• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Question Applying Vinyl to PVC letters

RiSun

New Member
We are making routing some letters out of 3/4" white PVC. We want the face of the letters to be black and the return to be white. Our plan was to apply black vinyl to the top and go over the return with a white paint (hopefully to reduce it looking yellow in the future). We are slightly worried about the long term adhesion of the vinyl to the PVC. These letters would be outside. Is there a way to prep the surface for vinyl application? Any tips or tricks we should know. Thanks in advance!!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Why not paint the surface/face black and then cut away. You might need a little touch-up, but not much. Are these inside or outside ?? Painting the edges is kinda overkill.
 

MikePro

New Member
you definitely want to paint the letters for exterior use. black expanded foam pvc turns chalky/grey, white discolors as well.
I've still slung them up unpainted and its "good enough from down here", but the unpainted faces have ALWAYS received complaints. Even had one set that was supposed to be temporary, discussed the known issue with the client, but they were only expecting to be in the tenant slot for under a year so it was "fancy-temporary", but cheap.... well, apparently there's also an odd interaction where the buildings across the street would block some of the sunlight most of the day, but cast a beam of light at the center of his building at the end of the day, leaving most of the letters unphased EXCEPT three letters in the center of a set of 30 degraded from UV exposure within a few months!

so if your intent is to have black face/white returns, then paint the whole letter white, face-up, and apply the black to a painted surface and you'll have no issue with longterm adhesion.
 
Last edited:

RiSun

New Member
you definitely want to paint the letters for exterior use. black expanded foam pvc turns chalky/grey, white discolors as well.
I've still slung them up unpainted and its "good enough from down here", but the unpainted faces have ALWAYS received complaints. Even had one set that was supposed to be temporary, discussed the known issue with the client, but they were only expecting to be in the tenant slot for under a year so it was "fancy-temporary", but cheap.... well, apparently there's also an odd interaction where the buildings across the street would block some of the sunlight most of the day, but cast a beam of light at the center of his building at the end of the day, leaving most of the letters unphased EXCEPT three letters in the center of a set of 30 degraded from UV exposure within a few months!

so if your intent is to have black face/white returns, then paint the whole letter white, face-up, and apply the black to a painted surface and you'll have no issue with longterm adhesion.


Any suggestions on what paint you have used and liked? We tried using a One Shot paint and it peeled right off.
 

MikePro

New Member
in my limited experiences with paints, anything is possible with the right base.... you may have had issues with one shot bonding with the surface, in which case there would have been a primer/adhesion promoter to be sprayed beforehand.

in a jiffy, Krylon paints for plastics is an easy go-to.
in-house, we use matthews acrylic polyurethane paint system, and i believe that also requires an adhesion promoter for PVC.
 

John_Smith

Enjoying retirement in Central Florida
I have found that sanding PVC sheet with a palm sander will greatly increase
the primer and paint adhering to the PVC. (320 grit sandpaper).
there are primers formulated for plastic - strongly suggest a good primer and any
30 year acrylic or latex house paint from a reputable "paint store" (not a big box store).
 

visual800

Active Member
First offf take the one shot paint and trash it since thats all its good for.

clean pvc with alcohol and prime with 2 part epoxy primer and then spray a latex paint as topcoat, we use BEHR for no other reason than we like it. Give it about 3 coats and then then route a coupe days later. No need to paint the returns on the letters
 
Top