why is vinyl pulling out of panels on sprinters?

[Phil Halling]

What are you using to clean with first ?

[Chris Wool]

good scrub with fairy liq – well rinsed – then round the edges and in the groves with a spirit wipe also tried with out the spirit wipes

Chris

[Phil Halling]

Try isopropanl (isopropyl alcohol) and use heat during/after application, this helps to kill the “memory” of vinyl stretched into recesses.
Tip 1 keep the hot air gun moving – no blowing holes in the vinyl
Tip2 get an infra red thermometer and heat the whole finished recessed area to at least 80C .

[Chris Wool]

thank you i have used the booze stuff as well but probably not finishing that hot i knew it had to be quite hot – judging by the bed temp of the printer 40 deg i would guess i was only getting about 60 deg – so out to buy a temp thing

thanks

Chris

[Robert Lambie]

i second that… use plenty heat. i recently bought a laser temp gauge. paid about £75 for it. did myself some testers, what i did was heat it to what i normally do guessing, then tested heat. i was close, but not close enough and not consistant even when i got there. buy the temp gauge and get it right mate. if it fails and you have prepped 100% bang on, applied properly & heated using laser gauge. if still pulls, you can then blame the vinyl :lol1:
always clean with isoprop or meth. i use industrial meth, clear stuff…

[Phil Halling]

£75 !!!!!
You can get them for as lttle as £20, did they see you coming ?

[Robert Lambie]

would be intrested to know your source phil, if not here then by emal 😉 i was froogling it and after many searches, although i found a few cheap, i decided on the higher priced. was about £60+vat+p&p

[Dave Bruce]

Had same problem with LT, well cleaned with meths and heated during and after. Panel was so hot I couldn’t touch it, two months later some of it popped out, 8 months it is all out 🙁

Dave

[John Harding]

quote :

always clean with isoprop or meth. i use industrial meth, clear stuff…

Rob where do you buy industrial meths then? 😕

John

[Cammy – Europoint Display]

Stating the obvious here but heating after to KEEP in the recesses only works with cast vinyl , you are re-setting the vinyl by heating it up beyond whatever temperature it will reach during its working life thus stopping it from re-setting during hot weather.

[Shane Drew]

I have had cast pop on sprinters too Cammy. Never had a problem with anything else, only the sprinter 😥

The surface seems to be of a different material inside the well, and I assumed this was the reason. Best day of my life was when my customers sold their sprinters, coz I will not have them coming back anymore!! :lol1:

Shane

[Ian Hatfield]

The problem with the Sprinter is that in the recess it has be sprayed with the same spray that is used on the underside of the sills. This is an anti corrosion spray. It is full of silicon which leaches out so no matter whether you use a cast or poly vinyl it can be a problem. To help overcome this I recommend you heat the areas with the spray with a heat gun to about 80C-90C for about 10 mins or so, and then clean with IPA, this will force the silicon to leach and help prevent the popping out. I only use isoprop alcohol when wrapping as meths leaves a residue behind which on concave areas can have an adverse effect. Hope this helps.

[Paul Franklin]

Got to go and re-do or at least take a look at Sprinter for the second time after applying a large logo in cast that has gone over the recesses.
Last time we snagged it, we just cut in and folded into the recess, so I’m curious to know whats happened this time. We took all the precautions of heating for around ten minutes to get the silicon to leech out, cleaning with isoprop etc etc. Have not had this problem with any other vans to my knowledge, but these sprinters are really getting me annoyed now and with the re work and site visits we’ve done for this one we have most certainly lost money on it now. Will get a few photos and post them tomorrow as I for one would certainly like to find a remedy to this problem.

[Peter Normington]

I haven’t noticed or been told of any problems with the sprinters I have done.
I never use heat for “unstretched” contours. I clean only with “Overlay” from Cherwell, which is actually an application fluid, Although I do it Dry. the fluid is an excellent cleaner, and prep
Peter

[Phil Halling]

Peter,
be very careful using overlay as a cleaner, it doesnt state it on the bottle but the active ingredient I was told in the end is isopropyl alcohol.
This is fine in most cases but on one application job we had a few years ago, which was etch material on to flame polished perspex panels we were told we could not use meths or any other alcohol so we used overlay,
job looked a million dollars on the sat. am when we did it, the phone was red hot monday at nine – totally s*agged the polished edges.

Phil

[Peter Normington]

Thanks for the tip Phill
Will keep it in mind
Peter

[John Childs]

Phil…

That’s a lesson we learned the hard way some years ago. Nowadays we will only clean acrylic with water.

Funnily enough, considering they are the same van, we do not have too much trouble with Merc Sprinters but VW LTs give us endless grief. We had problems with some LTs three years ago and it cost me £15k to put the job right. It was money well spent though as te client could see the problem and was impressed with the way we handled it. Consequently we are still doing their vans today.

To avoid a recurrence we now use paint thinners as a cleaner on these vans. We rub and rub and we don’t stop rubbing until the rag comes away pure white. Then we know we are down to the paint and only then do we apply the vinyl. That fixes it!!!!! (Don’t try this on used vans though – they might have had body repair)

Whilst we were trying to get to the bottom of matters I spoke to our local sprayer and he confirmed my findings and told me that they get exactly the same problems in getting paint to stick and that for a job on an LT he increases his price by £100 over what he would charge for the same job on any other van to allow for increased preparation time.

I think it is down to the transit wax applied when vans leave the factory. I don’t think it is a coincidence that VW are still using old fashioned soft wax whilst everybody else uses more modern hard products.

[Chris Wool]

to share i found a thermometer thing only £28 and works a lot better than i thought it would. seem accurate as well.

http://www.digital-meters.com/Infrared_ … c-270.html

chris

[Paul Goodwin]

I used a thermomitor today, heated it up till over 80 twice 🙂

shall see if that makes a differance…..