Sign Builder Illustrated Vehicle Graphics 101 - November 2007 - (Page 20)

Lesson 3 Removing Graphics Craig Hail, president/art director of LogosPrint.com, a division of LogosMarketing, Inc., finds that proper vinyl removal depends on the surface to which the vinyl has been applied. “We could use citrus, a heat gun, 3M vinyl stripper, an erase wheel, and a lot of elbow grease,” he says. According to Jerry Banks, owner of Transcal Graphics (www.transcalgraphics.com) in Hickory, North Carolina, vinyl removal also depends on the materials. “If you apply very good material to a new trailer,” he begins, “chances are good that, five or ten years down the road, it will come right off. But if cheaper brands are chosen—calendared vinyl, for example—the glue will get imbedded down in the pores of the paint, making it difficult to get off.” “Vinyl removal is difficult,” agrees Brian Morse, owner of The Sign Dude, Inc. (www.thesigndude.com) in Medford, Oregon. “You’ve got vinyl that’s five years old and vinyl that’s one-year-old. We tell the customer to bring it in, and we can test it to see how it’s going to come up. Obviously metallic vinyls aren’t coming up if they’ve been on for ten years. We use a rubber wheel to get the vinyl off and then manually pull it off. Every application is different: What kind of vinyl is it and how long has it been on there?” According to Kenneth Bishop, art director for Matthews Specialty Graphics (www.matthewsgraphics.com) in Greensboro, North Carolina, the removal process is helped if the customer knows what type of vinyl was used ahead of time. “We can then look at it and tell them how long it’ll take to remove,” he says. “We can strip a tractor-trailer in about three hours (if it’s 3M or Avery).” For larger vehicles and tractor-trailers, Bishop’s company uses a weed blower to heat the trailer and then pull the vinyl; for smaller vehicles, they employ a heat gun. “Sometimes heat actually makes the glue stay on,” he says, “so we also have to use a scraper or a plastic chisel. We also use Earl Mich’s (www.earlmich.com) SS-1 Adhesive Remover. It’s fantastic!” “We’ll typically remove adhesive with S20 SBI Vehicle Graphics 101 November 2007 http://www.transcalgraphics.com http://www.transcalgraphics.com http://www.thesigndude.com http://www.mbxit.com http://www.matthewsgraphics.com http://www.earlmich.com http://www.mbxit.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sign Builder Illustrated Vehicle Graphics 101 - November 2007

Sign Builder Illustrated Vehicle Graphics 101 - November 2007 Table of Contents Welcome to Vehicle Graphics 101 Firsthand from a First-timer Pitfalls, Problems, and Paths to Glory Adventures in Vinyl Removal Hitting the Market: Put Yourself Out There Product Manufacturers Listings Wrap-related Calendar

Sign Builder Illustrated Vehicle Graphics 101 - November 2007

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