Did Avery strike again?

[Gino]

I’m not sure, but it looks as if it might’ve been handled like wrap air egress media. You said it was A V E R Y and you matched a color, I just don’t know what grade you used. Using a wet method is alright on something this size, dry would be better, but we’ve already done it wet. However, you can’t stretch the vinyl, cut it and then put it back down. Cast basically has a one time memory and yours was used up when you stretched it across the gas cap and then tried to push it down under and around. After a short while, most vinyls want to go back to their original position. Then….. you having lifting. That’s what the gas cap area looks like to me. The other area, looks like the surface might also have some contamination involved. Many times, when removing old graphics and re-lettering new, it’s very important to make sure you got all the vinyl remover completely off or it will start to react to your new vinyl without your trying…. or knowing until this happens.

We generally cut the stripe/band longer than we need and do it rather relaxed. After the stripe is down, we cut off the ends or cut them to the design needed and squeegee.

We learned this lesson a long time ago when Chevy/GMC started putting those dumb window panels in the windowless vans.

 

[BobM]

Wash it two times with Rapid Prep. If you insist on wet use Rapip Tac II. Don't streach the vinyl. You can't clean it to good. Use extra care cleaning, especially at the ends.

 

[Speedsterbeast]

3M wax and adhesive remover.

Absolutely. Any wax and grease remover works very well.

 

[SignaramaFL]

I feel like maybe I am missing something...why does a 1" stripe need to be put on wet? Seriously though, I think I might not be reading between the lines on this one?

Agreed, I just did 1.5" pinstripping, easiest install ever, and was done dry.

 

[Border]

We do 99% of everything dry!

Me too, even more than 99%, I am sure...Once you get comfy with dry application, you will never go back. WAY faster, less failure potential.Laying a long stripe down straight has always seemed pretty easy for me, I guess. I don't understand the big difficulty. I lay it down in long sections at a time, from panel gap to panel gap, usually just eyeballing it.

PS.... I would definitely post-heat a stripe like that after the install too, especially if you had to stretch it all during the install, but also to help activate the adhesive properly after a wet install.

 

[jfiscus]

The wider stripe with lifting at the bottom is possibly contamination. We see it sometimes if the person prepping the car left any adhesive remover on the car. Or, the vehicle cleaner sprayed some wheel cleaner, brake clean, etc, etc up a little too high & it ate the adhesive.

I have also seen it "just happen" on Avery Reflective & TFX Reflective Pinstriping a few months later. Guess what, the manufacturer approved the warranty claim...

The gas cap issue is the installer stretching the vinyl. You cannot stretch Avery Reflective at all. Gas caps take a bit of finesse with reflective vinyl.

Personally, I would tell the customer that it's an Avery problem & that you do not normally use Avery materials to avoid problems like this. Tell them about the advantages of 3M / Gerber vinyl films & why they need to switch now. If this is the only truck, then there shouldn't be a very valid argument that the new vinyl on his nice truck has to match the crap on the rest of the fleet.

Redo the whole truck in quality vinyl for free for him & you may have a customer for life; or put more junk back on it & lose the customer in a few months when it happens again.

I just looked & the FDC Gold Reflective is a pretty close match for Avery Gold Reflective.

 

[TheSnowman]

This isn't reflective, this is metallic. There is this same color, and the material wasn't stretched over the gas tank, it was just laid over it wet, then I just heated it up and let it follow the contour, no stretching.

The reason I had to do it wet is because there are other graphics that I have to match up with, as you can see in this full picture, plus, it is a big stripe in itself. If I didn't have to match it up, that'd be one thing. I could just cut the rest of the stripe where the doors are.

My main problem now is, I have a roll of this stuff sitting here I can use, it hasn't failed on anything else we've put it on, including the back of this vehicle which was done a year previous to this last install, and I can't decide rather to try it again, or spend all this money again and never really know what the problem was.

 

[fmg]

Had an Avery rep in last week.Seems like they are trying to re kindle the lost biz they had over the past few years.

 

[jfiscus]

It still looks like installer error, but the vinyl may also be beyond its shelf life if it's been sitting around a year now at your shop. (how long before that did it sit on your supplier's shelf - is there a date on the material?) Just by googlin I found this as a result; not sure if it's your exact same material but it says only 1-year shelf-life: http://www.na.averygraphics.com/PDFs/PD_Sheets/PDS_UC_900_Metallics_Permanent_Kraft.pdf

We're primarily reflective material here, never used Avery Metallics so far but have had good luck using some Oracal Metallics.

The easy way to align it is to cut a little bit of the other color graphic below the gold & weed it out, then cut through both the masking tape and the backer to reveal the graphic below it when you go to install it. Then put some good tape on there & get to squeegin'.

Use a low friction squeegee & get it on there dry working from front to back.

 

[TheSnowman]

I'm not denying that it's my error...cause I had to use a 3M grinding wheel to get it off of there...there's a chance there was some residue that I didn't get cleaned from somewhere, I just can't believe it was the entire truck. The customer was ok waiting a month or so to see if anything else started to fail. I think I'm probably going to redo the whole thing, and order a new roll from Oracal, just to get away from my fear of Avery failures, and to get something that's not been on the shelf.

 

[TheSnowman]

Here's the next part. The closest color Oracal makes, has a 3 year outdoor life. If that's the case, they'll be ticked off about that too. The Avery claims 5-7.

 

[AUTO-FX]

Hey Kraig, I think it's because the vehicle is black. It goes out in the sunshine and heats up rapidly. The edges are the drying faster because that's where more moisture has been squeegeed out during the install. I see this occur in some of my installs, even dry installs. Be sure to re squeegee the installation a couple times, and keep the vehicle out of the sun for a day, then re rub edges. Also, if you clean surface with solvent, be sure to follow with alcohol/water mix. The solvent will leave an evaporating residue that will be temporarily trapped beneath the vinyl. It tries to migrate to the edges, and can lift these edges if it hasnt been rubbed down enough or , there again, is exposed to rapid temperature increase.

 

[TheSnowman]

Do you think I need to use new vinyl? Right now the Avery timelife looks way better than my other options...that is, if they are telling me the truth. When I got this truck in to remove the old, it was basically turned black. That's why I couldn't remove it w/ anything other than the wheel.

 

[AUTO-FX]

All metallics will do that, the lifespan is unpredictable, and it doesnt matter what brand. I prefer to avoid avery when possible. I certainly would look at using fresh vinyl, as the shelf life seems shorter to me on metallics. Im not sure if you want to try , but Universal films are nice to work with and have a wider selection of available colors, but i think they are actually produced by Avery for Universal to convert.They do however seem to have a higher consistency in quality. Car Pretty in Richmond VA is a distributor. 800-262-6215

 

[FS-Keith]

up your game and do it dry

 

[striper14]

try peeling off the piece on the fuel flap to give you an idea how aggressive the adhesive is. If it hasn't got any grab then maybe the materials at fault. It shouldn't matter if its applied wet or not, once its dry it should stick.
Avery metallics have always been crap IMO tho. See if Universal has the same color. Its made by Avery but they use a different adhesive

 

[Jake112]

I clean everything with BonAmi, never have problems with paint or vinyl.

 

[SignosaurusRex]

That does not look like material failure at all in my book, especially in such a short time. I have to agree on poor prep as well as wet install. No reason that can't be installed dry and post install heated with a propane torch for extra measure.

 

[signcrafters london]

This was three months ago. What happened?

 

[bloobird0]

still don't know which Avery vinyl you used...