[Mobilewraps]

The Avery 1005 is not a supercast (well I don’t think it is)
The supercast is a 900 series or something similar.
I havn’t tried it, I suppose I should, even if just to compare.

The removal was no problem, when I discovered that I had mucked up the first print I had it about 40% applied. I walked out in discust (it was late on a Friday night so I shouldn’t have been there anyway!) I didn’t start to remove it till Tuesday evening (4 days later) and it came away easily, well with a bit of pulling. I didn’t use heat and there was no residue adhesive left behind. It came away in one sheet. I just cleaned it down and strarted to apply the new graphic.

One reason I havn’t tried other materials is with a wrap there are several things to consider…
1) printability, not all vinyls print the same and getting suitable profiles for the vinyl is not always easy.
2) durability how strong the prints are, scratching / fading etc.
3) laminating there must be a suitable match / type of laminate and vinyl
4) application how easy the vinyl is to install.

When you do your own prints there are a lot of additional things to consider other than just the application but it sounds like you are about to find out about all that 😀
I guess thats why when we get a combination that works we don’t want to have to re-invent the wheel again with new vinyls….. or mabey I am just lazy 😮

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Robert,

I still use Avery 1005 cast and Avery DOL 1000 laminate.
The roof…
we taped it into position, removed the tape from one side and folded the vinyl back in half (while still leaving the other side taped in postition so it wouldn’t move). We then remove the backing from the folded half and cut it off. At this point we have half the print with the backing still on, taped in position on the roof, and the other half folded back with the the backing cut away.
We then start to apply the piece of vinyl (with the backing removed) from the centre of the roof working our way to the outside. As you get towards the outer edge of the roof you may need to use a little heat to prevent creases / puckers (shrink them). Once you have done one side, remove the tape and backing from the second half and start to apply this side working from the inside to the outside.
Using this method we are able to apply it in one piece without any joins or overlaps. The theory is to start in the centre so that the distance from the starting point to the finish point is always kept as short as possible.
This way you can usually work out any creases / puckers with a little heat and not get any overlaps or joins.
Of course there are a few little tricks and techniques involved when applying but basically this explains it.

Hope you can understand my instructions.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the good comments.
We did this one over a 2 week period, fitting it in when we had a spare hour or so. Probably took about 20 hours, but there were lots of interuptions in between.
We did the design in photoshop and printed it ourselves on a Roland Soljet (the one with the Eco inks). It is laminated, I would now never do one not laminated – after trying wraps earlier with liquid laminates a film laminate gives a much better finish and protects the prints much better.
The hardest parts were the front and rear bumpers as the curves go all directions. Each of these is done with one print and no overlaps or joins.
Second hardest was the wings. The roof was actually the easiest, it only took about 15 – 20 minutes to apply plus trimming. It was nice and “flat” (well compared to the rest it was) 🙂
Number of swear words used…. none, I was too busy holding my tounge in a funny position.
All the text is a part of the print – it did mean we had to be on the ball when lining up the panels, but they need to be straight anyway. We will put some cut lettering around the wheel arches, I thought they might get streched out of position while fitting if we printed these.
Yes I did have one serious problem, the first attempt at the rear bumper failed 🙁 I had printed the text in the wrong position and this became evident part way through installation. There was no way to fix this as the text is in the print, so I had to re-print it. The print for the rear bumper is about 2.5 metres long so I learnt the hard way $$$.

Thanks

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Tim & Garry,

I have a SC540 which was upgraded to “EX” status in October.
I have also had some teething problems with the new inks, profiles, vinyls etc, but I have most of them sorted out now.
I am in Launceston Tasmania, so if I can be of any help send me an e-mail.

Scott Lovell

[Mobilewraps]

Rodney,

I am also about to buy a trimmer. My printer is 1370mm wide and I am thinking of getting a 1500mm unit.
What size do you have and is it too big/small?
I don’t know if I should go a bit larger to 2000mm or 2500mm?
There is not much price difference between the 1500mm and the 2000mm, but the price jumps up quite a bit to the next size (2500mm).

What would you recomend.

[Mobilewraps]

I check out the edge site and it has some great shots of wraps.
The guy that did the design / layout must know what he is doing to be able to get the design to line up correctly all the way around.

Robert, when you are talking about the joins, do you mean there will need to be a join where the wheel gaurds/wings meet the side of the vehicle?
Or were you talking about the panel joins between the front bumper / rear bumper and the wheel gaurds / wings? (if you look close at the new beetle you can see the panel join which meets with the headlight and tail light)

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

I think we may have found somewhere suitable.
Lots of space, room for vehicles, hot and cold air con, in an industrial area and easy to find!
Will let you know how it goes, we are having a look today.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

I should have said what we do 😕
Most of our work is based on digital printing so we will obviously need a suitable are for the printer which is warm, dry, dust free etc.
We do a lot of the large real estate signs with photos, the 3 main sizes are 1200mm x 900mm, 1200mm x 1800mm and 1800mm x 2400mm. These are full digital prints and we apply these in the upright position against the wall (as we do with most of our digital prints) so we don’t need huge amounts of bench space for applying these. We do need a bit of space for a racking system to hang our prints while they are drying.
We also need a bit of an area for trimming ie when we print a set of posters etc then we need to trim them to the correct size, so I will need to set aside an area.
I want a drive in area for vehicles as we want this to be the main part of our work in the future and we also want good heating and cooling (especially the heating).
I love Rodneys Idea of a top class showroom, I think there is some great things we can do with our prints in a showroom area.

I already think the size of the couple of premises we are looking at will be too small, they will probably be ok now, but in another 6 months they will not be large enough.

Location, this may sound stupid but I want somewhere quiet where I don’t get too many people dropping in. So far, all and I mean ALL of our business has come from us approaching clients.
We are basing our business on dealing with a smaller number of high value clients. We don’t have a sign at our current location and we have not done any advertising, our phone number is not even listed in the phone book (now that is stupid and I must change the phone listing 😮 )
We have “picked” the customers we want to do business with and found it works well so far. Nearly all our customers have also given us repeat orders and referrals too which is great!
At the moment there is just me and we hire casual staff when needed (I have some mates I get to help and I give them a few beers). This means the “office” is not always attended as I am often out, so this is another reason I am not wanting people knocking at my door and getting annoyed that there is no one there.

Thanks for the advice on location, it is definatly improtant that customers are easily able to find us, but I guess I am mostly wanting to know what internal requirements we may need in a new premises.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Thanks for your advice Steve and Dollar,

I checked out the Avery web site and couldn’t find out about the CD you mentioned. I sent them an e-mail but I haven’t heard from them yet.

Sounds like you both think the Avery 900 super cast is the go. I will have to get some and have a try.

Good advice on doing the text afterwards with cut vinyl lettering. I can imagine the distortion you would end up with around the gaurds.
I will print the images so I only have 1 vinyl sheet per vehicle panel. This eliminates many overlaps and makes lining up a lot easier.

I will post some pics once done. It will probably be a few weeks.

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Stephen,

I have a Roland digital printer and cutter and have found an excellent place for advice on their products is the Roland boards at http://www.rolanddga.com/boards
check it out I am sure someone there can help you.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi John,

I use the Avery 1005 EZ apply a fair bit. It is very good to work with as you can re-position it heaps (I have lifted and re-applied sections of it over 20 times when applying to vehicles and it still stuck down in the end).
It is also easy to remove bubbles and trapped air from.
It is also good with heat when applying to recesses, you can really “cook” it.
The main thin I have found is once you have applied it you must go over the and re-squeegee the whole area with lots of pressure. I have been told (I don’t know if it is true) that when you apply lots of pressure the small dots of adhesive on the back of the vinyl break open and spread / release an agressive adhesive which gives it the final bond / adhesion to the surface.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

I think know what you mean Rob.
To get the vinyl to fit you need to stretch it a lot (which is not too big a problem for good vinyls) the problem is how much the vinyl wants to shrink back to it’s original size, if it shrinks back too much then you have problems.

I use an Avery cast vinyl SEM 1005 EZ (53 micron). I use this also because I get the best print results from my digital printer. Have tried a few others and althought they are great to apply, they give terrible print quality. So I am preety much locked into what vinyl I can use.
The vinyl will also have full digital printing and it would be ideal if the image would fit together around the vehicle. ie have the image line up where it goes from the side to the front and side to the rear. I havn’t done this before so any tips on how to get the weird shapes of the beetle to match up would be appreciated.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Gray

Yes we do our own printing. I have a 54″ wide Roland Soljet Pro II. I bought it in November. If you ever need any digital printing done give me a call 0418 121 668.
I am actually located in Launceston (I think my profile says Hobart). I used to live in Smithton so I am very familiar with the North West.

I would like to come and have a look at your set-up sometime, so when I am up that way I will give you a call if thats OK.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

The latest news!!

We removed the rear number plate this afternoon and found the same thing had happened under it. There are bubbles under the laminate which are full of water. There was no overlap of vinyl in this area, so it has nothing to do with the adhesive of the vinyl.

It seems like the bubbles are caused by the vinyl/ink “sweating” under the laminate and causing moisture bubbles. I would have thought if this was the case then the problem would be all through the vinyl though.

Still as lost as ever. 😕

[Mobilewraps]

Thanks Peter,

I don’t think this is the problem though.
I do my applications dry so ther should not have been any problems with the application fluid preventing the adhesive curing.
The van was inside for 2 days after I had fitted the vinyl to give it time to cure properly, and I heated the joins/overlaps as well to help things.

I still have no idea why this happened 😕

[Mobilewraps]

That makes sense.

Do you know who the main manufacturers of vehicle wrap are?

[Mobilewraps]

Thanks John,

It has helped a little, but I guess what I want to know is, does vehicle wrap have more felxability/stretch than cast vinyl or is it the same stuff?

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Robert,

I used Avery cast SEM 1005 EZ vinyl for the van body and Clear Focus Jetview perforated window film. Both of these were laminated using a spray.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Thanks Mike.

You would be amazed at how many “tips and tricks” that I learned off this site were used during installation.

Sharing your experience has helped me a lot.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

oops,

I missed your second 2 questions 😕

We prepared the van by firstly washing to remove normal dirt and dust.
Them we cleaned it with a solvent cleaner to remove wax, silocone pollish, grease & tar etc. ie normal road grime.
After this, and just before application of the vinyl it was given a final clean with isopropyl alcohol. This needs to be wiped off the panel before it evaporates on the surface. We usually wipe the alcohol on the area just before we apply the vinyl, to remove any finger marks, tape marks etc caused from the previous panel being installed.

Tools, nothing special just 3M gold squegee with protective sleeves, felt squegee, heat gun, knife and lots of work with bare hands and fingers!

Hope this helps a little.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

I am happy to help with any info I can, but I am no expert, I’m only learning too.

I printed the graphics on a Roland Soljet printer. It is not a true solvent printer, bit the graphics are waterproof and will last 3+ years unlaminated.
The prints are laminated using a spray before the graphics are installed.
It was installed dry (Robert would be proud!) and I used the “heat 3 times” method (which I learned here) for the recesses.

If you have any other questions, please ask.

Scott

[Mobilewraps]

Hi Martin,

The van was white (same as the roof).
I did the design in Photoshop on a 1 to 5 scale and then printed it on our printer. It was done in panels aprox 1300mm (54 inch) wide and then applied from the rear to the front (to get the overlaps going the right way). The windows are printed on one-way-vision perforated window film. We used Avery 1005 EZ cast vinyl.

Scott