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Bad vinyl installation? – advice please.
hi everyone
i have an existing customer who buys banners and displays from me. but they have asked me to price a van for them which i am doing now.
however, they have 3 existing vans they want stripped and new graphics installed. but the one thing they have asked me to add in my quote is the life of the material and that THIS wont happen to my graphics. 🤨i have assured them it wont with my graphics, but i don’t know why this has happened or what causes it?
any advice is greatly appreciated. ❤
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6 Replies
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Hi Leslie.
Looks like the previous installer simply used a low grade vinyl. Probably a three year vinyl. The shrinkage pretty much gives that away. The dirty line all around the lettering is glue.
If you are using a good quality seven year vinyl like Metamark M7 or Oracal 551 etc you should be fine.
If you have to strip the vinyl first I would recommend charging them by the hour – it can take an inordinate amount of time removing a cheap vinyl! You don’t want to get caught out there.
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Tim is spot on 👍
You can sometimes see similar spectacular failures with digital print if the laminate is a lower grade than the vinyl, ie monomeric used with a polymeric.
Also agree on charging hourly for removal, you’ll want some tar and glue, and plastic scrapers!
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I would say there is more to it than just poor quality vinyl. This looks like it has been attacked with a solvent of some kind
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As other have said,
could be cheap vinyl & laminate,
mis-matching laminate,
solvent print not outgassed properly prior to laminating,
How do they wash their vans? In-house with any chemicals? Roadside car wash types (cheap TFR chemicals)?
I warranty all my graphics against failure due to installation error or product issues, but I always specify no TFR / caustic washing products, “we can tell when you use them”!!
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Tim, David, Simon and Hugh, thank you very much for your replies and advice. 😀
so far i have really only told them that i think the vinyl is cheap and nasty as i really did not know.
i might be wrong but the vinyl looks like it is fitted on top of dark blue vinyl.
there is also white text but its not bad so i did not take any photos.thanks for the tip on charging for stripping the old stuff. i didn’t think of that and i am not looking forward to it.
thank you ❤
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The short answer to this is that the previous sign company has used cheap crap Monomeric coloured vinyl.
You can see that the vinyl is the same colour around the edges, but in that last photo posted, the vinyl is also curled and shows the opposite side, which is blue.
If it was a solvent outgassing issue, the vinyl would be grey or white, backed, but it is showing blue.Looking at the dark blue, I would have guessed that was vinyl before you said so now. The dull surface colour, the burred dull scores and marks all point to a vinyl surface taking a bit of a beating. Not what ide expect of a hard-painted surface.
( the vinyl scuff damage is similar to the old self-inflicted school bag scuffs from back in the day) or was I the only one with mates daft enough to do that? 😳🤣It is common for cheap monomeric vinyl to shrink like this. God knows how many vehicles we have had to replace because there are at least 4 sign companies around me that use this exclusively for “everything!” It’s a disgrace and a mess to strip and clean. but I will gladly take the work from them and enjoy telling the customer about the crap they have stuck to their vehicle.
As has been advised by others, be sure to charge by the hour for the stripping and adhesive glue removal.
Note: Prepare for blisters and dry skin! 🙄P.S.
“just in case you don’t” IF those dark blue panels ARE vinyl. Strip the panels, NOT the lettering.
because the panels will take the lettering with them when they are being stripped. 🙂👍
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