Problem with vinyl coming off above windscreen in snow

[Robert Lambie]

maybe the obvious question but are the wipers touching it?
was it fitted in cold weather?
was it fitted dry?
did you apply with a felt or a nylon squeegee?

[Matty Goodwin]

And what vehicle and vinyl?

[Chris Wool]

quote :

did you apply with a felt or a nylon squeegee?

oh that will be it then 😀

truck wash or de icer 😉

[Robert Lambie]

quote Chris Wool:

quote :

did you apply with a felt or a nylon squeegee?

oh that will be it then 😀

nylon and felt can make a BIG difference in the cold Chris. even fitted dry…
a nylon squeegee generates friction heat and max pressure when applying vinyl. a felt squeegee does not. remember we are using pressure sensitive film…

cold glass is prone to create a sort of condensation from heat of your hands or even breath on the Glass. more so when fitting onto cold glass indoors but still happens. you then trap that misture under the vinyl. the very cold glass, the very smooth surface and a little moisture repels adhesion build up. coupled up with being applied with a soft felt squeegee and you can be looking at problems ahead.

i do my best to drum into our guys about applying as much heat onto any sort of application in cold weather. especially on vehicles. even fitted inside.
i use a term i call "floating vinyl". (made up name by moi!) 😉 but i can often look at a vinyl at an angle and you can see if the vinyl is tight fitted to the surface or floating. i say floating just meaning its tacked on and in place bubble, crease free… but has no bite on the surface due to cold or lack of pressure when applied.

there are a great many reasons vinyl can fail. don’t rule out the above, regardless to how silly you may think my views and theories are. 😀

[Phill Fenton]

I had the same problem last year. always above the windscreen, which tends to be the only part I ever fit wet (to allow me to slide it about whilst I am precariously balanced on the edge of the bonnet).

[Bob Clarkson]

Sorry guys, it’s de-icer!! Some of it you’ll get away with, but some of it takes it off, I tried a little experiment a few years back. Have no idea what’s in it or why it does it though.

[Warren Beard]

Cheers guys

It’s a transit connect
Fitted dry (always 😉 )
with a Nylon squeegee
on the paint work above the windscreen (not on the glass)
fitted in January so yes it was cool 🙄

I think de-icer could be a really good explanation, could this weaken the adhesive strength as it only happens when cold so presuming they are using something like de-icer, the one I replaced lasted since the last snow fall to this recent one.

I’ll check with him if he uses anything.

cheers

Warren

[Bob Clarkson]

I was going to say, it doesn’t matter if it’s glass or not Warren. It also doesn’t matter if it’s fitted wet or dry.

As I said though, not all de-icers do it, most do at least something, but some will pretty much ruin it in a very short space of time.

To save a load of to-ing and fro-ing, get a couple of bits of acrylic, stick a couple of letters on each, do one sign wet and the other one dry, give them a day or so to cure, splash with water and place in the freezer. Give them plenty of time to freeze, whip them out, spray with de-icer, rinse and repeat a few times to prove. Failing that, you could just take my word for it. 😎

[Phill Fenton]

Bobs explanation about de-icer makes perfect sense and would explain my own experiences last year where I had a couple of examples of vinyl that failed above windscreens in the cold weather.

I have now had a couple of signs returned that were supplied back in December (just before the heavy snow and severe cold). These have also failed. They hadn’t yet been fitted by the customer but I beleive they were stored outside. I asked him if he had used any de-icer on the signs but he told me he hadn’t. The main damage is towards the bottom of the sign which I ‘m assuming would have been covered in snow if the signs were stored on the ground.

Why did the vinyl fail due to extreme cold and snow?

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