Removal of reflective vinyl – help needed!

[Richard Urquhart]

these help but there is no easy way to remove this stuff

http://www.jagsignsupplies.com/aqshop/c … php?id=354

http://www.jagsignsupplies.com/aqshop/c … php?id=355

rich 😀

[Mike D]

deleted

[Cameron Steer]

Hi Guys,

many reflectives were designed for road signage and are not meant to come off, you can get good quality engineering fleet marking reflectives now that do come away easily make sure they are EC104 approved, they will have a lazer etched watermark on them, because they are specifically for vehicles the colour range is far wider and they are also digitally printable.

Doesnt help this time though !!

[Hugh Potter]

quote Cameron Steer:

Hi Guys,

many reflectives were designed for road signage and are not meant to come off, you can get good quality engineering fleet marking reflectives now that do come away easily make sure they are EC104 approved, they will have a lazer etched watermark on them, because they are specifically for vehicles the colour range is far wider and they are also digitally printable.

Doesnt help this time though !!

Hi Cameron,

can you give an example of which films these would be? for vehicles I normally use oracle 5400, if there’s a better alternative I’ll enquire further.

Hugh

[Natasha Thomas]

quote Richard Urquhart:

these help but there is no easy way to remove this stuff

http://www.jagsignsupplies.com/aqshop/c … php?id=354

http://www.jagsignsupplies.com/aqshop/c … php?id=355

rich 😀

Cheers Richard, I’ve never seen these before, they look like they could help!

[Neil Davey]

Sorry to say but I think you’ve got a job on your hands, having been there many years ago. You’ll probably find that the face comes off but leaves the adhesive ‘silver’ part on the GRP.
Temperature doesn’t make a difference.
I now always put vinyl on before applying any reflective though the new vehicle reflective looks interesting.
You’ll be better off getting one of these to remove the reflective, expensive initially but it’ll save you so much time and obviously can be used on any vinyl.

http://www.jagsignsupplies.com/aqshop/c … php?id=987

[Chris Wool]

just used the same type of thing but fits in a std drill
sorry no pic

wurth 585 90 part no

[Martin Oxenham]

While the MBX is a brilliant tool it does make a lot of mess, Also I would’nt use it on GRP as it might melt it.

[Matty Goodwin]

MBX WILL attack the GRP.

Its a hard rubber disc and works wonders on vehicles but would never use it on Grp.

Try not to use one on a Smart car either………. 😳 😳

Matt

[Jean Oakley]

Hi this stuff is a real pig to remove whatever grade. I do repairs to a lot of fire engines and this is what i do to remove it. I use a scalpel to lift an edge push it in as far as it will go. do a few times next to each other, Then get a metal ruler and push and wiggle it as much as you can it should lift it in small sections (big if your lucky) but i seems to work without leaving the white behind. Once done clean with siprit to remove any little patches of glue. Its a long process but if it has to be done then this is how i do it
good luck

[Stephen Henderson]

I bought an MBX years ago when they first came out, and at that time the "caramac wheels" (if you sniff one you will see why I call them that) were £15 a shot. I have used it to move diamond grade in the past and it works wonders.not exactly the cheapest way to remove vinyl, but certainly one of the fastest, Great on small lettering when there is loads of it. need to wear a good thick pair of gloves or the air pressure freezes it to your hand.

[RayRosher]

quote Jean Oakley:

Hi this stuff is a real pig to remove whatever grade. I do repairs to a lot of fire engines and this is what i do to remove it. I use a scalpel to lift an edge push it in as far as it will go. do a few times next to each other, Then get a metal ruler and push and wiggle it as much as you can it should lift it in small sections (big if your lucky) but i seems to work without leaving the white behind. Once done clean with siprit to remove any little patches of glue. Its a long process but if it has to be done then this is how i do it
good luck

I would have thought that applying a little heat while doing this would help.
Or am I wrong….

[Scott Horne]

Hi Natasha,

I may be too late and this may not be of any help at all – but other than the heat gun option, you could try to apply a layer of vinyl over the top of the reflective, apply some heat and then gentle try to remove the 2 layers (vinyl and reflective in one piece).

The material used must be a urethane or acrylic type which are always awful to remove.

The best materials to use if easy removal is important (normally is!) are PET or vinyl top coat types, these will pull of in one piece – but a bit late for that now!

For the ECE104 products, I can confirm there are at least 3 manufacturers of this product, but it is not mandatory until next year – they are very expensive and not really necessary at this stage.

S

[Robert Lambie]

This is not going to be easy. every engineering grade of reflective i have tried over the years is a nightmare to remove. some worse than others. the old way around it was to lay reflective on top of regular vinyls. too late now though…

3M (via WmSmiths) offer a brush on paste that you leave and it bubbles the vinyl up and allows you to scrape off using an old nylon squeegee. you still have the adhesive residue to contend with though.
the problems with vinyl removing paste like this and other brands is that some reflectives have a polyester film on the surface and the pastes do not seem to penetrate this , so have very little effect.

there are various vinyl removal wheels available. some cheaper than others.
i forget who we bought outs from but you can buy just the rubber wheels for about £8 each. there are a few types on the go, some only good for coach-lines, whilst others will do the reflective. but only letters really. the better wheels are about .7f inch broad and fit onto any sort of power drill. you just buff off the vinyl that way and clean down with meths or the like.

heating the vinyl softens it, but try heating the vehicles panel instead. there is a difference. wave the heat gun over an area of about 16 inch. keep the gun moving quick so as not to scorch the panel. let it heat till the pnal is as hot as a piping cup of coffee… then use a stiff nylon squeegee or a lil’chizler which Jag supplies do and at an angle, not flat on… cut into the vinyl and it will slide off leaving no marks to the paint work. you then need to contend with the adhesive residue.

late in the day now, but the NEW Oracal reflectives have to be the best i have tried ever. i bought them as normal, unaware they had changed. one of our lads put some text on squint, onto a fresh painted van. i flipped as you can imagine as i knew fine it would be a nightmare to remove and more so, damage the paintwork. i couldn’t believe that once i heat the vehicle body panel up a bit, the reflectives pealed like regular cut vinyl. was an absolute dream to work with and would highly recommend giving it a go.

anyway, im babbling on here… best of luck… 😀

[Jan Storgaard]

quote Natasha Thomas:

Does anyone know of the best solutions for removing reflective vinyl from GRP sides of a truck?
I’m unsure yet as to what grade the reflective is but my suspicion is engineering grade as it was chipping off in small pieces (however it was -3 on Saturday which won’t have helped!).

I know that one of our fitters some years ago scared the hell out me by telling me he used a blade scraper to remove reflective graphics from a new Vito van but i see on the forum that other people use the same method. Is there a special scraper or any sort of technique I could use?

OR – does anyone have another solution, apart from the obvious heat gun method?

All suggestions gratefully received!!

Hi Natasha, steam is sometime a good solution. Gets reflex off in one piece, but can be timeconsuming.

Regards Jan

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[Dave Rich]

Hi,

We have had to remove lots of reflective for a decommisioning job a while back and by far the easiest way to remove is with a steam wallpaper stripper, simply hold the end to the vinyl for say 15-20 seconds then pull the vinyl off at an acute angle, this usually removes all the glue too.

[Brian Little]

Not a great consalation natasha but I always bu

Not a gf

Not a great consalation but I Always put a background colour on either outline or shade so its easy to remove

[Natasha Thomas]

Thanks for all the advice… the order numbers have arrived for the job so I’m spending a bit more time on it now. I’m still unsure on the MBX thing, really don’t fancy mashing the GRP sides!

[Glenn Sharp]

If so many people are putting reflective onto ‘normal’ vinyls to make removal easier……why don’t they just manufacture it differently in the first place?

[Natasha Thomas]

quote Glenn Sharp:

If so many people are putting reflective onto ‘normal’ vinyls to make removal easier……why don’t they just manufacture it differently in the first place?

I like your thinking… these vehicles we’re doing, we didn’t apply them originally and I guess when you’re applying, you’re never thinking about taking it off. I’m thinking about invoicing!
Joking aside, it is a pain though. I get annoyed when people use the engineering grade or cheap stuff on vehicles. Some of these vehicles are 08 plates and the reflective has faded already