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Considering Wrapping

mxhossai

Active Member
Hello friends,

Considering wrapping my RV12, which is bare aluminum now. Elsewhere I read that some who wrapped used 3M 2048 as wrapping material. Two questions:

1. Is 3M 2048 still preferred wrapping material.
2. Are there any gotchas when being wrapped. I am considering using professional wrapping company but not necessarily an airplane wrapping company.

Thank you,
Monir
 
Lots of reading

lately of vinyl. If you use a company, they will have a recommendation base on their experience. Seems that most all have similar longevity, the real difference is in application pros and con. Avery has tons of color choices. 3m has a good rep and 1080 and new 2080 are top sellers. Orocal has a following for good reason as well. I?m playing with some sample 1080. I hear the 2080 cold forms very well, an installation nicety. Have fun , go wild 😜
 
Wrapping

Personal opinion. I left the blue covering that the kit comes with from Vans. For various reasons it was on for a while. Lots of admittedly minor corrosion problems under the plastic. Last thing I would do is cover it with plastic
 
Thanks the feedback so far. Interesting that you left the plastic but since those did not cover the surface completely perhaps more chance getting water/moisture getting traps underneath vs larges sections (or all of it) covered? Any experience anybody with having vinyl for a while on their RVs? Any corrosion issues?
 
Wrap

Prime it to insure you don?t get corrosion. Then wrap. 2 part epoxy would b best.
Just my 2 cents.
 
Wrapping -8 Wings

I like vinyl and have no concern with with corrosion occurring under properly applied quality vinyl. My confidence stems from trying to find evidence, over about two years, of anyone, anywhere, finding corrosion upon vinyl removal. My lack of evidence does not prove corrosion has not occurred, but I suspect we would have heard something by now. (I'm obviously not talking about the blue film on kit aluminum).
Today I ordered enough 3M 1080 satin white aluminum to wrap the polished wings on our -8. The wing tips are painted so we will only wrap the wings and control surfaces. I have had good luck in the past applying vinyl to "easy" areas like the horizontal stabilizer and parts of the fuselage, but I could not wrap the compound curves of the stabilizer tips.
Our -8 will have all fiberglass parts painted, polished fuselage, and vinyl wrapped wings. It's an adventure...
 
I like vinyl and have no concern with with corrosion occurring under properly applied quality vinyl. My confidence stems from trying to find evidence, over about two years, of anyone, anywhere, finding corrosion upon vinyl removal.

Plenty of builders have found corrosion under the protective vinyl that comes on most parts from Van's. That's enough for me to avoid installing opaque vinyl over bare aluminum. If corrosion started, it might go for a long time without being detected.
 
Plenty of builders have found corrosion under the protective vinyl that comes on most parts from Van's. That's enough for me to avoid installing opaque vinyl over bare aluminum. If corrosion started, it might go for a long time without being detected.

I think the jury's still out about corrosion under vinyl but I don't think what happens under the plastic that covers parts is remotely representative of what happens under the vinyl.

I just finished wrapping my Panther, my first experience with vinyl. The 3M 2080 is 3 mils thick and conforms closely to the smallest imperfections. It seems that areas of exposure might be around rivet heads, along the edges, etc. where air and moisture might exist. The vinyl also has microchannels in the adhesive that allows us to push air bubbles out to the edge and I'm not sure what happens to the microchannels after the adhesive is set. Also, there are inevitable pin pricks to deal the the occasional stubborn bubble.

The bottom line, at least for me, is there was only one way to find out and that was to try it. Speculating or drawing analogies to other products is just that, speculation. It seems that vinyl is becoming more popular on aircraft and, hopefully, it won't be too much longer before we see some real experiences.

I do know that the vinyl adhesive doesn't like fuel or Corrosion-X. Any edges that are likely to come in contact with either need to be sealed with 3M's sealer.
 
I'm planning to wrap and have been watching a lot of CKWraps on YouTube. He's got several vids reviewing different brands. He considers the industries top brands to be: Vvivid, Avery, 3M, Hexis, Oracal, and APA. He seems to like Vvivid a lot and says 3M is not the easiest to apply for beginners. Each of the brands has it's pros and cons. He has tons of vids on the wrapping process and what can go wrong, both in general, and brand-specific.

I was leaning towards 3M and purchased the sample pack and a poster from their website, but I am a long way off from wrapping.

Anyone else have wrapping resources (YouTube channels, websites...) they recommend?
 
I think the jury's still out about corrosion under vinyl but I don't think what happens under the plastic that covers parts is remotely representative of what happens under the vinyl.

I just finished wrapping my Panther, my first experience with vinyl. The 3M 2080 is 3 mils thick and conforms closely to the smallest imperfections. It seems that areas of exposure might be around rivet heads, along the edges, etc. where air and moisture might exist. The vinyl also has microchannels in the adhesive that allows us to push air bubbles out to the edge and I'm not sure what happens to the microchannels after the adhesive is set. Also, there are inevitable pin pricks to deal the the occasional stubborn bubble.

The bottom line, at least for me, is there was only one way to find out and that was to try it. Speculating or drawing analogies to other products is just that, speculation. It seems that vinyl is becoming more popular on aircraft and, hopefully, it won't be too much longer before we see some real experiences.

I do know that the vinyl adhesive doesn't like fuel or Corrosion-X. Any edges that are likely to come in contact with either need to be sealed with 3M's sealer.

I agree, and good tip on the sealer! Remember aluminum will not continue to corrode from water alone, it takes something capable of eating through the oxide layer like salt or some other corrosive substance. So if you're careful what products you use on your plane and you don't live in a coastal area I think you'll be fine. My only concern is possibly salt in the winter. Could easily remove and re-wrap a few areas during the annual CI to check for issues.
 

Yeah, that brings up another point. I wrapped my Panther totally by myself and it was my first time wrapping. Having another set of hands would have made the job WAY easier, I mean WAY WAY easier. Like bobbylucas, I watched tons of car wrap videos online. I'm conviced that, with a couple of exceptions, wrapping an airplane is a lot easier than wrapping a car. They deal with many compound curves whereas we deal with large, generally mostly flat areas. My biggest problem was dealing with the large sheets with only two hands.

The exceptions, by the way, are clearly the cowling and probably the wheel fairings. I wrapped my cowl and it turned out pretty good but that's clearly a candidate for paint if you can color match the vinyl. I don't have wheel fairings yet but they might be difficult, but maybe not. I'll give them a try when I'm ready for the fairings.

I really wanted to wrap my RV-12 five or years ago but chickened out at the last minute. Thought it would be an interesting experiment with the Panther. It was ... :)
 
Thank you, all great comments and discussions. While on the subject of wrapping, why not post some pics of design ideas for wrapping? I am in favor of both, either full wrap, or partial wrap, which for the later could be cowling with may be curved swoop going all the way through the fuselage/tail and full or partial wings (I don't have wheel pants).
 
If you are wrapping an RV12 as I did, the tool you need to buy before anything else is a rollepro, it makes forming the wrap over the rivets child?s play.

I have had so many comments about my wrap, I would never do anything but wrap the next plane I build. The only prep you are doing is wiping down with alcohol and you can do pieces in your house ! I did, my wings, my stabilizer, vertical etc easy no mess, no noxious smell.

https://www.amazon.com/Rollepro-4332992351-RolleproRollepro/dp/B01MR94OCS/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=RollePro+GForce&qid=1584889835&sr=8-2
 
If you are wrapping an RV12 as I did, the tool you need to buy before anything else is a rollepro, it makes forming the wrap over the rivets child?s play.

I have had so many comments about my wrap, I would never do anything but wrap the next plane I build. The only prep you are doing is wiping down with alcohol and you can do pieces in your house ! I did, my wings, my stabilizer, vertical etc easy no mess, no noxious smell.

Great tip, looks like a nice tool!

I love the pic where they have a blow torch two inches from the vinyl though. Lol. Needless to say, don't do that, use a heat gun peeps.
 
I'm in the middle of polishing my plane, and pulling off the protective plastic thats been on the metal for the last 6 yrs at least. With some of the metal which was stored in FL, Ive got filiform corrosion in any areas that got a scratch thru the plastic (it happens, but polishes out with effort).

I was going to wrap the underside areas straight to bare AL (hard to polish those), but clearly what Ive found has changed my mind. Akzo (epoxy primer) the underside, vinyl over that is the only long term thing that makes sense, IMHO.
 
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