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paint on vinyl?

Marlene

New Member
we have to redo cladding that is white with gray squares all over it in a checker board pattern. the caldding would be painted black in the field without removing the vinyl squares. as far as I know you can't paint vinyl unless it is enamel receptive and can't paint it with latex as it also won't stick. is there a paint I can use that will stick to the vinyl?
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Regardless of what paint you find that might stick to the vinyl..... now your paint job will only be as good as the first piece of vinyl that starts to eventually peel.... or the vinyl just lets go of the backboard.

Why not just pull all of the vinyl off and do it the correct way ??
 

Marlene

New Member
Regardless of what paint you find that might stick to the vinyl..... now your paint job will only be as good as the first piece of vinyl that starts to eventually peel.... or the vinyl just lets go of the backboard.

Why not just pull all of the vinyl off and do it the correct way ??

national company's specs for the job and how they want it completed. if it was up to us, we would remove the vinyl before painting as that is the correct way to do the job.
 

letterman7

New Member
Might get away with automotive urethane, but you'll need to prep everything with a flex agent first. Of course, you could always ignore the spec and do it correctly as long as you're not losing money doing it.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
national company's specs for the job and how they want it completed. if it was up to us, we would remove the vinyl before painting as that is the correct way to do the job.

Then, if someone else is specing out the job, have them spec out the paint to use and sign off on it, as it's not normal procedure. National Company or not, that is wrong. Remember, that paint job is only gonna be a strong as your weakest link and in 9 outta 10 applications, that vinyl will fail once the paint is added on top.
 

rjssigns

Active Member
Before I had a printer I would paint flames, fades, shadows, etc...onto cast material with auto paint(acrylic enamel)
WARNING: Acrylic enamel is full of isocyanates. Ugly stuff as it's cumulative in your system. Once you become sensitized the least whiff will cause serious issues including seizures.
 

Marlene

New Member
Then, if someone else is specing out the job, have them spec out the paint to use and sign off on it, as it's not normal procedure. National Company or not, that is wrong. Remember, that paint job is only gonna be a strong as your weakest link and in 9 outta 10 applications, that vinyl will fail once the paint is added on top.

my thoughts exactly. I posted as I wouldn't do the job this way. I know of no good way of rolling paint (can't be sprayed) of any kind that will work to cover the vinyl squares. I asked as I know what I know but was checking to see if maybe there was a way that I just haven't heard of. this company only said "other sign companies have rolled paint on and it looks good in the completion photos" . I would expect that it would look good in the photos but what does it look like a week later? they are not suggesting a type of paint to use. the response pretty much comfirms what I thought about doing the job this way.
 

Marlene

New Member
Before I had a printer I would paint flames, fades, shadows, etc...onto cast material with auto paint(acrylic enamel)
WARNING: Acrylic enamel is full of isocyanates. Ugly stuff as it's cumulative in your system. Once you become sensitized the least whiff will cause serious issues including seizures.

my problem is I can't spray the paint, it has to be rolled on the cladding. I know Krylon used to stick to vinyl as I would use ti to make some gradient rather that pull out my airbrush.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Krylon Fusion now comes in quarts and in a variety of colors...... black being one of them.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
Do you guys not screen print on vinyl? We do lots of screen printing decals.... Or screen printing on white vinyl signs.

I'd presume if it's not laminated vinyl, it should be ok. Obviously not the best way to do it... But still.

We use nazdar ink. Which nazdar ink I can't say, as I'm the digital printer and not really involved in screen printing.

Maybe you can't roll screen printed ink, and that's why it wasn't brought up... No idea, sorry! Just throwing g the suggestion out there. A lot of our screen printed signs have been there for 10+ years and look perfect still.

To add - we usually screen print on 3m 7700 series, or hp premium calendered if it's a cheap sign.
 

John Blazy

Dr Dichro
I've had success adding methylene chloride to Bulldog plastic primer and also thinning down 2 part acrylic cement with MC into sprayable viscosity as a bonding primer for acrylic. Welds itself to the plastic, then topcoat with solvent based coating while tacky. My best coatings are thinning 2 part acrylic cement, thinning with MC, then adding my own powdered pigments (solid black or white following pearl coats) and spraying effects pigments for a direct weld to acrylic like this guitar that I back coated with Silver Borosilicate backed in White. I did the same with color-shifting pigments in the purple guitar.
QuiltSilver-Boro-Burl-Clsp-right.JPG
Dcstr-Studio-skew-1920.JPG
 

Andy D

Active Member
We used to do this pretty regularly when a national client had to have a PMS color that didn't come in any of
the vinyl colors... and as far as I'm aware, we never had an issue.

I didn't do the painting, from what I remember:
1 they would cut enough white vinyl to do the job
2 tape it to a rigid substrate
3 wipe it down with alcohol
4 mix up their paint, same type of paint they would use to paint plastic pan faces with.. I'm
not sure of the brand or how much hardener they would add, etc.
5 I would plot it like normal..
 

DJr

New Member
1 shot paint will work we use to paint on vinyl all the time back in the day when there was still hand lettering going on. Worth a shot 1 shot that is.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

spectrum maine

New Member
mask cladding with transfer tape. Cut squares out, scuff w/ red scotchbrite very lightly. spray 3 light coats of duplicolor acrylic enamel spray paint, let dry, do 1 more heavy coat. peel mask. will last a long time.
 
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