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Sprinter disaster - what's next?

Pegler911

New Member
Dear all,


Thank you in advance for responses to this, I am thankful of any advice given.

Almost a year ago, I completed this full wrap on a Dodge Sprinter LWB High Top, which was a bit of a pile, it has to be said. There were a lot of rust areas, and very chalky paintwork on most of the vehicle - just imagine a typical work van that spends its time in Utah (6 months of blinding heat and dust followed by 6 months of dreadful bitter cold) that's never been washed.

So, after thorough cleaning (days) and 3M Tape Primer on all the horrid recesses, on went the latex printed IJ180 CV3 with 8518 laminate, and was post-heated to hell and back.


Almost a year later it comes back...


The laminate has come away from the vinyl in many areas. The vinyl has failed catastrophically, in pretty much every area of stress. This is without doubt the worst failure I've seen in 7 years of wrapping vehicles. I know the Sprinter is a bit of a b**ch with its deep channel recesses and this particular one, abused and neglected paint and rust, and unfortunately I then found out that we warranted the work, which leaves us obliged.




So, my questions to you lovely sign folk is this - I've been using IJ480 Envision/8548G, and have had 100% success rate with it. What would you do....rewrap the whole van in Envision, using tape primer again, and hope for the best? Or make those dreadful relief cuts in the recesses, creating hours more work on a pile that's in bad shape anyway?

I did upload some pictures..

Thank you.
 

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formanek

New Member
I have double printed the deep recessed areas. Place the vinyl in the recess first and then the high areas with the full wrap. Cut the full wrap so that it only stays on the "high" areas.
 

phototec

New Member
Most people heat the vinyl in the channel and this will lead to failure (like you photos), the vinyl in the channel is the weak-point, so it should NOT be heated and stretched. Heat the vinyl away from the channel so there is NO stretched vinyl in the channel. See the attached video for how and why.

[video=youtube;NcC5RegB-F8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcC5RegB-F8#t=54[/video]
 

Pegler911

New Member
Thanks everyone. I'm not quite sure how I can get vinyl in and then out of a Sprinter channel without stretching it, but I will try to limit stretching as much as I can. I also found out that during this time period when this project was done, 3M had a recall of IJ180CV3 due to adhesive issues. Our supplier didn't bother to tell me this until yesterday, so that may have had an impact upon the spectacular nature of the failure too. That, and the fact it's a Sprinter, and the fact the Sprinter is a pile, all collaborated to make one big disaster.

 

Aklaim

New Member
That is not a material failure issue, that was an installation issue. You can't stretch IJ180 that much in to those deep channels, it will not work, every single time. You can go ahead and do it all over again the exact same way, but you should fully expect that that vehicle will be back for the same issue in a years time or less.
 

phototec

New Member
Thanks, Phototec for the video.

The video was produced by Arlon under their Wrap It Right series, and Ritchie Daize does a great job explaining how to Wrap It Right.

Here is another good video on how to manage HEAT and TENTION when wrapping a vehicle.

[video=youtube;CU3lneyhaCU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU3lneyhaCU#t=18[/video]
 
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