posted
Hello heads, Some of you folks know me and I haven't been able to spend much time here as of late but I currently have a question. For years I have been in the application dept as a crew leader for a large vinyl company, no I work for a local sign shoppe and I do go to sevral shows a year and everyone I talk to like Gerber and all the big companys tell me there is no out door life to these vinyls but yet I see them on tow tucks ect. What material do folks use? I have ask everone but yet everone is doing it? do they just do it and hope? I have turned so many jobs away because the boss will not put something on a car or truck that we can't be sure of. I could really use some help on this matter.
Thanks guy's and girl's....
------------------ Al Checca 934 Wood Street Latrobe PA. 15650 724-532-3245
Home of Rolling Rock Beer , Mister Rogers,Arnold Palmer, And the First ever banana split made!
Posts: 151 | From: Latrobe P.A. USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
Depends on which one you buy. I think Arlons is a 5 year but I cant remember off hand (I do think one brand lasts longer on the chrome). I get customers all the time that want the stuff. I tell them it is not intended for that use but I have had it on customers trucks for 4 years, still looks good - but then thats here in the never too hot NW. I did a truck for a guy that had the chrome on it and I had to remove it - worked at it for about 2 minutes (the stuff cam off in micrscopic chunks. Sent him to a body shop who had to strip it off with a buffer and some serious grit! Sell it with the waiver only!
------------------ Brian Stoddard Expressions Signs A few puddles east of Seattle
Posts: 790 | From: Redmond, WA | Registered: Nov 1998
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before we knew we werent suposed to use the stuff on vehicles ....we did i have a customer who just replaced his ute...after 8 years, he wants me to do the same sign i did 8 years ago and i havent the heart to tell him i'm not suposed to use the mirror silver vinyl on a vehicle cause it wont last..... after the last one went for 8 years and still looked the same do you think he will beleive me?
regards gail
------------------ Gail & Dave Taurus Signcraft Thornton NSW Australia taurus@hunterlink.net.au
Posts: 794 | From: 552 O'Regans Creek Rd Toogoom Qld 4655 Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
What I have been doing is spray painting white vinyl with Plasicote Aluminum 500 degree engine enamel (just what I had laying around). It's not mirror but I'm not to fond of mirror anyway, looks cheap.
------------------ Robert Thomas Creative Signs In Beautiful Naples, Fl.
Posts: 965 | From: Bonita Springs, Florida USA | Registered: Feb 2000
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boy that should look like real ka ka......i got some that is a metalized polyester, and i got some other that is like a roll of aluminum foil...dont like either one....try to talk people outa doin it ..and if i do use it i chage em for new blade...and aggrivation...
------------------ joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 6050 mobile hwy pensacola, fl 32526 850-944-5060
Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I sell TONS of chrome.. so much that I order the stuff 10 rolls at a time.
I tell my customers that really want it what the deal is straight up. I tell them at the most they're gonna get is 1 year out of it, and it must go on top of glass or another color of material.
The chrome is fine for glass, but any other surface I suggest putting it on top of calendared film and doubling the price. This makes it a snap to remove being on top of a removeable material. Just pull up the calendared stuff and the chrome comes up with it.
I do alot of race trailers this way because the chrome is extremely popular with the racing crowd. Luckily those guys change their graphics every year so it's not a big problem.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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We use chrome in the same way Mipe mentioned. Cut an outline / shade or outline / shadow and set the chrome on top. It looks to be a much nicer job and easy to remove.
I lost a fleet job for an excavation company because the maintenance shop manager wanted me to letter their red pick-up trucks in chrome only....no outline shadow.
I warned him, tried and tried to get him to go with Silver Metalic HP instead. The lettering failed after a year and a half, and guess who got the blame! ME!
I remined him of our earlier conversation about the product not holding up. The next time I go by the place I see 8 new trucks lettered by another shop!
The other sign shop who now does them uses silver metalic with black Edge printed shadow and outline on the silver.
So you are "damned if you do and damned if you don't"!
------------------ Go Get 'Em..... :) AKA Raptorman on #Letterheads mIRC Chat Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA
Proud 2-yr. $upporter of this Web Site (May 1999-May 2001)
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've wondered about this stuff for a long time. Yea, even though I don't like it , I get a lot of requests for it. I explain up front that it's only warranteed for a year. I work mainly on trucks and I'm around thousands of them a year. I'll walk the lots and look at what other folks are putting on trucks, hunting trends and seeing how stuff holds up. For something thats only good for a year, it sure holds up good I really can't remember seeing any of this stuff going south and some of the jobs are quite old. Can't say that about the prisms or some of the vinyls though. Anytime I use it I put a vinyl outline underneath it, I too have had the pleasure of removing it. I only use it for the lettering when they insist. My favorite place to use this stuff is as a thin pinline between the lettering and a thick outline. One of those subtle classy "gotcha's"
------------------ George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@ionictech.com
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
I like the chrome mirror myself, and have it on my shop van. I did as Dave talked about using 2 mil behind it as an outline so removal won't be so bad.
It has been on my truck for a year now with no sign of failure. I have heard it will sorta "tarnish" after a couple of years.
When I do use it on a customers vehicle, I put on the sales order a diclaimer with "NO Warrenty" on the chrome, just in case.
I am playing around with a new logo for my shop, but it will not have the chrome in it. Just want a change......
------------------ Troy Haas "Metal_Leg" on mIRC
SAM Signs 812-437-5367 Evansville,Indiana
Posts: 1100 | From: Evansville,Indiana, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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When I bought our latest van I wanted to letter it quick for a trip down to the marina where I kept our boat.
I had some chrome mylar from Avery laying around and did a quick layout, and applied it over a metallic vinyl outline on the back side windows. This was intended as a quick attention getting layout untill I came up with something more permanent.
Well that was a year and a half ago! So much for temporary eh? It still looks like the day I put it on, with the exceptions of the "burnish" it gets from washing the van in an automatic car wash!
In a year and a half it has seen typical Canadian weather from searing heat to sub freezing sleet, with no ill effects. I'm quite suprised, it's held up so well.
Some time this week it is finally coming off to force me to come up with a better layout!
But I think if I were gonna use it again on a vehicle, I might consider edge sealing it similar to signgold.
Thats my story...and I'm sticking to it!
------------------ Ross Luckhurst AKA Scolt on Chat DIGISIGN Woodstock, Ontario, Eh! digisign@netcom.ca
posted
Try Spar-Cal Gemlite - 3 mil high performance Diamond - #1833 - 5 year exterior life- used the blue color (Sapphire) the other day in same material on a new van & it looked outstanding. Not chrome; better looking than. It's a metalflake. Check it out -Carl
------------------ Carl Wood Olive Branch, Ms Sonicob@aol.com
Posts: 1392 | From: Olive Branch,MS USA | Registered: Nov 1999
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I have been using Chrome mirror for many years. I did a repair on one of the semis (It was in a wreck)in january. The chrome needed a good cleaning but it buffed up very nice. The driver is not doing a good job keeping it clean or waxed. Other trucks look great, just as good as the day we lettered it.Chrome holds up very well. Dont use the gold mirror. It dosen't hold its color.
------------------ Kevin L. Kleinhans Alma Signs (Signs Be Me)
Posts: 139 | From: Alma, MI USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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Thanks all, I'm going to have to try it with a waver. I just couldn't get him to try a roll but this week he let me get a roll! Thank you all for your help.
------------------ Al Checca 934 Wood Street Latrobe PA. 15650 724-532-3245
Home of Rolling Rock Beer , Mister Rogers,Arnold Palmer, And the First ever banana split made!
Posts: 151 | From: Latrobe P.A. USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
In our coastal climate the chrome last less than a year before it starts getting a cloudy look. The largest deterrant is scratching. Just rubbing across this stuff when there is road dust on it causes a network of scratches that dull it and attract more dirt to stick. There is a truck around here that I put that stuff on ten or twelve years ago, and whenever I see it I think someone went over my lettering with verrigated leaf. Noone touched it, that's the kind of patina it developed. It looks good, just didn't stay chrome very long.
------------------ The SignShop Mendocino, California "Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"
Posts: 6718 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I really can't remember seeing any of this stuff going south and some of the jobs are quite old. Can't say that about the prisms or some of the vinyls though. Anytime I use it I put a vinyl outline underneath it, I too have had the pleasure of removing it. I only use it for the lettering when they insist. My favorite place to use this stuff is as a thin pinline between the lettering and a thick outline. One of those subtle classy "gotcha's"
It still looks like the day I put it on, with the exceptions of the "burnish" it gets from washing the van in an automatic car wash!
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