Sealing Tape

When wrapping a vehicle one of the first effects that will happen is the edges of your vinyl coming up. When working with edges most installers will wrap the vinyl behind the panel they are working on and stick it on the back side. This is good because it prevents your edges from taking to much wind and pulling your edges up. Even though this helps it does not prevent it completely  some specialist say using a primer beforehand will help with the stick. Although this is an effective solution, using sealing tape is the most effective and simple way to make sure that your edges don't pull up. It helps seal and protect all edges of the wrap including wheel wells, the hood, trunk, and doors.The tape is clear which makes it invisible to the eye and also extends the life of your wrap. Make sure that your installers are using this tape so you get your full money's worth from your wrap!

   

Vehicle Preperation

When wrapping anything, having a clean substrate is the most important part. Every vehicle should be prepared as followed: Wash 24 hours in advance, 70% Isopropyl Alcohol the entire car, use denatured alcohol for tougher areas, Xylene on the bumper and rocker panels. 3M Prep Solvent-70 should be applied everywhere vinyl goes, and a final wash with the 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. Doing these simple steps is the best way to insure that your vinyl wrap will stick and stay applied for the longest amount of time.

Intermediate vs High Performance Vinyl

Intermediate vinyls have improved a lot since they first got introduced in the 1980's. Now most intermediates are glossier and last longer, but by no means have they replaced high performance vinyls. High performance vinyls continue to be sold a lot more because they are more comfortable to uneven surfaces, they shrink less and they don't fade as fast. Also, there are usually a lot more colors available in high performance vinyls because the manufacturer can run smaller batches of cast high performance vinyls vs calendared intermediate vinyls. If you want a high quality sign with the longest vinyl life possible it is important to use a high performance vinyl instead of intermediate

Acid Dew

Acid dew comes from pollution mixing in with dew drops and becoming increasingly acidic with the more sunlight that hits it. This problem seems to be coming more common especially in warmer climate areas. 3M has come out with a new product to prevent damage to your vehicle wraps, 8528 laminate will reduce harmful effects of UV light and acid dew. This new lamination was designed specifically to guard against spotting and discoloration caused bu UV light damage and acid dew. Another way to prevent from this sort of damage is to maintain washing and polishing your vehicle. There are certain chemicals that should not be used on a vehicle wrap, doing so could cause discoloration, holes in your vinyl or removal of the print. Be sure to use chemicals that are friendly to your vehicle wrap, washing it constantly will keep your vehicle wrap in the best condition with no effects from UV lights and acid dew.

Should You Laminate Your Wrap

Our customers tell us that over laminating their vinyl wraps is a necessity. The vinyl over laminate not only protects the print from fading, abrasion, gasoline, ect., but also strengthens the vinyl which makes installation easier. Using lamination will also make removable of the vinyl easier if and when you decide to do so. The best part about lamination is the extra protection it will give your car. If you ever accidently set a chemical bottle or paint on your vehicle it is no problem with the lamination it will come right off.

This Avalanche is laminated with 8518.

Test Wrap Before You Wrap

TransferRite Ultraclear 1310 Grid material is the best way to plan your vehicle wrap before actually applying it. This material with 1'' grid squares helps you determine where your images are going to fall so they don't end up on the wheel or wrong door panel. You apply it to your vehicle before wrapping and map out how you would like the imaging and where the printing should take place. This is not a material that is used often but it is good for the perfectionist who wants to make sure all things line up perfectly. Many graphic designers and wrappers will do their measurements without this grid system, but sometimes it shows in their work. If you want to prevent any mistakes and leave a happy customer paying the price to insure that this is used on your wrap could be worth it.

  

Static Cling

Static cling is a material which has a static side and a print side. Its important that you don't print on the static side, doing so will cause a bad image and take away the static cling effect.You also want to be sure not to apply the print side to the glass, this could cause for color stains in the glass and will also ruin your image. Static cling material is great to advertise your business by sticking to cars, empty building, essentially anything that will except the cling. If you put your static cling flyers in the right places then you can expand your customer base. People always need some type of service, sometimes their just to lazy to find where and who can provide it for them. So if your providing a service using static cling flyers can be a great way to advertise, because now you take away the searching people would have to do to find your business and give them all the information they need on your flyer. The ability to stick it to peoples cars and office windows gives you more probability of getting hits from people that could use what you have to offer. Static cling print outs are usually smaller but can be a very effective form of advertisement.

  

GlowEfx

GlowEfx is a special material that glows in the dark. Unlike other glow in the dark materials GlowEfx has a "brighter" white which charges rapidly to artificial light or sunlight. When the lights go out you will experience a bright green color replace that of the white. Strontium aluninate pigment provides extended glow life, visible for up to an hour. GlowEfx will charge in 10 minutes with indoor light. This is a material that can be printed on giving you complete ability to create custom glow in the dark images. GlowEfx is easily applicable to smooth surfaces and flat substrates, its the perfect thing to add some design and light to a childrens room or spice up the environment of your next party. GlowEfx are fun and easy ways to add effect to a room.

  

Digital Signs

These are great for advertisement, they can be self mounted or mounted to a wall or building. A digital flip board is a digital sign that vary in what colors they will show depending on the type you purchase. The higher the quality and more LED lights that your sign has will give you a more crisp and colorful images. By users choice you can either have the sign display a single image or you can make it interchangeable from a selection of time variances such as 10, 20 or 30 seconds. By using the interchangeable effect you can advertise for multiple things within seconds.

Digital Flip Boards are good to have if you are in a business park, mall or location where potential customers will be walking or driving slow by. The digital sign will grasp everyone's attention in itself, once that happens you are generating multiple views on multiple advertisements. This type of sign would be great to use so customers can see the different promotions  your company may be offering, dates for events, or you can even sell slots of advertisement to other business owners. This type f sign is all about location, you want to make sure it will generate the most views as possible.

Building Mounted

Buildings themselves can act as a sign, this type of signage will either be parallel or perpendicular to the building. Building mounted signs are great to light up and will bring a lot of attention to your business. The biggest problem you will face with a building mounted sign is installation and repairs. Just driving around Tampa I have seen building mounted signs that have been damaged for months. It takes a little machinery and a lot of patients to get these types of signs on the building. All though the process may be difficult it will be well worth it in the end.

If you are in search of a building mounted sign you want to make sure that your designer relates the sign to the style of your building. This is important because this sign is going to be the new dress of your building. Most people wouldn't walk out of their houses miss match and those that do usually don't generate positive first impressions. You want to make sure that when people see your building they get a positive impression that makes them want to investigate further of what your business has to offer. Make sure to fit your building with a unique yet related sign to insure an increase in your customer base.

  

Seamless Wrap

Vehicle wrappers who are able to seamless wrap a vehicle are the kings of the vehicle wrap industry. A seamless wrap only comes into effect if the wrap is going to have graphics and designs that pass from one panel of the car to the next. If you watch someone wrap a vehicle is it not a process that seems extremely complicated. Well I hate to break the news to you but there's a reason that wrapping vehicles is a profession. A seamless wrap means there are no overlapping vinyl when the wrap is complete.

The most important factors to a seamless wrap are good pre planning and a steady hand. Someone who is good at seamless wrapping has a very good pre plan. They now exactly what is going where and what order in order to get the cleanest seamless wrap. If you can in vision the process before going about it, it will be much more simple.

A wrap with no seams is as good as it gets. Your vehicle will look great, most people will probably compliment you on a custom paint job, that's your opportunity to blow their mind with some little facts about whats really on your car. The wrap industry is growing but there are still many people who are unaware and missing out on great opportunities.

Lamination

Lamination is like the last couple touch ups you would put on a project to make it perfect. Lamination provides the shine and the protection. Depending on what type of sign and vinyl you are working with lamination can be essential or not important at all. For example, if you are putting in an order for a banner that will be outside at all times and you only need it to last about a year, this would not require any lamination. But without lamination the banner would need to be handled carefully. The lamination acts as a protection to scratches, whether and fading. So when your putting in an order for a banner that will be used in and outside and you want it to last 3-5 years it would be recommended to get it laminated. You banner should still be handled with care but now there is extra protection for it. The lamination also gives your banner a nice shine and reflects sunlight and protects from bad whether which prevents fading. Some times its worth spending a little extra to get more, lamination is not required but it can be vital to have if you want the best looking sign.

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