working with 2ml regular vinyl vs wrap media...uggg

[gabagoo]

Man I am so frustrated.... Doing a pickup truck for a regular customer and we have done these on about 8 or 9 vehicles over the last 3 or 4 years but now FORD has got lots of indentations running on the wheel wells and lower sections of the truck, which makes applying thick curved 2ml striping a virtual nightmare for me anyways. I am pretty good at vinyl application and am experiencing near melt down as I toil and fight my way through this install. When removing the premask I am shocked at seeing so many very small bubbles and even some larger ones that require pain staking work with a sharp exacto, and even then they look like %^% close up. From 6 feet back it looks fine but I still wonder if they will disapear over time like so many say they will.
I would love to have printed the black and teal stripes but matching the teal would be an issue and I have no time as of course this is a last minute sort of rush. uggggg.

I have to go back down and do the other side now and hope it goes down better this time.

sorry just venting on a Friday afternoon

 

[MikePro]

save your wrap scraps, laminate with vinyl, and boom... insta-controltac that's also thicker and easy to handle.
or just whip up the same from your roll stock, if you don't mind doubling your materials. at least it doesn't require you to order a whole roll of controltac colors.

 

[gabagoo]

Do them wet

We've got a customer that we've always used 220 white printed on the edge for their logos, and I do them wet.

Big circle decal that goes on the fenders of pickups and you NEED to conform it....and it still works when you do it wet.

I think if I did them wet it might take a day to dry out so I could attack the wells... I just screwed up side 2 need to recut stripe!!! not happy

 

[gabagoo]

save your wrap scraps, laminate with vinyl, and boom... insta-controltac that's also thicker and easy to handle.
or just whip up the same from your roll stock, if you don't mind doubling your materials. at least it doesn't require you to order a whole roll of controltac colors.

so you are saying I should laminate the stripes with 2 ml laminate? Never thought of that but I dont think it would be any easier to apply. maybe the wet method was the way to go...to late now

 

[J Hill Designs]

so you are saying I should laminate the stripes with 2 ml laminate? Never thought of that but I dont think it would be any easier to apply. maybe the wet method was the way to go...to late now

no hes saying laminate the color to some controltac

 

[MikePro]

no hes saying laminate the color to some controltac

yup!
its expensive, since you're increasing the cost of already expensive wrap media BUT it saves you having to purchase an entire roll of colored wrap film.

 

[gabagoo]

To hell with it, put it down wet and now i wait, although I feel I will still have the issue when I try and get the stuff down into that deep gorge they call a wheel well. I don't need this on a Friday!!

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Don't mask them, then do them wet should go down nice and smooth with no bubbles at all

 

[gabagoo]

Don't mask them, then do them wet should go down nice and smooth with no bubbles at all

Normally I think this would work. There is a black stripe that sits about an inch away from the teal and it goes down a lot better as it does not hit the deep gorge of the wheel well as much. The trouble with the teal stripe ( 8" thick) is that it hits the gorge and runs along it for about 18" which the vinyl is not designed to deal with. I did do it wet and as i figured when I removed the mask that area was still hoveing about an inch away from the vehicle and I slowly started heating it and using a soft squeegee, but it &^%^% up when to much heat and a little too much pressure resulted in wrinkling and basically ruining my second try.
Worse than that is that I ordered more teal from my 3m dealer and they only have 48", so 4 more yards and about $70.00 down the drain!! I think I might cut in a section where it hits the gorge and see if I can get away with that.

I am going to tell this customer if he plans on buying any more Ford pickups I need to use wrap material to do this and need a few days warning!!! sheeesh.

Honestly I feel ashamed that I can't deal wit this...normally I have no troubles and have done hundreds and hundreds of vehicles with strange contours.....this one is just to severe for me

 

[gabagoo]

Here is a pic of the so so side.... I know it does not look too severe, but it is

 

[gabagoo]

I left the shop Friday night miserable over this stripe install and I was worried that I might have to remove and redo it again due to what seemed like an overabundance of air bubbles. This morning I come in after 2 days off and the truck looks 100% better. It seems it some how smoothed itself out. There were some areas of the stripe that it lookied like the adhesive was leaving raised areas from pulling a bit and it too has smoothed itself out. The job is far from perfect but I am feeling better about not having to redo that nightmare stripe

 

[S'N'S]

Couldn't you have used knifeless tape, lay it down, slap on the vinyl, rip the knifeless up and jobs done.

 

[gabagoo]

Couldn't you have used knifeless tape, lay it down, slap on the vinyl, rip the knifeless up and jobs done.

Would that not still have the issue of getting the vinyl to drop into such a deep groove?

 

[Billct2]

Maybe with the tape you could have worked the vinyl down into the groove and out the other side, without having to line it up, then cut.

 

[kanini]

Looks like fun on the pic, reminds me of a taxi van I had to re-do three times (stupid flower went over a lot of recesses etc.), couldn't find out why it never worked. Ended up doing it like you did though, wet and without premask.