Advice on the Best Choice of vinyl to use?

[Phill Fenton]

I always fold the lettering into these receses. This way you don’t have to worry about shrinkage. If you apply the name to the van then cut between the letters where the name bridges the recess – you can then fold the letters without having to stretch the vinyl. Ok the gap between the letters does open up when done this way – but in the real world it is not noticable.

Ordinary 751 or 651 series Oracle or similar is fine. I would only consider using a cast vinyl when having to deal with compound curves and the need to stretch the vinyl into the recesses – but even then I’ve managed this with oracal 751.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

Forbie,
Man that stinks, huh.
You should get the dude to change his name!
Seriously, tho, when faced with this pickle I bend the edges of the vinyl as described above & heat with a hair dryer to set. I have even gone the extra mile and trimmed pieces of vinyl to stick behind the space where the gap is (like on a van door) to lessen the visual “break”. I usually just cut extra letters for where the cutting will occur and use them for patches.
But I would ALWAYS use cast vinyl on a vehicle.
Calendered vinyl, I have been told, is rolled out like a big pile of pie dough. It has a memory and tends to shrink back. Cast is better.
Love…JILL 😉

[Dave Bruce]

Hi Forbie,

I have done a few transits with the name right across the side, and what I did was use the hinge method, that is tape the centre of the work to the van, top and bottom, cut the backing to one side of this(a little tricky), then work my way along applying the vinyl to the contures of the van, when one side of the hinge is done, just remove the hinge and apply the other side. Worked for me anyway, the only thing you need to watch is the line of text does go up/down (I just take a measurement as I am going along). Hope this makes sense.

I was using Oracal 751

Cheers

Dave

[Deleted User]

Morning Forbie,

I did a transit with deep recesses this weekend and I, like you, decided to ask around as to whats the best material to use. The feedback I got was always to use KPMF cast on all recesses or altenatively the Hexis Suptac range is lot better than most calendered materials. In the end I used the KPMF cast on the recesses and on the back I used the Hexis. Customer was well chuffed!

[Nicola McIntosh]

hi forbie

i second what phil says, but i was given the multi-fix 5000 from a signmaker that had had enough of the trade, so got a few rolls! i don’t like it, found it a tad thick and a devil to weed!! stick to oracal 751 as davebruce quoted you can’t go wrong!!

Nik