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Custom Vinyl Graphics

Eddie P

Well Known Member
Hello RV'ers,

I'm looking for a quality provider that makes custom vinyl graphics to apply over painted surfaces. The research I see shows not all vinyl is equal under prolonged UV, solvent/fuel and other wear exposure.

I've got some limited artwork and ideas so who every I use would have to have the capability to do custom work vs "point click and ship" decals.

Please list your favorites. Thank you!

Ed
 
Great suggestions guys, thank you! If I have any experiences down the road with new info I'll post back.
 
"Interior" Decals

While on the subject of creating custom decals, I saw reason to consider "interior" markings as well. I'll post a link to "DecalProFX" Graphics, a "home based" dry transfer printer system. I'm sure a lot of you already know about this system; the good, bad and ugly. Anyone care to comment on their success with it and / or caveats.. I am all ears and thanks in advance for sharing.

For those like me in "intelligence gathering" mode on all this, I offer a thread HERE on VAF I found useful.

I'll also provide the view from the other side of the fence in THIS VAF thread on DecalProFX. These critical product threads are useful in that good data and techniques can be harvested from mistakes. As long as the fix or learning curve is worth the hassle, that is. And it may not be for everyone.

I'll probably be making some adjustments to my instrument panel in the next year and a new component labeling system will have to go along with that. I've been building model airplanes since age 8; so I have a lot of history with making custom decals and know once you find a good system the effort and cost pays for itself ten fold. My present systems are pretty delicate and not optimized for the wear and tear environment of full size airplanes so I'm hopeful this system will be a good find for me. I'll still leave the "exterior" decal creation to the experts. But... I will probably get one of these systems so I can have a fairly instantaneous and flexible approach to the "interior" markings.
 
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Just a data point

I just wanted to share something that happened to me. I had a nice graphic that I put on my DG-800S glider, and on its trailer. The graphic is about 2' wide and 3' high. It was printed on vinyl. The product was fantastic.

Ten years later, it still looks like day 1 on my glider. This is understandable, as it spends most of it's live in the trailer, and maybe 5-10% of its days flying around.

The trailer had something unexplainable happen. Wherever the vinyl was clear on my graphic, the paint underneath it decayed much faster than the paint that was never covered by the graphic at all. I would have expected the vinyl to block some UV, or perhaps none at all, but not to act as an accelerant.

In short, after 10 years, the paint under the clear areas cracked and peeled down to bare aluminum. I removed the graphic, scraped the paint off (very easy), then repainted it.

I have no ideas on what occurred, but after that experience, I would avoid a printed graphic on clear vinyl.
 
Thanks Chuck for taking the time to share your experience. I've heard of this too on some types of product. This is definitely something for us to avoid. I know it can be avoided according to what I've read, but knowing in the first place is the only way to make an informed decision. Do you recall who you went through on the vinyl... was it a supplier of aviation products or a general graphic designer? Thanks again!
 
Thanks Chuck for taking the time to share your experience. I've heard of this too on some types of product. This is definitely something for us to avoid. I know it can be avoided according to what I've read, but knowing in the first place is the only way to make an informed decision. Do you recall who you went through on the vinyl... was it a supplier of aviation products or a general graphic designer? Thanks again!

The site is ferraricolor.com. Again, my order was back in 2003, so it is probably very likely to have changed in all that time. FYI, they were a fantastic company to work with.
 
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