Varnishing over SignGold & vinyl.

[Phil Swanson]

I have a customer that wants to put SignGold with a red vinyl outline on a 28' custom Mahogany race boat.

The normal procedure is to use real gold leaf with painted outline. The boat gets about 5-7 coats of varnish before the lettering is applied. Then it gets 6 - 8 more coats of varnish over the lettering until the surface is smooth over the lettering.

My question is, has anyone varnished or clear coated over vinyl lettering before? I don't think there would be a problem but I have never done it before.

 

[Gino]

How thick is it ?? Years ago, we cleared overtop cast vinyl for motorcycles and custom paint jobs, but it took like 20 coats til it became smooth to the touch..... and that was 2mil. Once that stuff is embedded in there, there wont be any movement. As for gold leaf vinyl, not sure. That's a bit thicker, if I'm not mistaken..... and then they wanna add red vinyl, too. I'd be leery of that scenario.

 

[d fleming]

You have to start with very light coats over graphic so as not to melt the vinyl with solvent in your varnish. After you have a couple coats cured you van go at it like normal. I would of course experiment until I was sure of process before touching customers boat.I am not sure about the sign gold, someone else will have to advise on that aspect.

 

[Billct2]

We also used to do bike tanks that were then cleared, worked fine. I did do one boat transom with sign gold that was over varnish and then got more coats over the whole thing. No issues that I know of.

 

[Phil Swanson]

How thick is it ?? Years ago, we cleared overtop cast vinyl for motorcycles and custom paint jobs, but it took like 20 coats til it became smooth to the touch..... and that was 2mil. Once that stuff is embedded in there, there wont be any movement. As for gold leaf vinyl, not sure. That's a bit thicker, if I'm not mistaken..... and then they wanna add red vinyl, too. I'd be leery of that scenario.

Thanks for the responses. I was planning on using the thinnest I can get for the red, maybe Orical 851 - 3M-? Not sure what would be best yet. I believe that 2 mil is the thinnest available. Correct me if I'm wrong.
The gold from Real Gold in Fla is the thinnest Gold leaf I think.

 

[Gino]

But, you're gonna be building layers, correct ?? You'll have the thickness of the gold, than the red. With real gilding, that's next to nothing and a painted outline is also next to nothing. Two layers of 2 separate vinyls..... hasta be at least 5 or so mils. That's kinda hefty.

 

[signbrad]

Burying vinyl under automotive clear coat is nothing new. This was done to vinyl striping long before computers. The only question might be whether varnish, such as the brush-on varnish many people use on wood boats, will adhere to vinyl graphics. A clear coat needs an aggressive solvent to get good adhesion on vinyl. Frog Juice sticks to vinyl, but it has automotive-strength solvents. This is also why Krylon can stick to vinyl—an aggressive solvent system.

Brad in Kansas City