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Just when you thought vinyl has taken over at the major race tracks, NASCAR has "Outlawed" vinyl on all track side retaining walls and Pit Walls! Seems there was a problem at one of the tracks that caused a caution. A REAL Debris flag??? In the meantime, all lettering is to be hand painted!! At Watkins Glen I have 18 logos to paint on Pit Lane before the July 6th Indy Car race! This is a total of 1,200 feet! Larry Orr is shown helping. Monday I am bringing Bob Timmerman in also. The track has testing and car clubs running 7 days a week so we have to work inside pit lane while the track is HOT! After 4:30 we can work on the other side of the wall. Both sides are painted. October we will be in Talladega, AL. More painting!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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Hehehehehe .... my guess is that the walls were painted with a flat white latex. Vinyl doesn't stick to that very well .... and ... it probably peel off and caused a Caution Flag!
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
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Brushasaurus on Chat Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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and if any of ya ever painted a retaining wall.......they are not FLAT, SLICK SURFACES....most look like somebody run a jackhammer on them.....))))))))))))
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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I saw that race...I think it was at Rockingham if memory serves. Big sheet of vinull pulled off shortly after the race. Had to toss out the yellow.
Glad to hear that I don't need to get rid of my brushes just yet.
Speaking of which Tony, you don't need a hand down there at Talladega do you? I'll put together a pair of "Tony Vickio 33 degree" wall lettering shoes! I still haven't been there for a race but it is the next stop on my Nascar track tour!
posted
Having painted the Gainesville Raceway for over thirty years (I never wandered far from home)...I can testify that the NHRA always adhered to the policy of handpainting everything ON THE TRACK. For the exact reason you have mentioned. If something on the wall came loose, and sucked up into an intake, it could cause the whole engine to fail, in a heartbeat.
There was always too much danger/ liability, whatever, in having vinyl graphics, that were stuck to walls, blowing off.
However, about 3-4 years, ago, they started experimenting with the retaining walls. It was very expensive for them to hire all those sign painters to go out and suffer for days on end,in all kinds of weather, to paint the sponsors on the walls. So they looked for a cheap way out.
Here in Gainesville, the retaining wall is only about 3 feet. The various sponsors names were spaced in groups, about 6 to a side, down the 1/4 mile. Each sponsor, like Pontiac, Winston, Budweiser,Mac tools, etc, were always handpainted about 24 feet long.
It took some fortitude to squat down on that asphault that low, and hand paint something like 24 3x24 logos in 1 week, when the weather was cold and windy.
The miracle about the Gatornationals, was that it always got done. By the time the races started, I was usually wore out, but I was always on standby with my usual pit passes and whatnot.
I have about retired, but I find it interesting that they may be travelling in a large circle, graphically... whereby they may actually NEED the painters they cast off not so long ago.
[ June 24, 2007, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Ogden ]
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3829 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Glad to see everyone is excited as hand painting still lives! I guess just when you think it was going away............it's back! Dale, I have a meeting with the company that has the contract for the graphics at all of the ISC Nascar tracks on July 6. He is going to know what tracks we will be working at and what the work load will be at Talladega. Seems all of his staff are "Vinyl People"! He hinted that the large Talladega logo that is painted on the asphalt behind the Allision grandstand may have to be repainted. You would LOVE Talladega. As for the shoes! Mine are now on display in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame Museum. I will need new ones!
Amy, I will as Larry today.
Jill, we seldom use fitches except for the small lettering. Our brush of choice is the Shur-Line Pad Painter! It is fantastic! 95% of all wall lettering I do is done with the Pad! On rough surfaces it is amazing! When we painted that Coors Water Tank, 90% was done with the Pad! Try one!
-------------------- Tony Vickio The World Famous Vickio Signs 3364 Rt.329 Watkins Glen, NY 14891 t30v@vickiosigns.com 607-535-6241 http://www.vickiosigns.com Posts: 1063 | From: Watkins Glen, New York | Registered: Sep 2001
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I use Foamies allll the time Tony...that pad painter looks like it would be great too. I'll have to get me some. I can letter a decent script with a Foamie. Painting IS work, but it's fun too. Who can look back with fondness at weeding yards of vynull? (I sometimes tire of OPs naysaying is all) Love....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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Boy oh Boy, do I hear you Jeff. I did the retaining walls at the Memphis drag strip for the Mid South NHRA nationals for a number of years. PAIN IN THE A$$!!! Not only is the wall a pain but the NHRA is probably the biggest collection of unorganized idiots I've ever run into I think I did that work for five , maybe six years and finally told them to get somebody else. It was always some last minute emergency on the NHRA's part. Lettering the starting line wall while the jet dryer was making passes because they were racing in a half an hour was just a little too much. Had they not been so ate up with themselves, I might have kept on doing the work but when they demanded we (the track and I ) come up with something like 24 sheets of prepainted aluminum for a late addition sponsorship at 5:30 on a Friday!!!!!!!!! and thier egotistical, superior attitudes was just too much. Glory doesn't put food on the table, eating $*it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I'm a dirt track racer and don't even like drag racing
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
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wasnt naysayin jill...just fact....and i used foamies...mostly. FITCHES didnt get it....this track her some places had 1-2" holes....an inch deep!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Must a mad scramble at NHIS. I just looked at the schedule. NASCAR hits there this weekend and there's only 2 days left to get any painting done before qualifying starts Thursday.
Can you say "rush fee".
I sure hope someone did. I wish it was me... Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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I think I did that work for five , maybe six years and finally told them to get somebody else. It was always some last minute emergency on the NHRA's part. Lettering the starting line wall while the jet dryer was making passes because they were racing in a half an hour was just a little too much. Had they not been so ate up with themselves, I might have kept on doing the work but when they demanded we (the track and I ) come up with something like 24 sheets of prepainted aluminum for a late addition sponsorship at 5:30 on a Friday!!!!!!!!! and thier egotistical, superior attitudes was just too much. Glory doesn't put food on the table, eating $*it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I'm a dirt track racer and don't even like drag racing ![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
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