Picking brains - reflective over compound curve (Ford fender fold)

[letterman7]

Hi guys,
I'm in the midst of a large rebrand for a fire station. Several of the new trucks are based on the Ford F250 superdutys with the ugly fender valleys. Part of the job entails installing a 6" wide stripe the length of the vehicle, going over the fenders:

Now, I have a hard enough time with regular vinyl keeping a straight line over those types of fenders, and this will be the first time I have to do it with a reflective. Not quite sure how to approach it without overheating and distorting the vinyl. It will be a white stripe, so any distortion will be readily noticeable. Any suggestions on which brand might work better? 3M's positionable? Technique to follow to get an optically straight line?

Insights, suggestions more than welcome and appreciated!

Rick

 

[Gino]

3Ms top of the line conform vinyl and knife tape. We didn't do the same vehicle, but we had curves and bends that reflective are just not meant to do.

 

[letterman7]

That's what I was kind of thinking Gino. Lay a wide swatch of vinyl and trim with the tape?

 

[tbullo]

Maybe Arlon DPF 2400. We tried some and it worked pretty good. We try to stick with 3M on reflective as well. Check it out on youtube.com, close to wrapping vinyl but reflective.

 

[sardocs]

Is this an option?

 

[letterman7]

No options. Has to match other vehicles as closely as possible. I'm half thinking simply layering in the crease and putting separate pieces for the fender flare and fender itself. Still got to get the straight line though!

 

[Jester1167]

You might be able to avoid it by letting the customer know that it will only look straight from one perspective. Let say you make it straight when eye level with the stripe, when you look at it above or below that line it won't be straight. Then, because of the added time and materials it will be an additional X number of dollars. If we avoid the indentation and the fenders you won't get the distortion and there will be a small price reduction for the material. Installation won't be any easier so there will be no savings there...

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

3Ms top of the line conform vinyl and knife tape. We didn't do the same vehicle, but we had curves and bends that reflective are just not meant to do.

So I take it the knifeless tape works well with this reflective vinyl? That's good to know. I've had great luck with the knifeless tape on a few install jobs now, but only with standard vinyl and laminated print media.I wonder if it will work with about any conformable reflective.

Here's a windshield I used knifeless tape on this summer to keep the decal 6" from the top of the window all the way across. It's great stuff to work with and it's perfect for jobs like these.

 

[Gino]

I wouldn't say it worked well, as it needed a little extra coaxing here and there. We had one spot that didn't want to cooperate, so I had to go in and cut it with an xacto for the final touch. it needed some fuzzies removed. The knife tape works well with Oracal. 3M was just a little heavier to deal with, plus we were making some extreme turns and bends.

 

[jfiscus]

That's gonna be a funny one any way you go about it.
I think that the knifeless tape and 3M680CR might be the best combo... but it'll still look weird most of the time going over those curves and it might take a few tries to get it "right".
I think the customer might be just as happy if you explain the situation to them and how even the best reflective vinyl might start lifting out of that indention soon.
I deal with a LOT of fire departments and know how particular they are, but sometimes the requests just aren't going to work on some apparatus.

I have been stopping the vinyl at the edge of the indention on those myself.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I was going to say knifeless tape to get the lines you want. Then apply a larger section that goes beyond the knifeless tape. Pull the string and remove excess.