Vinyl Graphics

[sf3543]

I have spent some time searching this site and the internet regarding vinyl graphics. I am thinking about utilizing graphics on my plane, but I wanted to get some additional information from those of you who may already have applied them to your plane.
Do they hold up over time?
Can you apply them under the clear coat on a base coat clear coat paint job or only on top of the clear coat?
Were they difficult to apply (Assuming you did that yourself.)
Any problems when washing the plane.
Any problem with wax on top of them?
Can you identify other companies, besides the one advertised on this site, that do airplane/RV type graphics?
Any other comments you may have would be appreciated as well.
Thanks.

[Michael White]

I have spent some time searching this site and the internet regarding vinyl graphics. I am thinking about utilizing graphics on my plane, but I wanted to get some additional information from those of you who may already have applied them to your plane.
Do they hold up over time?
Can you apply them under the clear coat on a base coat clear coat paint job or only on top of the clear coat?
Were they difficult to apply (Assuming you did that yourself.)
Any problems when washing the plane.
Any problem with wax on top of them?
Can you identify other companies, besides the one advertised on this site, that do airplane/RV type graphics?
Any other comments you may have would be appreciated as well.
Thanks.

sf,
Take a look at Scotchprint graphics from 3M: http://cms.3m.com/cms/US/en/2-173/czkRkFR/view.jhtml. Air New Zealand did the "Lord of the Rings" graphics on their planes with it (http://www.airliners.net/open.file?i...=769516&size=L), and Frontier uses Scotchprint for their "Nature" series of tail art (http://www.airliners.net/open.file?i...=918989&size=L), so RV speeds shouldn't be a problem.

You would need to go through a 3M approved graphics shop because of the printing process involved, but I can PM the name and number of an account rep from 3M Commercial Graphics to you if you'd like, so you could get names of printers in your area who can do the process.

Best,

[Kyle Boatright]

Local sign shops do most of their work in vinyl, and have access to hundreds of colors and qualities of vinyl. They use it to do logos on the sides of trucks buses, and even the occasional airplane.

If your design isn't over-the-top complicated, I imagine you'll get better service from a local sign shop than you'll get from someone a long ways away. With the local shop, you can take in a sketch then have them make a visit to your hangar to measure things before they cut the vinyl. For a bit more money, they will even install the vinyl.

As far as servicability, the better vinyls hold up extremely well.

To answer your question about painting over them. Don't. Apply the vinyl over your finished paint.

[farmer_wally]

My first post, so here goes. I used graphics on my 9a and there were no problems in applying them. As far as how durable they will be I will have to wait and see but they have been on for a year now. The plant where I work at have applied graphics on our product for several years now and as far as I know there has been no problem with durability. Our products are exposed to the weather 24/7 year round.
I got my graphics via the JC Whitney website and located the Roge website and they were very helpful in modifying one of their graphics to fit the 9a. By doing this they became quite reasonable in price. I believe they cost me around 600 CND. at the time

[gmcjetpilot]

I am planing a Monochrome paint job, and may be a few graphics, but wounder, can you take the graphics off later, say a 2 years down the road, with out damage to the paint? Thanks G

[Dave_Boxall]

My experience with vehicles is that the vinyl does a good job of protecting the paint. When you remove the vinyl the paint underneath is noticably brighter & more shiny than the surrounding paint - so the visible mark is more an issue of the non-covered paint deteriorating than the vinyl causing damage.

Dave

[Kyle Boatright]

As a follow-up to Dave Boxall's comments, if your aircraft is hangared, you probably won't notice any differential fading (or lack thereof) under the vinyl for many years. If the plane is parked outside, I imagine a year or two of sun will fade the surrounding paint but not the vinyl covered paint.

[N941WR]

Originally Posted by gmcjetpilot

I am planing a Monochrome paint job, and may be a few graphics, but wounder, can you take the graphics off later, say a 2 years down the road, with out damage to the paint? Thanks G

G,

From the race cars I've worked with, removing the graphics is fairly easy. Just get a heat gun (A blow drier might work fine but expect to burn it up.), warm the vinyl and pull it off. You will want clean up any remaining adhesive and get a good buffing compound to make all the colors match again because of the faded paint.

[sprucemoose]

These folks had a booth at Oshkosh at I spoke to them at some length. They do all the vinyl graphics for Cirrus (Cirrus paint schemes are all vinyl over a white paint job, which I didn't know) and they expressed an interest in doing RVs. They are in Madison WI which is local for me, so that is a plus for any Midwesterners.

http://www.airgraphicsllc.com/

Jeff Point
RV-6
Milwaukee

[rv8ch]

AeroGraphics Design is another company to consider. They had a nice booth and some pretty cool graphics at SNF.