Chalky Painted Surfaces?

[Sublimefly]

I've got a request from a customer to apply vinyl to their old sign base. My only concern is that the paint is chalky (leaves a powder on your hands). I've tried scrubbing it pretty well before applying and I just seem to be getting more powder from it. Does anyone have any recommendations for prepping this kind of surface? I don't think my customer is going to be willing to paint the base or pay us to do it, so I figured I'd see how others deal with this.

Thanks in advance all!

 

[signguy 55]

In the old hand lettering days I used paint thinner and a lot of rags. Pressure washing and scrubbing would also work.

Oil paint back in the 60's and 70's was designed to chalk, the theory was each time it rained the paint would "clean" itself. (This was before latex was the standard.) Good idea unless you had dormers on your house and a black shingle roof.

Even after you clean the surface will probably be very dull, I really don't see how a customer would be so cheap not to want to spend money on a quart or gallon of oil based enamel and get a good looking surface.

I would be leery of putting vinyl over the cleaned surface without a fresh coat of paint, it may not stick.

 

[Si Allen]

I think that you need a lesson or two on "How to fire a customer"!

you have 3 choices:

1. Sand and give it a coat of gloss/semi gloss paint, then apply your vinyl.

2. Mount it on a panel of aluminum or other substrate then screw it on the old crappy base.

3. Tell the customer that you are not in the habit of doing half ass jobs, then send him to the closest bottom feeder.

 

[J Hill Designs]

just tell your customer that if its not painted they may be paying for the job 3-4 times over the next year - you cannot guarantee that the vinyl will adhere - if they wanna go with it still, you got some jobs lined up down the road already

 

[BobM]

Your job is not to save the customer money by doing a "cheap" job. Like Si Allen said, sand, prep and paint it. Then apply the vinyl. You will have a job you can be proud of and you will be saving the customer additonal costs next year and saving you the problem of dealing with an unhappy customer when the "cheap" goes bad.

 

[John Butto]

I agree with BobM on the being "proud of". Need more of that in the products produce in the USA. Next time you will know that all the time you took scrubbing it and writing about it on here you could have had it primed and painted. Word of mouth on good quality work is your best advertisement.

 

[Sublimefly]

THANKS EVERYONE! Great advice here I must say. So I spoke to the customer again and explained the situation to him, sadly he doesn't own the property and his landlord is not allowing him to paint or make changes to the sign. The customer then put me in contact with the landlord to see what he would let us do. He wasn't very interested in what I had to say, but finally agreed to let me screw a sign into the panel. So I'm just going to apply the lettering to an aluminum panel and bolt it right into the skirt of the sign. I guess this is as good of a compromise as could be expect in this situation.

 

[andy]

Farcela compound normally does the trick with tired looking paint work.. just slap some on, add a dash of water and rub with a cloth.. it brings dull paint back to a nice gloss finish.

 

[cartoad]

I know this is an old thread, but need some help on a similar issue,
We have a box truck with the white fiberglass sides that is chalky to the
point the vinyl will not stick enough to pull off the transfer tape!

We cleaned the surface with ghost off, alcolhol, and I even tried some acetone, with
no improvement. Repainting is not in customers budget.
Does anyone have any suggestions of something that has worked in the past, and of course compounding the problem it is cold outside.
I even tried after we cleaned it some "quick stick" it didn't do any good either, and used a torch to heat it up with minimal results, and the vinyl still was comming off!
In the words of a good friend Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg!
Thanks for any ideas,
Hal

 

[Salmoneye]

On the old fiberglass trick you can buff it out with some compound or you might try washing it then rubbing straight penetrol into it with a rag, wait 5 min and buff off excess with a clean rag. You do not want any excess to dry or you could have issues. I don't know how long you would have to let the penetrol cure before application but I have been amazed at some of the fiberglass restorations with almost 0 elbow grease.

 

[S'N'S]

Salmoneye ..On the old fiberglass trick you can buff it out with some compound

Just a note: IF it's painted in 2 pac you can't use old cutting compounds or it will scratch and dull the crap out of the paint and will look worse.
Cutting compound and a buff or you could get the customer to go to a panel shop and have it done if your not comfortable doing it. Will bring it back up nice and shiny.