced or gone.

The old easy way of doing this in the past was to leave the van running outside with the heating on full blast. but nowadays the vans have wood or plastic lining and the cab is completely separate to the back. 🙄

space heaters are great for blasting the room with warm air. but as has been said, they can overheat the space depending on the type and size as well as nip your eyes or gradually be uncomfortable to work with. However, ide rather have that than a frozen room fitting vinyl.

The quickest and easiest solution is, once the van panels have been dried and cleaned thoroughly. going over each panel to take the chill off, using a hand-held heat gun is a good solution.
* Do this once the van is clean.
* Then do it a few minutes before you apply the graphics to that panel.
* Once the graphics are fitted, gently warm over them again, once the application tape is removed.
* Continue applying the rest of the van. Once the van is finished, go back over all the graphics again, but this time warm the panel gently, so the panel is holding some heat. don’t focus the gun on the graphics or you will most likely create micro-bubbles.

Anything I am saying here only applies to standard commercial vehicle graphics etc. NOT wrapping!