Is the lines to thin?

[denniswa]

Here is the real problem.... Your customer has wants, but you don't seem to know what you're doing enough to tell them what the solution to what they want and what is realistic.

Vinyls is literly a big jungle, if you have a place where I can learn and read about all different vinyls and how to use them it would be very great

 

[Geneva Olson]

Yes it is, The customer liked to have it as white and our machine does not have that ink

so you make the background black. the window perf comes in white.

 

[denniswa]

so you make the background black. the window perf comes in white.

Thats an option but I dont know if they would like it to have it that way, personally i would not

 

[DL Signs]

For small text & thin lines I wouldn't use a removable adhesive (RA) vinyl, or an air release wrap vinyl. I'd use permanent adhesive sign vinyl. The adhesive is more aggressive, it's thin, so less chance of everything snagging it, no lam needed. No long points on graphics, round them all off, widen out any that are just too narrow, and post heat to set the adhesive before they take it to the car wash. Also, if the customer is installing, are they just using glass cleaner? That can leave a residue. Glass often needs to be cleaned more aggressively than painted surfaces, especially on vehicles, and even more when doing fine line stuff. Also rear windows on any vehicle I do, if it has a wiper, if I can't pull a fuse/ plug and disable it, I pull the wiper arm right off it so they can't screw everything up with it... You know they will.

 

[GraphixGirl79]

Regarding Orafol 3551 RA – do you have any recommendations on the minimum thickness for thin lines on cars? I made some that were 1mm, and they peeled off quite quickly.


Whenever we do rear window decals, we make sure the customer is aware that the rear wiper if they so choose to use it can ultimately decrease the warranty on decal adhesion, especially if they insist on skinny little stroke areas. Whenever we have to do decaling, we advise customers that the minimum stroke should be no less than 1/8" and even then adhesion is still not the best overall. 3551 RA needs to be post heated after application to at least help it set and then the vehicle should sit indoors untouched for 24 hrs. At least that's what we do. One time we had a customer come in and insisted that they needed their vehicle back the same day. Up here in Manitoba during the later months of the year, it can be quite cool. We told them that the vehicle should at least stay indoors when completed for 24 hrs before driving down the highway in sub zero temperatures but they said they couldn't swing that schedule, and we warned them of possibly adhesion failure due to the vinyl not getting enough time to really stick and taking it out into freezing temperatures right after, and sure enough they were travelling back to wherever and lost a couple letters right off the window ( they were also not very large and thinner stroke). For most window jobs we usually use an oracal 751 series vinyl because it's a bit more bitey than print media. You could try removing that piece, thickening up the stroke and reattaching a new piece if they aren't keen on keeping the same spindly look. I would definitely invest in a roll or 2 of premium cast vinyl for jobs like that.

 

[Krissy Louderback]

Thanks, can I recommend the customer to place a big transparent film over the decal or use some sort of glue or something to fix this issue? Or should I just make a return of the money? I dont know how they mounted the decal because i send it by post

Don't warranty anything you don't install. You have no idea how well they cleaned that glass before install, how well they squeegeed, etc.. Also, they should not use the rear wiper on thin detail like that.

 

[Medina Signs]

Looks like you already put some kinda laminate down. I can see the trapped air around certain areas. We almost always round sharp points.

Round the corners for sure. No pointed corners.

 

[signheremd]

I would use a high performance white vinyl, not an intermediate with RA (raipd Air, aka air egress channels). I would also clean it with glass cleaner first and alcohol second (to remove waxes) and post form heat to get the adhesive to fully tack. Wiper blades will wipe off and/or damage vinyl on windows.