Tips or ideas wanted for circular caps/rivets?

[George Elsmore]

Rivet Brush

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[Chris Windebank]

I have used a hole punch in the past. A simple twist and cuts a perfect circle

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[Robert Lambie]

rivet brushes have been around a long time and very popular in the states.
however, I have never been a fan (and I do have a couple) "they do" make the vinyl conform to the rivet shape, but you are forcing it to form in a stabbing swirling motion. there is no technique as such, and regardless of how good you use it, you are putting the vinyl under tension, which invites the inevitable.

hole punches will cut out a circle around a rivet and they do come in different sizes. I have one and arguably they do work… but there is no way I would be comfortable with my staff using them on a painted vehicle. too much pressure or a heavy-handed twist and your cutting into the paint-work. granted, if it is GRP sides then its a much harder surface and won’t be damaged just as easy. but I tend to find that a heavily rivet peppered truck side is normally a painted aluminium or similar.

Personally, I prefer to just apply the vinyl directly over the rivet as if they were not there, then work around them.
However, I am talking about trucks with maybe only a dozen or two per side. normally large coach-bolt type rivets or a few dozen you often see on the rear roller shutter doors and the like. My opinion is that working the vinyl around the rivet correctly releaves much more tension than the likes of stabbing with a rivet brush.

so why cut away the vinyl with a hole punch?
if the vinyl is applied tight around the rivet on the likes of aluminium metal sheets along the length of the truck. the rivet will begin to move over time as the truck is flexing and bouncing around as it travels down the road for hours on end.
this movement can crack the vinyl around the rivet and become grubby looking as water gets in or adhesive gets dirty.
rivets also exhaust air via the hole on the top or if loose, again this creates vinyl adhering issues and can again, come away. so the idea of the hole punch being used is a good one, but can also cause issues like i mentioned above.
add to that that if your wrapping a truck black, or a dark digital print style covering and you start cutting white circles all over the place, it will start to look bad!

All this said, my opinion is that the majority of fails of vinyl over rivets is caused by one or a combination of the following:
1, Using fluid to apply their panels. whatever that may be, its never coming out from behind the vinyl in time to prevent a fail.
2, Cheap quality vinyl is used. Something like a monomeric vinyl, when a quality brand of polymeric or cast vinyl should be used. (dependant on the number of rivets and style/size of the rivet)
3, Badly applied and over tensioned vinyl around the rivets.
4, truck body or rivets in a poor or aged condition, this prevents proper adhesion of the vinyl over and around the rivet.

around 13 years ago a company brought out the RollePro vinyl over rivets applicator, combined with pin pricking the hole on top of the rivet, if there is one. This was posted back then, here on uksignboards.com. I purchased one via Craig Brown of Signs Express back then i still have it today. even though i do not use it for rivets, but textured wall surfaces and the like. Anyway, i never could perfect the technique of using one of these when wrapping 44ft artic trucks, and i found it much faster to forget about having to leave air channels to expel the air from the rivets and concentrate more on my vinyl panel alignment.

The following video by Arlon gives a nice tutorial on how to apply vinyl using a similar tool to the rollepro.
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