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Video of my RV Vinyl Wrap

Let me rephrase

"Issue" was a poor choice of wording on my part. I just want to know if you wrap those areas or leave them unwrapped like the spars? I am 100% sold and will wrap my aircraft...I'm IN for the wrap mafia.

I just want to know if I'll need to paint those areas on the flight controls and flaps, or do you wrap them too?
 
"Issue" was a poor choice of wording on my part. I just want to know if you wrap those areas or leave them unwrapped like the spars? I am 100% sold and will wrap my aircraft...I'm IN for the wrap mafia.

I just want to know if I'll need to paint those areas on the flight controls and flaps, or do you wrap them too?

Yes,

Prime or paint them. We work in that area, but only to a degree.

"Wrap Mafia"!!!! :cool: Once you are in... You'll never leave!;)
 
I'm sold on the wrap, but unfortunately i'm not going to fly diagonally across the country to do it (Vancouver, BC to Florida). When you have a satellite office in Seattle let me know. :)
 
I'm sold on the wrap, but unfortunately i'm not going to fly diagonally across the country to do it (Vancouver, BC to Florida). When you have a satellite office in Seattle let me know. :)

Seattle and Phoenix are our current areas of focus as we build out our network.

AircraftWraps is already in place! We started this process months ago. Our network of "Aviation" qualified installers will come to your hangar.

We provide 2 options for the "Distant-Places" Wrap:

1. We can fly a "Director" to your location and supervise your install during the entire process to include disassembly and reassembly. Price varies based on travel and hotel cost... MUCH cheaper then owners flying their RV here and roundtrip airfare to Florida!

2. Pilot/Owner Assisted Wrap:We come to you. The pilot/owner signs a NDA regarding our process and becomes a "AircraftWraps Director" for his own aircraft. Pilot/Owner will handle disassembly and reassembly. Our qualified installers will receive ALL direction from AircraftWraps regarding install and required process to AircraftWraps Aviation Installation Standards. The owner will not be charged for any travel or Hotel expense. His involvement and assistance with aircraft hardware specifics will be compensated through a reduced AircraftWraps price.

Again... WE COME TO YOU!

Think about having your plane never leave your hangar and being completed within the week. Zero 100LL cost to the AW client! The saving for our customers will be staggering!

AircraftWraps is the only company offering this service. With environmental concerns over painting products, it's just not an option for that system of aircraft color scheme.

Option 2 was created after MANY of our pilot/builders/owners requested to be involved in the process. We developed this "Distant-Places" wrap program in an effort to involve our clients in their wrap (as requested). We believe this program allows our clients to be involved while protecting the hard earned flight testing data and our install process procedures.

Snowflake,

When would you like us at your Hangar Door!?:D Your location is prime installation summer weather climate!

Our Phoenix installation... see you in a few months;):eek:

Air-conditioned/climate-controlled Hangar (Don of Texas), we'll even bring coffee and donuts!:)
 
Long-term perspective on vinyl?

... I guess the big question will only be answered with time. How will it look a couple of years down the road? Right now it looks every bit as good as paint. Only time will tell if I am still this happy in a few years. But hey, if not, the vinyl can be pulled and I would have a clean aluminum plane ready for paint, or new vinyl.

Pete:

I'm mulling over exterior options, and found this post.
It's 6 years on- how is the vinyl wrap holding up?

Thx
 
Vinyl Wrap Wrap up?

Pete:

I'm mulling over exterior options, and found this post.
It's 6 years on- how is the vinyl wrap holding up?

Thx

You would think in 6 years we would be hearing more about this. I got a local quote a month ago from a wrapping outfit that has NOT done a plane. They quoted $12,000. VIrtually identical to a nearby aircraft painter to paint in three color imron. Mine is polished so no paint to remove except fiberglass parts.

How about it OP, is the vinyl holding up?
Ed

Oops, I just googled aircraftwraps.com and it appears they are kaput!
Ed
 
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I suspect it’s so easy for a home builder to wrap for themselves, there’s little money in it for the pro’s. My self-serve wrap is five years old now, 250+ flight hours and holding up well. The plane is always hangared. I would say the Canadian cold winter flying may be the hardest on it as it gets brittle with extreme cold temps. I avoid flying in the rain so maybe that helps too.

Not sure how to post a picture here anymore. Can anyone tell me how the new VAF picture posting procedure (VAFPPP :) works? A quick search didn’t yield anything useful.

Bevan
 
No, you don’t need external photo anymore.
Just use the attach file feature when you post. See pic.
 

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Pete:

I'm mulling over exterior options, and found this post.
It's 6 years on- how is the vinyl wrap holding up?

Thx

Joop,
I wrapped KELLI GIRL in the fall of 2015. Here's the story of how I got her wrapped (the job was done by AircraftWraps.com, which has since stopped doing wraps):
https://vansairforce.net/community/showthread.php?t=132000

After 5 years and just over 1100 Hobbs hours in VFR and IFR, here are my lessons learned:

- Durability: Less durable than paint, particularly against hangar rash and IFR rain. I found the wrap quite durable for VFR flight, but flight in IMC (rain, etc.) really does wear away at the wrap on the nose around the big air intakes. The wing leading edge wrap shows vinyl surface erosion where rain hits the leading edge, discoloring the white invasion stripes in particular.

- Reparability: Easier than paint, but the repair is easy to find. A well-done paint repair will be tough to find. For example, consider fuel tank rivet tank ProSeal bubbles under the vinyl. They happen, just like with paint. However, with vinyl, you just lightly puncture the bubble with a pin or needle, then apply some light heat gun while carefully pressing the air out of the bubble and spreading out the vinyl. You won't know it was there. As for hangar rash, it's really easy to lightly trace an area outline with a hobby knife and remove that area with some heat gun. Then, apply a new piece over the cut-out area and affix with gun heat. From 5 feet, you won't see the difference.

-Cleanability: WAY EASY. Per AircraftWrap's recommendation, I use a spray bottle with a water/rubbing alcohol mix. Spray it on, wait a few, then wipe it off. There are better cleaners for bugs, but this approach has zero surface risk to the vinyl. No waxing, meaning DO NOT WAX. Or buff.

- Water intrusion at the vinyl sheet seams: This was one of my concerns voiced earlier in this thread from 2014. IT IS A TOTAL NON-ISSUE.

In short, the wrap still looks pretty good after all this last 5 years' worth of flying.

HAVING SAID ALL THAT, I think if KELLI GIRL was still a VFR-only airplane, she would look better in this wrap than she does now. If I had it to do again, knowing my airplane was destined for IFR flight, I would have painted her rather than wrap her. I fly KELLI GIRL a whole lot, but I'm not that rough on her.

My 2 cents. YMMV.
 
I wrapped "May" in the spring of 2018 using vinyl from AeroGraphics. 300+ flight hours later, and a flight around the world, she still looks new.

The vinyl held up well to extreme heat, cold, dust/sand, ice/hail, monsoon rains and 65 hours in hard IFR conditions. The vinyl graphics were applied over a base coat of Imron paint. The only sign of wear is at the fuselage/cowl interface incurred during maintenance.

Photo credit: Vin LK

John, we don’t want to get bogged down in semantics but I very much doubt that what you have done is a “vinyl wrap”. To most people a wrap job is the use of vinyl directly applied to the aluminium in large areas in lieu of painting. What you have is the application of decorative vinyl decaLs over Imron paint....different thing.
If I was “painting” again I’d seriously consider doing decorative vinyl decals over a base paint job....but I wouldn’t consider a complete vinyl wrap for a number of reasons.
 
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