Review of General Formulations GF 830 AutoMark Wrap Vinyl

[signheremd]

Just got done wrapping two large box trucks boxes and rear rollup doors using General Formulations GF830 AutoMark vinyl and GF831 clear lamination. Give the material a big thumbs up:
Printed well
Easy to apply
Finished product looks great

Some things to know about this vinyl: it seems a bit softer than comparable wrap vinyls (like Arlon SLX+), is repositionable but has a slightly more aggressive initial tack compared to Arlon SLX+ (though a great deal lower tack than your typical Air Egress high initial tack vinyl like Avery 1105MPI), it is meant to be cold stretched.

We found that using a very light hand the vinyl went on extremely easily and rivets were no issue - if you used more force you were more likely to cause stretching and thus tunneling with extra material. trapped air was easy to squeegee out, again with a light hand. Grommet areas conformed well when small holes applied and heated (we used a roller tool and 3M Power Grip). One of our guys had never wrapped anything before, but once shown how to do it was able to apply this material easily on the box over rivets. You can stretch it and reform it like other wrap vinyl.

I give it an A+!

Also nice that it is an American made vinyl from an American company - one of only two such.

 

[gnubler]

I used it on a partial trailer wrap and it went on nice and easy. I don't print in house and order most of my printed vinyl from Signs365. They recently started offering this.

I also ordered some for a customer to install on a race car. He called me all pissed off because he said it kept lifting and wouldn't stick. I tried to explain it was air egress/repositionable but he was hearing none of it and thought it was defective. Never heard from him again and was okay with that.

 

[SightLine]

What I want to hear is in 3-5 years how does it remove? If its a nightmare and leaves 100% of the adhesive then any savings up front will not have been worth it. Maybe their 830 is improved but I know that was the exact scenario about 5 years ago with a wrap another shop had done using GF wrap vinyl. They saved hundreds on material costs up front but instead of a $400 removal they faced a $1200 removal...

 

[JBurton]

What I want to hear is in 3-5 years how does it remove? If its a nightmare and leaves 100% of the adhesive then any savings up front will not have been worth it. Maybe their 830 is improved but I know that was the exact scenario about 5 years ago with a wrap another shop had done using GF wrap vinyl. They saved hundreds on material costs up front but instead of a $400 removal they faced a $1200 removal...

Not a wrap shop, don't plan on using this, so nothing to contribute other than; have you heard of dry ice guns? Something you'd rent from the same folks that sell the dry ice pellets. Next time I get strong armed into a wrap removal I'll investigate the cost and see how it works.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Not a wrap shop, don't plan on using this, so nothing to contribute other than; have you heard of dry ice guns? Something you'd rent from the same folks that sell the dry ice pellets. Next time I get strong armed into a wrap removal I'll investigate the cost and see how it works.

In 1 minute he kinda sorta removed about 1 square foot of vinyl, and about half a square foot of adhesive, no thanks!

 

[JBurton]

In 1 minute he kinda sorta removed about 1 square foot of vinyl, and about half a square foot of adhesive, no thanks!

To be fair, I think the gray is spray paint under the wrap covering the original bus district.
If I could strip a square foot a minute without wearing out my fingertips, I'd be happy. Now the added cost of a machine and consumables may make that a pipe dream, but one can dream, right?