"Make it look like a Police car"

[Andy Gorman]

The chevrons on the rear of Police cars are yellow and either red or orange depending on the preference of the force. Generally speaking they are six inches wide. To ascertain the angle draw a line from the bottom corner of the bodywork to the centre of any rear window and under this place a red (or orange) line, alternate from this. It usually ends up at about 45 degrees.

As for materials, I believe you can use anything that would be acceptable as a lamp on the appropriate end. ie white is not allowed on the rear but yellow, red, blue, green are. I also know that fluorescent hi conspicuity materials such as 3m diamond grade fluo yellow may not be used on a non police vehicle.

I’ve never heard of putting chevrons on the front of any vehicle.

If you have any particular questions on this I would be happy to help.

I’ve marked up hundreds of police cars, vans, etc.

[Rod Gray]

Hiya G,

Once the vehicle comes in (later today) i`ll photograph it and measure it and post it up here for you to have a look at.

I very rarely do this kinda stuff so do you think you would be able to supply me just enough to do this job?.

I don`t really wanna go ordering yards of this stuff from a supplier as i`ll probably never use it again and i believe it is expensive.

Cheers

Rod

[Andy Gorman]

I am currently out of work following Fineline Converting’s demise so I can only offer you advice.

There are a few different styles for police vehicles; are you looking at just the rear or are you doing the sides as well?

Material is obviously another issue. Police cars do come in engineering grade as well as the more expensive conspicuity materials. The difference in price is huge so you might want to find out what the budget is! Eg a 50 metre roll of Diamond grade will cost about 3500quid

[Rod Gray]

Hi G,

Below is the kinda thing the customer is looking for.

I`m assuming the green/yellow background is some kind of translucent wrap vinyl and the red chevrons are reflective?. As i said before, i`ve never attempted anything like this and i don`t really know what is involved.

For the sides, i`m just gonna run a 6″ green translucent with an inch red reflective border.

Rod

[Andy Gorman]

Rod,
Seeing as it isn’t really going on a Police vehicle you don’t have to worry too much about meeting Home office specs. Not that they are particularly strict anyway, the van in your photo is all wrong.

Anyway, the yellow would probably be a fluorescent, only problem is that these fade very quickly. You could use a vehicle wrapping vinyl and then overlay strips of red on top and then trim the red to the edges.

Alternatively, you could use alternating strips of yellow and red, cutting around handles etc and then trimming the edges. This is the most common method.

If you are worried about cutting on the vehicle you could make a paper template of the overall shape and cut your pieces from this, before applying.

The van in the picture looks like it has fluorescent non reflective yellow. This is sometimes the case with, I know Strathclyde Police, but they do sometimes use reflective yellow. It’s all preference, they do tend to like their own ways of doing things.

Hope this helps,

G

[Rod Gray]

Thanks for the info G, really appreciated m8.

Rod

[Robert Lambie]

i was looking at an ambulance recently for a job i was asked.. im sure the green/yellow was 3M diamond grade.. infact im sure it all was..
i know they did use the flourcent yellows, but like you said G it fades very fast..
i wont specify as i cant be certain..
what i do know and not that many take much notice of, is that the roads dept are now specifying 3m/avery diamond grade for all road service vehicles by law! 😮
from what i have heard that companies supplying the wrong type of vinyl can be handed a hefty fine..
like i said though.. (not many people listening though)

you will pay anything from £45 a metre up for these vinyls. (minimum quantity applies also) not sure what width that is eather. im doing this from memory as our online shop was to start selling these types of vinyls via fineline.. 😡

[Rod Gray]

Thanks Rob,

As this isn`t a service vehicle as such, the grade of vinyl isn`t really an issue.

I`ll give Europoint a call later today and talk prices with them.

Thanks

Rod

[Andy Gorman]

I didn’t know that about them having to use diamond grade. I’ve often thought that any tax payer would cringe if they knew what it cost to mark up an emergency service vehicle. It’s all for safety reasons though, these materials have amazing visibility. I would want to be seen if I was attending accidents on our motorways.

I believe that Diamond grade wasn’t even the most expensive material used, Reflexite was pretty expensive also. It could get a bit nervy when we were about to cut 10 vehicles out of a roll of material that was worth 4 grand. Made you double check things, that’s for sure.

If someone wanted to get strict with the old bill, I’d say that probably half of them don’t necessarily follow the ‘rules’ that have been laid down for vehicle livery. Even the different police forces like to have their own corporate image.

I’m rambling….