Thousands of tiny bubbles in a trailer wrap?

[Pat Whatley]

A few weeks ago we wrapped a small cargo trailer. Printed the wrap on IJ140, laminated, cleaned the trailer well with alcohol, and installed like usual. The wrap appeared to go down fine, just the usual small bubble here and there but the next day there were THOUSANDS of 1/8" bubbles all over the trailer. Tried squegeeing them out, rubbing them out with a finger, heating, lancing and just leaving it in the sun to see what would happen but nothing seems to help. Any ideas what is causing this?

The trailer was "cheaper" than the usual trailers we've done. The panels had a lot of give to them. The only suggestion we've heard is that the thin aluminum on the trailers is expanding and contracting and sucking air back under the vinyl. That sounds bogus as heck to me but what do I know.

 

[klingsdesigns]

Was it a brand new trailer or freshly painted?

 

[DougWestwood]

bubbles?

How many hours between printing and laminating?

 

[Gino]

Positively outgassing.................

Did you use a good method of post heating before leaving the shop the first time ??​

 

[jfiscus]

Sounds like the paint is off-gassing, I bet the trailer was just painted the day before you got it.
The attachment shows what happens when you put vinyl on the day after painting a truck.

Post pics of the problem!

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

You get the same thing with oil paint when you do a thick coat and don't let it dry all the way before the next coat.

 

[Mike Paul]

Must have been repainted recently. Are the Torx screws Silver or the color of the trailer?

 

[Z SIGNS]

I think it's a conspiracy

I think it's a conspiracy among the vinyl manufacturers.

Seems like there has been a lot of bubble posts going around.

Now that you are hooked on vinyl for a living soon you will have to pay extra for the stuff that never bubbles.

Don't take my opinion serious.
My nick name when I used to apply a lot of vinyl was "Bubbles"

 

[WB]

Pat you know what your doing..

Outgassing is a huge problem. I see it alot on interior walls not on trailers.. You just got a bad draw. Look for tell tail paint signs. tape marks overspray.

hope that helps


AGI

 

[Pat Whatley]

It was a brand new trailer, we picked it up at the dealership for our customer and I know it had been on their lot for a couple of months. The panels appeared to be standard baked enamel white panels. torx screws were all shiny metal.

Wrap was printed on a latex printer and sat overnight before laminating. Nothing we wrapped before or after with the same materials off the same rolls bubbled like this so it has to be something between the vinyl and the trailer.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I am unable to find any information on a film series called IJ140. Are you sure that is the correct name?

 

[Gino]

I am unable to find any information on a film series called IJ140. Are you sure that is the correct name?

He probably meant IJ40-3M.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Yes, IJ40 with with 8019 laminate.

 

[SignManiac]

Pat did you uncheck the box in your rip that says (add bubbles) to the print file?

 

[synergy_jim]

Pat did you uncheck the box in your rip that says (add bubbles) to the print file?

I always forget to uncheck that damned box!!!!!

 

[HulkSmash]

pic?

 

[Pat Whatley]

Here are the only pics that are actually clear enough to see the bubbles.

To make it even weirder on one side of the trailer one installer did the first panel, another installer did the second panel. When we delivered the trailer last week (they had to have it bubbles and all for an event) both panels were filled with the bubbles. Go by there today, the first panel is smooth as glass, the second panel is full of bubbles. They are on the same side of the trailer getting the same amount of sunlight everyday.

 

[HulkSmash]

Install Error, Wrong Material.. etc etc etc.

There's prob moisture under it now, so those won't ever stick.

 

[Gino]

We stock the IJ40, but don't use it very often. It's our cheap go-to stuff for a quick down and dirty flat kinda job. Reading up on it, it's for flat or slightly curved surfaces, not rivets. Perhaps your two installers have different approaches to wrapping. Earlier I mentioned about post heating. That will help and prevent a lot of lifting afterwards, but some of that just looks like bad technique. Once that stuff is down, the whole surface needs to be heated and squeegeed quite sternly. That is important.

 

[LarryB]

I would not have used a calendared material. We only use 3M IJ180 CV3 for vehicles and trailers. The shrinkage on the calendared material will be obvious after 6 months.

 

[CanuckSigns]

first off, IJ40 is the wrong material for the job, if a cast vinyl isn't in the budget, I would go with something like AutoMark by general formulations, it works very well on trailers and handles rivets quite well.

Saying that, the issue you have here doesn't look to be a material issue, I would agree with Colorado signs and say it's an installation issue, are they guys who installed this experienced? Not trying to sound like a jerk, but it looks like a rookie install.