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Needing recommendation on reflective vinyl?
Where is the best place to buy this or the quality?? Ive a van to do in it but dont alot of it.
Nicholas
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22 Replies
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A few more details?
what is the reason for using reflective?
and does it need to conform to any regulations.
if so which.Peter
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Its for the sides of a ford connect. Customer wants a white reflective outline around some text so its visible at night.
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the reflective vinyl you will use, will cost you around 3-4 times the price of the cut vinyl used. the reflective vinyl will have far more come backs and more difficult to apply. have you covered this in your costs and is your customer willing to pay?
not trying to be difficult, but seen the ambitious customer wasting my time all to many times mate.
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Hi Nicholas,
i did something similar here a while ago-
https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=44371
I decided to use white reflective for the main part of the letters and overlayed it onto normal vinyl to protect the paint when it comes to removal. Just an alternative to doing the outline in reflective.
You are probably best off using a flexible engineering grade reflective. You will need to get a new blade and keep it strictly for reflective using slightly more pressure to cut.
As Rob says, the reflective is more expensive than standard vinyl so consider this when pricing and maybe give the customer the option of with or without.
Also bare in mind the white reflective is like a very light silver.
Hope this helps
Liam
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p.s i originally quoted £350 for that job, and he agreed to it, i only knocked it down to £300 as he was practically my extended family and i’ve done a bit of work for him since,
Liam
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I cant view the picture you posted. The customer is aware that it going to cost more. Is there any other alternatives??
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Robert Horn sell oracle reflective, not bad stuff, and also reasonable in price
Peter
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In my experience although 3M Scotchlite is the most expensive reflective, it is by far the easiest to work with.
It’s best to put down a layer of regular cast vinyl underneath the reflective (as an outline) on a vehicle because reflective is a PITA to remove.
Not sure of your laws over there but reflective is used a lot here.
Use a new blade and make several test cuts so as to avoid ruining pricey material.
We have a distributor who sells reflective by the yard, which is nice for smaller jobs.
Make sure to charge accordingly to cover your extra costs and tediousness of the job.
Love….Jill -
quote Peter Normington:Robert Horn sell oracle reflective, not bad stuff, and also reasonable in price
Peter
The NEW Oracal reflective is "Brilliant" in comparison to any other I know off in the same class. I have been using it the past few months on a a load of large vehicles and actually didn’t know i was using a NEW vinyl until i called Cameron at RHG to sing its praise. There are two grades/prices… but the lower grade of the both was what i was using. It can also be printed onto as it has a digital face film.
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We’ve not tried the latest Oracal or 3M offerings, but our weapon of choice, for decent quality work, is the 5R series from Allprint Supplies.
Sticks well and, most importantly, is fairly conformable. Nice to work with.
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John i used the Oracal in freezing weather conditions… on fresh painted truck cabs and tanks… went on perfectly well. then we discovered an extra digit in the phone numbers, which meant stripping the whole line from about 10 trucks. fresh painted with reflective vinyl???? yes… i was worried… but no need. it stripped like regular vinyl and left zero adhesive.
i also applied it over a large weld on a tank and heated. moulded very well into the shape and never came back off. i plan running various tests on it as soon as i have time… if it goes well ill be sure to shout about it because its something our trade has been waiting on. -
That’s interesting.
Perhaps we’ll give it a go when next we need to order reflective. 😀
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i remember a few years back one of our guys putting a 2 inch x 7ft red reflective band on a van. a bit went squint and he had to strip 2ft back off… that 2ft bit took about 6 hours to remove without damaging the new paint job. never again…
we then started laying a base of regular vinyl down and applying the reflective on top to stop things like this ever happening again, but that’s not always a good fix. not only are you cutting and taping the job twice, you need to cover that in your costs. costs that are already high because of how expensive reflective is…
this new stuff is just leaps and bounds above any in its class that i have tried over the years. the ability to print directly onto it also is a big bonus. -
Rob,
Are you saying the oracle reflective is sold as printable, or just that it can be printed to?
is it "clean" enough to give reliable results when printed?
Most vinyl can be printed on, but for print, it is handled and produced in a "cleaner" way.I do agree though, the oracle is top stuff. that’s why I recommended it in the first place.
Peter
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I really dislike using reflective vinyl – but if the Oracle brand is as good as Rob says it is… I’m quite excited (puppy-eyes)
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Phill
All I can say is I have used quite a bit of it for chapter 8 chevrons.
and it is good stuff, only my opinion though,
and as I am usually wrong, you dont have to believe me 😉Peter
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Peter, my understanding is the more expensive of the two Oracal reflective is for printing as well as legal for vehicle’s. but dont go on my say so, this was a while agao i spoke about this so there could be inaccuracies.
anyway, the vinyl is also watermarked all over the surface showing a little logo/circle that it is of a certain legal standard. if that makes sense…
the cheaper of the two does not have the watermark but does have the same face film. so both can be printed onto exactly the same. just ones specifically for it.yes, there’s a few reflective that can be printed onto but not with sharp quality. we used to use mactac regular reflective but when we switched to the oracal digital the quality was night and day. some other reflectives have a polyester type face film and when printing onto that the ink simply runs…
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what are the codes please Rob.
chris
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gmi does a printable reflective but i have not tried it yet http://www.gmintl.com
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oralite 5600 is for printing, have had samples of the film but not printed on it (i can’t). quite a nice film to be honest. europoint / rh don’t do the 5600 so my samples came direct from factory but, i think, Hexis do supply it, not cheap but not a lot more than some printable materials!
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The reflective vinyl I have been using lately is Oralite 5400. Much less brittle than the reflective vinyl I used to get. Is this the stuff you’re using Rob?
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Sorry for the slow reply on this Phill…
The NEW Oracal reflective some as follows…
5400 is for road traffic signage and is sold as a printable digital reflective.
apparently there is a slight difference on the adhesive. the 5400 has a more aggressive adhesive than the 5600e, but as i said, this is what i used and works perfectly well for vehicles.5600e is a 7 year digital print grade with an EC104 water maker to meet the new up and coming European regulations.
hope this help…
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