What's cooking?

[GAC05]

Had a car in the shop today to have a wrap done by another shop removed.
Cars a 2014 with less than 9k miles.
Wrap could not have been on more than a year and half, more likely less than a year.
The print vinyl had to be 180C - had the right color & waffle pattern in the glue.
Sides came off with zero issues and almost no glue.
Hood & roof had turned black and spotty.
The material was a little brittle compared to the sides but it had not started crack and came off ok.
Problem is the ghost shadows on the roof and hood, they are now a permanent tattoo all the way down through the clear coat.
Our detail shop hit it with some compound and the buffer - just made them nice and shiny tattoos.......
It seems like the ink migrated right down into the paint (on the overlaps there was no shadowing).
The install was actually pretty good (with a few dodgy overlaps).
I have not seen 3M fail like this here before - at least not so early.
I took a pick to some of the material and was able to lift the lam off the 180 in pretty big sections - it felt like intermediate - too thick and stiff for 2mil cast. Almost like a floor lam.
I think the shop used a good print vinyl and a trash lam to maybe save on cost.




Anyone run into something like this or think it could be something else?
I have to show the customer the car tomorrow.
Maybe offer them a cover up wrap of the hood and trunk with some matte black or carbon fiber.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[scott pagan]

i've seen the dark spots on lam before, that's from a lower quality laminate on horizontal surfaces.

i have also seen the vehicle paint discolor under graphics before, but never of this magnitude.

my guess would be the prints were not allowed to cure properly before the lam went on. if it was a thicker lam (you mentioned almost floor graphic weight) it could trap the solvent and basically force any chemical outgassing down thru the base film and adhesive, weakening the film making it very brittle at removal.

not sure as to why the graphic left such an imprint on the paint tho... it looks like the less saturated areas were affected and the darker areas of the graphic protected the original paint. or, do i have it backwards and the heavy saturated areas stained/darkened the paint?

curious to see what you resolve on this one.

 

[Gino]

Perhaps, using the heavier lam, it became like a magnifying glass and bleached the paint job by penetrting certain areas more than others on the horizontal surfaces. Also, maybe the car had a lousy clear coat on it and wasn't protected like it should've been. In your area, I'm sure the sun beats down with greater intensity and if tnis person parked their car in a parking lot all day, it was just slowly being baked.

Anyway, it serves them right, with that hideous theme.

 

[Typestries]

While certainly anomalous, situations like these do little to further the wrap industry and client confidence in the product overall.

I (we I should say, it was arduous and my guys toughed it out) recently removed a wrap we installed 16 years ago. At the time it was 180c crosshatch, whatever # the cast lam was, and was printed on a hard solvent Arizona 180.

Vertical exposure panels we saw similar paint damage. This on a painted aluminum skinned trailer. Turned out fine because we re-wrapped, but for certain in my mind the solvent ink and the solvent transport down to the paint was the culprit. I know for sure we outgassed the prints because at the time we had a full outgas setup. Anyone with an early solvent printer can appreciate what I mean.

Scary for such a short term install do do this.

 

[HDvinyl]

Maybe the design Gods decided self combustion was the only way to save it.

 

[2B]

another vote for the lamination being the culprit.
Have see this before, just not in the time-frame you have listed

looking at the first image, roof, on the leading edge the edge it appears the lamination shrunk and the exposed ink has no discoloration

 

[GAC05]

Thanks all,
I've seen wraps fail from age but by then the material is cracked all the way through the lam and base.
This is a rent a car and is going into the used car lot so there won't be too much drama.
Funny part is one of our guys helping remove it was talking about wrapping his Z for a car show right up to the point we found the ruined paint, he had a sad face the rest of the day......


wayne k
guam usa

 

[GAC05]

another vote for the lamination being the culprit.
Have see this before, just not in the time-frame you have listed

looking at the first image, roof, on the leading edge the edge it appears the lamination shrunk and the exposed ink has no discoloration

That lighter band is the seam in the middle of the roof - about 4" wide - no idea why they left it like that.
Under that the paint was ok.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[GAC05]

Maybe the design Gods decided self combustion was the only way to save it.

Could be or..... might have been a prototype for one of these and they had a few issues with the oven heat....




wayne k
guam usa