Printing and laminating a clear Laminate to be used for a partial truck wrap. Any thoughts?

[Patrick Bateman]

I have a customer that wants a complex design to be installed onto a portion of his truck. The design has a bunch of small pieces which would make using vinyl and weeding a nightmare. Was curious if anyone has ever printed directly onto clear cast laminate and then laminated it with the same cast lam to be installed on a car/truck. Is this doable or is there anything I should look out for? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Solventinkjet]

If the truck is white it should look good but I'd test it on a small piece and let the customer approve or not first. If the truck is any other color it might not work out so well. Ink is much more see through than it seems when you print on white vinyl. Print on some clear and take it off the backer and you will see what I mean.

 

[White Haus]

Have you checked out 3M IJ180mC-114? It's made for what you're describing, and has air-release so behaves like a normal wrap film.

You can physically print on laminate but I don't think it'll have the same QC standards as a printable film, and you'll be forced to do it wet.

Doable, but using IJ180mC-114 would probably be much easier.

 

[Signature Sign Guys]

I've done some partial wraps (bottom of the doors, no complex curves) with a calendar material and haven't had any issues. I printed it on a matte laminate and then lamed it with gloss. It was on a white vehicle and looked really sharp in the end.
The IJ180mC-114 is probably a better bet but laminate works in a pinch if you don't want to buy a whole roll that you will only use for 1 job

 

[Lindsey]

Print on clear cast film. Laminate with clear cast laminate. If the vehicle is a dark colour, you may need a white ink option to get vibrant results.