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Vinyl on fabric awnings?

Smacka

Smacka

New Member
Looked for a specific post concerning this but was unsuccessful. Could just be that old timers disease. Can anyone direct me to one or offer advice on possible vinyl on fabric awnings? This will be the first awning job we have done and don't want to screw it up. Is it even possible or do they have to be painted? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Deaton Design

Deaton Design

New Member
Cut a vinyl mask and apply it to the awning material. Then paint with latex paint. Might take two or three coats. ALso heard screening ink was good for this.
 
Smacka

Smacka

New Member
Many thanks! Will the vinyl stick long enough as a mask to paint? I would think it would come right off. Transferring sounds like a viable solution as well.
 
Smacka

Smacka

New Member
I have never seen fabric vinyl. Sounds interesting. I think for this application it will have to be paint though. Thanks for all the suggestions guys.
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
we have painted and had our local awning company heat set the vinyl into the fabric using the sunbrella graphics system.

when painting we cut a vinyl mash and always brush the paint away from the stencil, tedious but does look good.

On the sunbrella system that thing is about as iffy here in the past 5 years as most everything else. When it first came out you were to use high performance 3m 7125, after a while that begin to fail and the company said now you need to buy this overpriced vinyl backer and iron it on first and THEN place vinyl on top of it. If this were my machine just due to these circumstances I would have sold it....I have to wonder whats next?
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
yeah....hotglue, liquid nails and rivets. love how they always change up. what worked last week aint working today and you find this out AFTER you have vinyl failure
 
Smacka

Smacka

New Member
That's why we try to stick to projects we are very familiar with and have had great success with. It may limit our bottom line, but at least I can sleep at night knowing I don't have to worry about projects failing due to our lack of knowledge. I would rather master just a few things rather than be a slave to hundreds.
 
Craig Sjoquist

Craig Sjoquist

New Member
I hand letter fabric awnings..I'll make a pounce pattern if it helps or draw layout with chalk and use latex primer, and top coat with latex also.

Been doing this 36 years well before it was primer & 1 Shot now latex only works easier.

If doing in shop in controlled area a mask and very light spray several times will work, mask and painting by hand tends to create bleed under.

Find a good sign painter in area.
 
Steve G.

Steve G.

New Member
We use Fab Tac for a mask and Screening ink Brushed on - Will outlast the fabric.
Also have Several (10+) awnings with vinyl applied to sunbrella - Vertical surface only, with no problems. Use 3m 7125 lots of heat and pressure. Haven't had a failure yet, but it's only been about 5 years. Who knows?
 
Circleville Signs

Circleville Signs

New Member
It depends on the type of awning. The canvas types are fine for vinyl. Cloth? Not so much. I've got cast vinyl up on several of the canvas style awnings for 3+ years with no problems. Had someone come to me to do similar work on their awning (cloth) a while back. I explained that we couldn't do vinyl on the cloth as it would fail, and fail quickly. She became irate and demanded that we do it. i sent her out the door. She had someone else do it in vinyl. 2 weeks later it was falling down.
 
Gino

Gino

Premium Subscriber
I used to paint many an awnings in my day.

With all of the new fire retardant, mildew retardant and other repelling agents in these fabrics.... it's also hard to get paint to stick, sometimes.

Like Craig, making a pounce always worked the best, but now being quite lazy, we make a vinyl template and give it a good three coats. After removing the template, we scrap the wicked under paint with an Xacto and sometimes touch up with the awning color here and there.

If you have a solid common color, make you first coat the color of the awning. Only the first coat will wick out. After that, it will be just fine.
 
Smacka

Smacka

New Member
Many great methods and everyone has their own. That's why I come to the professionals! :U Rock:
 
Si Allen

Si Allen

New Member
Screen print ink will "eat" a vinyl mask!

If you can hand letter ( like us old dinosaurs ) ...

A pounce pattern and thinned down ink is forever! It becomes part of the fabric.
 
strypguy

strypguy

New Member
I used insignia cloth from sailmakerssupply.com. Jobs been finished for many months including through a winter and still looks as good as the day I installed it.

John
 
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