where do you carry out fitment of vehicles ?

[Phill Fenton]

Rent a small Industrial Unit.

[Gareth.Lewis]

Most of my customers are understanding enough to wait for a dry day – thank god. The others have indoor space themselves. Those gazebos thought, eerrr, I dunno, they could easily blow over couldn’t they?

One thing, I have found myself sheltering under a 8×4 piece of ply held there by my customer just to get the job finished. Not ideal but it bloody worked at the time!

If you were planning on doing fleets of vehicles for customers with small windows of opportunity though, I suppose you would need a unit of your own or know somebody very understanding with one you could occupy temporarily.

good luck!

[Marcella Ross]

Wait for a dry day or carry out the work at their premises if they have space. 😀

[Frank_Galloway]

thanks for the insight guys (and gall)…

was just wondering really – so if it’s usual practice to wait for good weather all the better 😀

[Nigel Hindley]

Living In Scotland – you cant really wait for a dry day! I find putting a fan heater in the vehicle for a while before you start helps a lot with drying drizzle and in the cold it helps no end, when it pours we have folk that let us use their places and we do a good deal on their next job!

[Lorraine Clinch]

I also wait for reasonable weather, or go to customers if they have somewhere undercover. Occasionally I can use the unit next to mine, but don’t often ask.

[Martin Pearson]

Just my opinion and I know it will upset some people but I don’t see why the customer should have to wait for a dry day to get his livery sorted. Phill has an industrial unit so his customer knows that the van will be off the road on what ever day is agreed for how ever long Phill has told him it will take. Customer drops off van with Phill at designated time regardless of weather and collects when Phill says.

[Peter Mindham]

quote Phill:

Rent a small Industrial Unit.

What can’t I work at home and do it in the street? Just when I was going to leave my unit too
Peter 😀

[David Rogers]

Having worked outside in the wind, rain & snow for years – because I HAD to, I appreciate the blessing of (sharing) a large unit these days. Bring a car, van, truck inside – store overnight if I have to. Always light so no worries about working past 3pm in the winter, always temperature stable so not overly sticky / won’t stick / brittle.

If you have a garage / industrial unit nearby they may rent you the space on a daily rate / per van at £20 or £30 cash in hand – just tag it onto the bill. ie. If it’s worth doing NOW it’s gotta be worth the extra dosh.

Before this it was a dry & windy day in hell before I’d call off a livery. If it’s raining – you’ll get wet & a great lesson in wet application. If snowing / frosty then you’ll be pretty hot with a heat gun after a while.

Dust was my only enemy…hot, dry & windy. Not a good combination.

Dave

ps. I am / was of the opinion that although SOME customers may be prepared to wait I’d rather make less (rent space / lose the odd panel) & get the job done than having them stacking up for maybe a week / 10 days due to inclement weather.
Multi purpose: cash flow – (you’re stuffed if they cancel), customer service & time management.

[John Childs]

quote martin:

Just my opinion and I know it will upset some people but I don’t see why the customer should have to wait for a dry day to get his livery sorted. Phill has an industrial unit so his customer knows that the van will be off the road on what ever day is agreed for how ever long Phill has told him it will take. Customer drops off van with Phill at designated time regardless of weather and collects when Phill says.

Spot on Martin.

Nice though it would be to work just when it suited me, in practice it aint gonna happen. If I don’t do work when specified I would quickly lose the majority of my customers.

And yes, I do know start-ups mayhave problems but you are going to have to overcome them. Just like I did in my early days.

[Steve Underhill]

I have a 4 metre x 3 metre market stall 7′ high that almost any size van can be backed into, (dont mean lutons etc) totally undercover and portable if the customer cant be without the vehicle too long. takes about 20 mins or so to rig up and even in a gale of wind and rain you can get the job done.
£300 mine cost but it has counters in, you can get the same without for about £200, worty investment for people with no unit like me I have 2 retail shops but no unit 😳

[philip Boyd]

i have, and still do fit all vinyls out in the weather.
rain, hail or high water i am outside getting wet.
if its dry, i use the hinge method, if its raining i wet apply. use the best of both fitting styles.
we used to have an area at the shutter for small vans but we got a cnc router, which took all the space we had left at the front of the unit.
i remember 1 job, where the temperature was -4 and the customer could not get anywhere for his truck and trailer, when i sprayed water onto the side of the truck, it froze instantly, i thought the vinyl was never going to stay on, that was 5-6 years ago and the vinyls are still on the truck now 😎

[Phil Barnfield]

still looking for a unit myself, and recently I have had to do 2 new vans for a large business…. fortunately they were forgiving and allowed me to pick a day when the weather was "planned" to be ok.

First one was very hot and nightmare. Second one was warm but windy – so yes it makes it very difficult. One of my first big jobs was for a builder and he gave me the van to do on a January morning. I washed it down and as I got round the other side it had frozen back on. Very difficult indeed and I was cursing myself for not having a unit at the time.

I have worked on small vans and cars within a gazebo which keeps most of the elements off you – looking to get a large retractable awning fitted to the garage on the house so that it can be pulled out to say 2-3m giving reasonable protection, although winds and cold weather will still be something of a mission to deal with.

Unless you have guaranteed work (unlike myself) renting a unit is a big step. Where I am, your looking at a minimum of £600 a month for a unit and rates, and thats 1000sqft of workspace…… big price tag and so not always cost efficient.

[Kenny Ramsey]

Sorry to drag this topic back up but it’s relevant as it’s one of the reasons I am contemplating giving it all up.

It’s getting beyond a joke with the weather lately and I’m fed up having to drag my rear end halfway round the country to borrow sheds. Especially when something goes wrong or bit needs changed or is lost. We have a large garage at home but the door won’t take anything bigger than a med roof van.

I do a fair few trucks, buses etc and I’m trying to find a suitable building to put up that will house a rigid or a tractor unit.

I really don’t know if it’s what I want to do any more. I’ve no faith in my designs and I just seem to be rehashing the same stuff over and over again. But i don’t think I could go back to the 9-5 either.

So it’s either jack it in I try it for another year and put more money into it and look at it again.

That went a bit off topic really. Opinions on what sort of buildings are available for taking large vehicles would be appreciated.

Thanks 🙂

[Gavin MacMillan]

We work from a unit and unfortunately we can only get med roof van in here as well. We have a canopy outside that will take higher roofs and vans with big roof racks. Failing that we do it anyway. Buy some waterproofs. The only issue is on moulding parts but that can be left and done in a break in the weather. Apart from installation on site we never re-schedule due to the weather.

It’s currently snowing outside and about 3 degrees. We have a sprinter out there getting done as I type. Not the most amount of fun but were not going to rearange the week for a wee bit of bad weather, I’m afraid nothing would ever get done if we started that.

p.s. hairdryers and rain are not a good mix.

Gavin

[Warren Beard]

quote Gavin MacMillan:

p.s. hairdryers and rain are not a good mix.

Gavin

:doh:

[Lee Ballard]

Usually I fit outside though I have a friend with a unit I can use should I need to, or failing that we have a 4m x 6m marquee that’ll take a transit/sprinter is push comes to shove.

I’d never turn a customer down due to weather if they were expecting the job on a specific day.

However due to wind etc I will put off fitting external signs and banners as I’m sure we all would for the sake of safety.

[Phill Fenton]

quote Gavin MacMillan:

.

It’s currently snowing outside and about 3 degrees. We have a sprinter out there getting done as I type.

3 degrees – that’s luxury. It’s 0 degrees here and this morning I did a truck that wouldn’t fit in under our roller shutter – And about an hour ago the van that arrived to be lettered up this afternoon has one of these amber lights on the roof that stops the van from fitting inside – so yet another outside job today for me 😕

[James Martin]

I cut two vans livery yesterday for a repeat customer but rather than deal with the vans and the business owner I have the drivers of the vans numbers so I just hassle then for access.

This means the vans are never off the road losing the the owner money I just turn up and do it where the driver is on a job.

I,v even turned up and taken a squads transport off them promising to have it back in time for them when they finish.

Horses for courses.

As for the weather:

Ive thought about being able to pitch some sort of temp cover which I will consider again when I get my own van.

If I need space indoors I have a few big places within walking distance I can phone up and get access to.

What I’m looking to buy and try is a naked flame lamp torch thing for when there is no power unit.

I gather it will have to be clean carbon-free burning fuel.

[Jon Marshall]

Don’t vinyl manufacturers specify a minimum temp for fitting? Circa 5-6 degrees?

And I really don’t see how you can fit in the rain. If the app paper gets wet you’re in trouble let alone trying to get into recesses.

[Phill Fenton]

quote jonm01:

Don’t vinyl manufacturers specify a minimum temp for fitting? Circa 5-6 degrees?

Yes – but in reality – if you can remove the moisture before it freezes the vinyl goes on quite easily. Because of the cold it’s actually easier then applying dry on a warm surface. Long term -applying in cold weather has never been an issue for any work I have done. I assume that once the temperature has risen the vinyl bonds just as it would do under warmer circumstances (just takes a bit longer). Conventional wisdom has it that vinyl takes up to a week for the bond to build up to full strength.

[Jon Marshall]

That is true except for colours like orange, yellow and light green which can stick and then be very difficult to pick off on a cold surface.

[Peter Normington]

quote jonm01:

That is true except for colours like orange, yellow and light green which can stick and then be very difficult to pick off on a cold surface.

? why would you need to pick them off…

[Chris Wool]

quote jonm01:

Don’t vinyl manufacturers specify a minimum temp for fitting? Circa 5-6 degrees?

And I really don’t see how you can fit in the rain. If the app paper gets wet you’re in trouble let alone trying to get into recesses.

in the west country south westerly rain is the best application fluid you can get, any other direction its filthy stuff.

chris

[Kenny Ramsey]

Working out in the weather doesn’t bother me. It’s the sheer impracticality and extra time it takes when it’s windy or really wet.

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Kenny Ramsey:

Working out in the weather doesn’t bother me. It’s the sheer impracticality and extra time it takes when it’s windy or really wet.

well said 😀

nik

[Robert Lambie]

Regardless to your situation, as a business, you should be trying to portray to be providing a professional service for your customer. There are ways of doing this that we did in the past that were far from convenient for us, but the customer is none the wiser!

If a customer was coming to us via a van sales place. “We recommended” that to fit the graphics properly and prolong the life of the graphics. They should be applied indoors and above a certain temperature. As way of convenience to them, we will travel to the van sales place and fit it for them there before it is on the road. So they pick up a gleaming van with new graphics!

If the customer did have a new van, we said as part of the service we will come to your premises and fit the van. Making it more convenient for the customer! (or so they thought)

If the customer did not have unit space, or even a unit, we still said, “no matter. We will arrive at your premises and pick the vehicle up. Returning two to three hours later with their immaculate van and new graphics”. What they did not know was, when you pick up the van. “If it is far from clean” drive to the nearest car wash and clean it. Then, drive to the nearest multi-story car park, or similar and fit the job undercover. Returning with the van lettered. Happy customer! (Watch for height restrictions on that one)

There are lots of ways to get around this problem. Drive around your town and look for something, often the best is the most unobvious of places. For buses we actually get access to a local bus depot.
Huge Bus depots lay empty the best part of the day. As has been said, walking in and speaking with the manager, asking would he allow you to work in a corner of his unit for a couple of hours every once and a while and you will bung him £20 gets you a place for the time being. As for your customer, they just see a professional service. Their van gets picked up and dropped off lettered. You on the other hand, don’t have the overheads of a unit, but do have fitting facilities and that’s not out in the wind and rain.

[James Martin]

Multi-story car parks!

Good one. 😎

[James Martin]

I was reading another post today about insurance and then got onto a few brokers trying to find cover to drive other peoples commercial vehicles.

Not alot of joy, I did have!

I think I’ve been breaking a few laws; more than usual.