Replacing a vacuum formed sign

[MIPDan]

A customer had asked about resurfacing a sign for a building they had purchased. They mentioned that the previous sign was lit, but didn't need theirs to be lit. When they dropped them off today I saw the print and graphics were raised, and I am guessing they are vacuum formed. Since it doesn't need to be lit, can I just replace those panels with another material like ACM? I had the fleeting thought to mount something to raised parts of the surface, but I know that wouldn't last any length of time. I don't do installs, so it is a couple of young ladies or one of their friends who will be placing the signs back together, so it would be nice to have an easy replacement for them. If it matters, the sign face is 45"x56.5", and it is 4'x5' edge to edge.

 

[d fleming]

Have new pans poured and formed in white so you can letter the exterior surface. Or they can spend the extra bucks and have theirs done raised or back sprayed with design. Just had wholesalesignsuperstore.com (daniels) do two six foot circles for us back sprayed. They looked great.

 

[Gino]

It's probably a 4" or 4.5" can with a small lip. Those signs are made to support themselves with the pan faces. Anything else goes in there and they fall out, guess who's door their insurance company'll be knocking on ?? If a sign was built in a certain fashion to be replaced with the same substrates, you can't wiggle something else in there, just because it'll fit.

Unless you have translucent paint, just have pans made with no embossing and use translucent vinyl for your customer.

 

[MIPDan]

Thanks everyone. I will look into new pans.

 

[Billct2]

If it's not going to be lit ACM is fine.

 

[JBurton]

Yeah, I'd worry with replacing like for like if it were larger, but at 4'x5', with 1.5" in the trim, I wouldn't worry about it. We just replaced a 6'x12' pan face with a flat face, just made sure to include hanger bar, lest we find the thing in a field two town over. Gino's thinking more along the lines of the 'slimline' cabinets nationals used to push out. They'd be pan formed and practically beat into a frame with .5-.75" retainer, so a tight fit was key in the integrity of the sign.

 

[Gino]

Sorry, didn't see the size difference. When I saw the picture and it had about 1/2" dirt line, I just figured it had very little holding it in. With an 1.5" holding it in. I think ya might be good with acm.