Magnetic stuck to vehicle

[Shane Drew]

We had magnetic material recalled here last year, as the manufacturer had a lot of complaints about this very thing.

One bloke I know out in the bush, had every job on a full role with the same complaint. He was in a very hot environment.

I know some suppliers here (HVG especially) rang me to tell me not to use their brand on vehicles, last year. Apparently they were delaminating and sticking to the vehicle.

It may pay to tell your supplier, and get them to have a look.

Cheers

[Chris Wool]

HI MARTIN

i have seen a reaction before between fitting on to a wet car and very hot sun – i eventually removed them with boiling water – i think it was the reaction of the wet drying out and sucking it on to the body work or some sort of funny polish used on the paint. hope the paint dont damage.

felling for you

chris

[John Childs]

Somebody might be able to tell you different, (edit – I see they already have 🙂 )but I am not aware of any circumstances under which magnetic will stick to a van, except for poor maintenance and, even then, they would need to be left on for an awfully long time before it became a problem.

I have never had a problem like that but have had instances where poor storage like the customer leaving them on his dashboard in the sun has caused warping. I don’t like magnetic and always discuss what he is trying to achieve with the customer and it is surprising how often I can talk them out of it and go for direct application to their van instead.

Wise after the event, but might save you grief in the future department….

Some time ago Carrie posted up some instructions for the use of magnetics and I always give the customer a copy and tell them that I won’t accept any responsibility for failure. I find that, having told them about the disadvantages and problems, and given them written instructions for storage and use then I get no comebacks.

[Graham Parsons]

Interesting you should post this – only last week the same problem here. Customer left mags on a brand new truck for less than 12 hours and, so he says, had to take a paint scraper at them to get them off the paint. Certainly the sign he brought in is in tatters, and a fair bit of delaminating. Supplier reckons it could be the heat (it was a black truck) causing it to stick?

[Phill Fenton]

Funnily enough this has also happened to me just last week. A customer called in and asked me for a replacement sign to replace the one that got stuck to the back of his van. I’ve sold a great many magnetic signs over the years but this is the first time I’ve heard of one “welding” itself to the bodywork. He assured me he had removed the sign regularly and always cleaned behind it. A couple of weeks ago we had one of the hottest days ever recorded here in Scotland so I had assumed that was the cause.

[John Childs]

Well, despite me never having seen it, it looks like this could be a widespread problem.

I find it strange though, and difficult to understand why it should suddenly become a problem. Yes, we had some hot days last week, but nothing like the consistent day in day out baking they get in places like Texas, or even in Shane’s outback, so surely any heat problems would have been addressed years ago.

Assuming that heat is the cause then the big question is who takes responsibility for the cost of putting these things right?

[Martin Armitage]

I have just had the customer in and sure enough the magnetic vinyl has welded itself to the side of the van in places and has actually damaged the bodywork, of course our customer now wants us to replace signs remove welded vinyl and have any damage repaired asap. The panels were all clean where it did come off smoothly and the customer assures us (and i believe him ) that he removes the vinyl regularly and cleans underneath. The van is a dark blue and i wonder if this could have added to the problem with heat absorbtion. We supply a great deal of magnetic products and are now wondering how many more customers will be showing up. For ourselves we definately dont want our customers to have to end up with the bill. I am obviously in the process of contacting my supplier and will give them chance to respond before I name the product

[Keith Nilsen]

We used magnetics in Africa in baking heat and I have never heard of one welding itself to the bodywork as a result! Odd…

Perhaps there is a bad batch doing the rounds, or maybe the manufacturers have recently switched to a slightly different production method?

[Shane Drew]

reading this I am convinced you guys have a bad batch. Might explain where they sent all the product they withdrew off the aussie market. 😮

I’d be lodging written complaints with photos to your supplier, and asking who you should direct the repair bill to 👿

[Peter Shaw]

I had this problem last Feb with one customer. We never got to the bottom of what caused it but the magnetic material concerned was one that has a coating on the back. This lookd “melted” when it was pulled off.

I replaced the magnetics with new ones from a different supplier with non-coated stock with no problem reported from this customer.

I wondered if the coating reacted with a car wash chemical. I had no other complaints with the coated material from anyone else.

[Simon Kay]

I’ve used two brands in the past. Both used through 40 + degree summers over here. No problems thank goodness.

Shane , I suspect, may be right.

Jump up and down and hold your breath with the manufacturers and see what happens.

They may not be aware that problems are discussed as openly as this between signmakers all over the world. Pretty hard to hide something in a free flow of information.

Good Luck.

[Mole]

Hi Martin
Magnetics, They can be a pain, had the same problem last year 2 mags
we done stuck to side of van, sent sample back to Bissbell, they in turn sent back to the manufacturers, who sent us a reply stating that they except no responsibility. Customer said he clean behind the mags often
(but you have to take his word for it ) So we done his van in vinyl in the end down to us!! So we try to put customers off of having mags now and just stick to vinyls.
Cheers Mole (mod-edit) :police3: admin@uksignboards.com

[clpress]

I have just lost about 3 mtrs of magnetic which was stored same as usual and it has managed to weld itself to itself, almst like hotspots and has become so weak it is practically falling apart on me, never seemed to have this problem before so i hope it is just a bad batch.

Mark

[Martin Armitage]

Now that is interesting, the reply I had from my supplier was that residual solvents in the paint of freshly filled or freshly painted surfaces would soften the paint and bond the magnetic to the side of the vehicle. Apparently the magnetic is an inert material and there is no way that it could in itself cause a problem. We are paying for the van to go into a bodyshop to have the last of the magnetic to be removed and to be resprayed, we could have probably wriggled our way out of it but word of mouth and our reputation is important to us. Perhaps there is a bad batch of magnetic going round – two years of using the product and not a problem until now. We now send out an information sheet with every magnetic we supply.

[George Elsmore]

interesting point we have been using magnetic for a few years now and this year have come across this problem twice so is it a bad batch going around? it would be usefull if we could collate all the info on this forum and see if it is coming from the same scource? just a thought.

George

[clpress]

My supplier was Bisbell – haven’t contacted themyet as it only happened this morning, but needless to say they are getting a call on monday.

Mark

[handyman]

I was planning on purchasing some magnetic signs for my van, can someone recommend an alternative?

[Peter Shaw]

A Trollybus :lol1:

[John Childs]

😀

Very good!

[Lynn Normington]

the only time it happened to us ,customer had just had a really bad re-paint told her not to put them on until paint was dry all the usual recommendations take off clean etc. she never blamed us cause she said sorry Lynn didn’t do what you told me to do she is still a customer so it wasn’t mags it was her they were glued into her paint 🙄

Lynn