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Matching white on a van
I just completed fitting a printed wrap to the doors of a 52reg VW LT 35 using Spandex print media and the customer wasn’t happy with the difference in the white of the material to the faded white of the van (which looks slightly cream, being that the van is a few years old). He expected the white to match exactly like the van, but I had to prepare the prints before even seeing the van and wouldn’t have wanted to try printing on to clear material using a Mutoh with Ultra Inks (haven’t tried clear printing and you lose colour definition surely), then laminating. I now know I should’ve told the customer the difference to expect and i may not have had this problem, but I can’t see what I can do remedy this, except reprint both doors on clear (which would need to be cast too!) and getting the van back in or going to him at my expense (he’s in Brighton and I’m in Swindon!!)
What come back can I use to get over this issue with the customer, can anyone help please? 🙁
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11 Replies
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tell him to t cut the van !
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wish it was that simple gordon
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Richard, although the van will have faded a bit over time it was probably never a true white to start with, most manufacturers have at least 3 or 4 different whites that they use and they also change these from time to time, just look at the new ford transit, just done 6 vans for a customer and when you see them sitting next to his 06 plated vans there is a mile of difference.
Not really sure how that is going to help you resolve the problem if the customer isn’t happy though, I would have done the same as you though, print to white and apply. Even if you print to clear I would have thought you would still see some sort of difference as where the clear vinyl is the area will have a much shinier appearance than the van bodywork. -
Could you put a green border around it, even a green fading into the wrap area…….might be less noticable. Don’t know a lot about wraps, just a suggestion
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You dont actually need the white background, would it be possible to contour cut the graphics, and use the vans own colour as the base,
Peter
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quote Harry Cleary:Could you put a green border around it, even a green fading into the wrap area…….might be less noticable. Don’t know a lot about wraps, just a suggestion
Seems like the best option so far, thanks.
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quote Peter Normington:You dont actually need the white background, would it be possible to contour cut the graphics, and use the vans own colour as the base,
Peter
do you mean printing on to clear or white?
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Print vinyls are always a bright white and the vans never are. They will never match. We get this all the time, usually when the customer wants the rear window whiting out, and I always have to explain in words of one syllable why it won’t be a perfect match.
To be brutally honest, from an appearance point of view I think the customer is right and you made the wrong decision doing it that way. What purpose does all that white serve? I would have done what Peter suggests, print on white and contour cut. Not only would it look better, it would have been easier and quicker to fit.
I’m sorry that none of that helps you now, but we have all done things like that and you are not alone. I would go and re-do it, swallow the cost, and look on it as part of the learning curve.
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I would do as Peter suggests and contour cut it, its the only way that this will work imho. Other alternative is to print onto clear but I think the first way will look best.
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sorry but i would have print and cut the top round bit then add cut letters
and trimmed just inside the green faded edge.
i have printed a tint to the edge before now to stop there being a hard white edgechris
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Hi Richard, i would definitely print onto clear and ‘feather’ the main pic in corel or photoshop, that way it blends into the paint work
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