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how do i cut reflective correctly to emergency vehicle?
HI all,
got to do this on wednesday, there’s two actually, but one already has the blue.
it’s a Y reg, 2000, ex AA, vw transporter razorback recovery truck.
before reading on, does anyone have a proven "to scale" battenburg cut pattern for one of these ? i don’t mind buying it!
haven’t phoned pvl yet, but not sure they’d sell me one anyways!
problem.. i’m a little unsure about ‘pre cutting’ all the shapes to fit the vehicle, obviously it’ll save a lot of time when fitting, but i’m concerned that if my measurement are slightly out, then the whole lot could be a disaster, i’m fairly sure it’s right, but i’m still waiting on the guy to double check that both doors are the same.
if i were to bottle it, and cut on the vehicle, which i’d sooner not, is there any easy way to do it ? i want to keep the reflective away from edges and compound curves, but how?
i was thinking of laying some backing paper under the edge, cut the paper to the edge, then cut it on the backing paper, lay the other half and done. this is, i hate doing reflective with the hinge method, always leaves a mark or does something, anyone?
ps, igonore the awful red blue text, that’ll be stripped, but isn’t on the van i’m doing weds.
thanks
HUgh
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10 Replies
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if i had a drawing i wouldn’t trust it any way.
i think i would.
go to the body shop and nick there big roll of brown masking paper, tape it to the vehicle. and draw on it, cut bits like door handles and arches from the template.chris
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HI Chris, cheers, had considered that, but figured i’d still have to photograph and scale up that! i’ve got measurements from the van myself, just want the guy to measure and confirm.
i’ve left a 5mm gap between each panel to allow for any length discrepancy, i guess i could simply take some spare reflective with me and do it by hand if it doesn’t sit right. only need about 4 spare panels per side. might be best way, hmm!
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Do loads of these, in fact got one in the morning, Lay vinyl down first, then cut all the squares and lay one next to the other and cut by hand, changing the blade regularly!. They are not that hard to do, should have that done in 4 hours. all the best with it
Ian -
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HI Ian,
so you’re suggesting i hand cut all the panels on the bench (easy enough), then apply to the vehicle and cut to shape when on there ?cheers.
Hugh -
sorry guys not sure what you are taking about, Hugh or Ian,
I would just either knock up a paper template for the panels on the doors and any that cant be just cut as a square, or modify Hughs original idea for cutting in situe.
Lay masking tape down around the edge, then put backing paper on top, double protection for the paintwork, but only if thin reflective, have a practice first though
Peter
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looking at the one’s on the other truck Pete, the one with only blue on (half a job!), someone obviously got 610 reflective and cut it into 305mm wide, x 580 long by hand, unless of course the only cut 580 wide on the cutter and chose to cut at exactly half width?,
would prefer to go by my measurements, i’ve allowed a 5mm margin for error, so hopefully will be ok, i’d need only take a couple of mtrs with me, and a small roll of app tape, if any are wrong (like the filler caps panels etc, i could simple lay app tape over the panel, draw the cut line, stick it onto the reflective (nikkalite normal stuff) and cut thru, got plenty of reflective offcuts too, will take them!
think that’s the answer now.
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I would cut a load of rectangles. Stick on all the ones that don’t need cutting, and then offer up the others and mark them with a pen. Cut with scissors and then fit.
Alternatively, you could make a big paper template of the whole vehicle to pre-prepare the shapes on the bench, but that doesn’t always simulate any distortion.
As battenbergs go, that one looks pretty easy.
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Personally I’d cut it all from the pic you have, slap it on and trim to suit. I wouldn’t expect everything to fall in exactly with the drawing but is that going to be an issue?
G
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well, 8hrs later and it’s all cut to size, including all the graphics which needed to be layered etc, hopefully it’ll be ok. i’m taking a few spare metres of blue n yellow nikkalite in case i need to cut some more to cover errors, they’ve finally taken my advice and put the van to be worked on, in the workshop overnight! i’m certainly glad in this case as i’ve already got a bit of a frost appearing on the grass outside!!
reckon this’ll be a full day, gotta be at least a few hours fitting all the little panels, time i’ve hinged, remeasured etc, then fitted and done the graphics too. hope their kettle is working!
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