Vinyl Wrap... - Page 3

Piper J3 · #21 06-21-2019, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rv9builder

Looks nice, Jim!

Did you fill the rivets in the close-up shot before applying the vinyl?

No, no prep at all. Small pin hole at OD of rivet head to vent trapped air and then work film to the bottom edge of the rivet head using plastic thin edge of squeegee. Does nice job...

Piper J3 · #22 06-22-2019, 03:03 PM

Almost done. I used stainless steel conical washers under the flathead screws to prevent distortion of the film. Worked a charm...

ssokol · #23 06-22-2019, 10:59 PM

I purchased my 6A a little over two years ago. Good build but terrible paint. I got a quote from a paint shop for roughly $15k. Called a local sign company that also did car wraps and ended up with a very good (but not perfect) wrap for a bit over $3k.

Two years and nearly 200 hours on, I'm still very happy with the wrap. The "wrapper" was not familiar with airplanes, so there are a few spots - for example, the complex set of curves around the air intake on the cowl - that I've had to re-do. But all the flat surfaces - wings, fuselage, empennage - look great and have been 100% maintenance free.

Oh, the wrap-job added about 10 pounds to the airplane. I did not strip the old paint first. I suspect that if I had, N101PR would actually have been lighter after the strip / wrap. In retrospect, I should have stripped it down to bare aluminum - the original paint was basically a couple of coats of rattle-can Krylon.

One last plus for the wrap. The $15k paint job would have been after an 8 month weight and would have had me down for 4 - 6 weeks. The wrap was completed in about 3 days.

cattflight · #24 06-23-2019, 10:49 AM

I learned a trick for how to protect vinyl wrap from squeegee scuff marks during installation. It?s actually used in brass instrument dent repair where they drag a magnet along the outside of the pipes on the instrument. With vinyl wrapping, the scuffing may not be as evident on lighter colors, but it will show up easily in the sun on darker colors or printed designs.

Use a clear plastic drum head (12? or 14?) and lay it over the area you are smoothing out. It allows you to hold the drum head in one place and drag the squeegee without actually having the vinyl get scuffed because you are not (technically) moving the squeegee on the vinyl.

You can also use heat on the drum head to more uniformly heat the vinyl to get it around bends. I haven?t tried this around rivets yet but it works well on large areas.

Piper J3 · #25 06-24-2019, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssokol

I purchased my 6A a little over two years ago. Good build but terrible paint. I got a quote from a paint shop for roughly $15k. Called a local sign company that also did car wraps and ended up with a very good (but not perfect) wrap for a bit over $3k.

Can you show us a photo of what $3K wrap job looks like? How many colors and how intricate the design?

tomkk · #26 06-24-2019, 10:45 AM

Did you do any special prep on the fiberglass? Just wondering about the relative adhesion of the vinyl on fiberglass & aluminum.

DaleB · #27 06-24-2019, 12:22 PM

Adhesion doesn't seem to be a problem, but you'll be surprised at what will show through the vinyl if it's not perfectly smooth. You'll need to prep the fiberglass for vinyl just like you would paint, perfectly smooth.

Oarplane · #28 07-17-2019, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cattflight

I learned a trick for how to protect vinyl wrap from squeegee scuff marks during installation. It?s actually used in brass instrument dent repair where they drag a magnet along the outside of the pipes on the instrument. With vinyl wrapping, the scuffing may not be as evident on lighter colors, but it will show up easily in the sun on darker colors or printed designs.

Use a clear plastic drum head (12? or 14?) and lay it over the area you are smoothing out. It allows you to hold the drum head in one place and drag the squeegee without actually having the vinyl get scuffed because you are not (technically) moving the squeegee on the vinyl.

You can also use heat on the drum head to more uniformly heat the vinyl to get it around bends. I haven?t tried this around rivets yet but it works well on large areas.

You mean the music instrument, drum head right?

Great tip, thanks.