Premasked striping woes

[gnubler]

I installed striping on a Jeep, triple stripe of one color, used cast cut vinyl premasked with paper tape. Really struggled when I had to work around the mirrors, made a series of relief cuts to apply, then trimmed with a knife. Very stressful, I was half tempted to cancel the job but kept going. Would using knifeless tape around the base of the mirrors be easier and result in a cleaner cut line? Then there was a concave curve in the hood, more struggling to get the stripes down smooth and level. How do you deal with contours like this with premask? Can't use a heat gun until the tape is removed. I had trouble with the passenger side with the antenna in the way, lots of bubbles/wrinkles (see pic). I told the customer I would redo it but she said she didn't care. The whole job ended up taking almost two hours, I was stressed and couldn't wait to get rid of the customer, major PITA. When I quoted the job I told her it would probably take two hours, and that turned out to be accurate, but I feel like this shouldn't have been so hard. Any tips on premasked striping with contours? How long would a job like this take you to install?

 

[Black Star]

I wouldn't have premasked the vinyl with those contours. If it were me, I would've laid the stripes down by hand without premask and would've done them individually. I've had plenty of these PITA jobs so I feel your pain!

 

[BluetailGFX]

I would have done this soaking wet with app fluid, and I would not have removed the inner vinyl from the overall shape before masking it. Then would have removed the mirrors..... Its like 2 torx per side and a possible plug.
I also would have probly just done it with High Performance as well because of that odd rolling area where you had your issues is IMHO too compounded for a 651 film to stay in that shape that high up on the roll over.
Client would have also had to drop their vehicle off and I woul dtake whatever time I needed to get it and the other things done in the shop that day. I HATE clients sitting around waiting and especially watching.
With the mirrors removed, vinyl in high pref, total time I would guess about 2 hours as well.

 

[gnubler]

I wouldn't have premasked the vinyl with those contours. If it were me, I would've laid the stripes down by hand without premask and would've done them individually. I've had plenty of these PITA jobs so I feel your pain!

I resorted to that as things got worse. A few sections that looked really bad got peeled off and I redid the individual stripes without premask. I did use a 3M cast vinyl, not calendared. I'm about to do boat striping, multiple stripes in different colors. I've done boats before and won't be using premask.

Didn't even consider removing the mirrors, not sure if I want to get into that. With my mechanical skills I'm pretty sure something would go wrong. I've watched vehicle wrap videos and haven't seen them remove mirrors or handles.

My customer made the job even more stressful, just sitting around fidgeting on her phone, kept asking "how much longer?", like a child. Good learning experience and a new policy of no waiting onsite during an installation.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Humble PM]

Not helping, but thank you.

I now hate some of my customers and their jobs, just a little less.

 

[signheremd]

Removing the mirrors would have been a good idea. Laying middle stripe first without mask , then other two without mask. Marking the gap distance from middle stripe with a grease pencil every few feet to help hit your mark. Having heat handy - you can fix stretches and some wrinkles (just remember to let cool a few seconds after the vinyl is back in shape) and then post form heat curved areas. I would squeegee from the center of the stripe out in a slicing motion rater than the left and right (or up and down) motion used when generally applying vinyl.

 

[gnubler]

Sounds like I need to look into mirror removal education.

Before I took the job I did some research to see if my pricing was okay. This site sells the same striping kits for DIY installs of similar model Jeeps, with cut outs for the mirror and door handles. I read through the FAQs and their kits come premasked. I'm guessing there's a fairly high failure rate of the average person who buys this and attempts their own install.

2007 - 2018 Wrangler JKU " Chief " Style Side Stripes

2007 - 2018 Jeep Wrangler JKU Chief Style Side Stripes Vinyl Graphics KitnDress Up your JK JKU

ridergraphix.com

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Stripes are tough. I won't put on decals unless we make them and there's no way that I am the only one. The making them is the gravy part and I don't give up my gravy. Gnubler, I know that you have to pay the bills and your market is different than mine but you have to get away from this sort of job if you want to make any money. Use these jobs now for some cash but focus on business accounts.

 

[gnubler]

It wasn't just a random walk-in, though it was a personal vehicle this customer is affiliated with one of my best clients and I thought it would be bad business to turn down the job. At least it was a paid learning experience. Probably never again...

Boats are much less stressful, in my experience.

 

[Geneva Olson]

knifeless tape autowrap

 

[gnubler]

I'm planning to order some knifeless tape and do some in-house training with it.

 

[GAC05]

Boats are much less stressful, in my experience.

Yep, the side mirrors on boats are mounted much higher up.

 

[XtremeXccessories]

I would have removed the mirrors, pre-masked the flat areas (doors, hood, fenders), but would have cut the stripe and pinstripes for the corner piece separate. Apply the stripe to the rest of the vehicle, lay down the main stripe on the corner piece, cut some spacing stipes the size of the gap you want (I usually use scrap or some ugly color I never use again), lay down the spacing stripes, lay the pinstripes, then remove the spacing stripes. I usually use wrap vinyl for the spacing stripes, it makes it easy to just kind of float it up against the edge.

You can find thin masking tape to use for spacing, but in my experience they're not always cut very well and don't have a clean, straight edge.

 

[cmoist]

We just did a job where we tried laying down stripes without mask (printed, cast, warm weather). The result was that it was hard to keep things straight and level, even while measuring. Looking down any length of straight vinyl, it's easy to see any "wobble". Using mask stiffens the vinyl substantially and allows it to remain straight. Granted, this was on an extended ProMaster, so the stripes were long.

The rub with knifeless tape is it must be applied straight as well. I think it's easier to work with than applying vinyl freehand, as it's more like pinstriping, but overall, I prefer using mask if at all possible. I use knifeless tape if vinyl needs to appear straight but go over contours, where precut vinyl will look wavy once applied to said contours.

I second those above who recommend removing anything you can to make the surface as unimpeded as possible.

 

[gnubler]

Wow...I had no idea this would spur so much discussion. Lots of good info to learn from. The boats I've done were not challenging at all. I ran stripes of blue painter's tape to use as guides and my stripes came out really nice and level. On this Jeep I didn't bother because I was running along the bottom of the windows, the space was tight.

Am I the only one who's extremely leery about removing mirrors or other hardware from vehicles/boats?

 

[Johnny Best]

Some people learn and get student debt, you are getting paid for your learning. You made a C on the Jeep.

 

[gnubler]

Correct. Same reason I dropped out of college after getting a job at a print shop...paid education.

 

[ikarasu]

Are you using bubble free vehicle grade vinyl?

We do stripes like that all the time with 3m 2080. We premask them all to keep the spacing... Going over curves and other areas isn't hard, if there's bubbles you see it in the premask, then You just lift up and re apply.

On super concaved areas that needs to be conformable well peel the premask off on the small section that needs to confirm and lay it down - with premask on both the right and left of it, it keeps the spacing.


I've seen people do magic with knifeless tape, we've done some striping with it... But I find graphtec + premask is better suited for what we do.

 

[tulsagraphics]

We just did a job where we tried laying down stripes without mask (printed, cast, warm weather). The result was that it was hard to keep things straight and level, even while measuring. Looking down any length of straight vinyl, it's easy to see any "wobble". Using mask stiffens the vinyl substantially and allows it to remain straight. Granted, this was on an extended ProMaster, so the stripes were long.

The rub with knifeless tape is it must be applied straight as well. I think it's easier to work with than applying vinyl freehand, as it's more like pinstriping, but overall, I prefer using mask if at all possible. I use knifeless tape if vinyl needs to appear straight but go over contours, where precut vinyl will look wavy once applied to said contours.

I second those above who recommend removing anything you can to make the surface as unimpeded as possible.

I typically lay down a 1" mask first and use that as a guide for the stripes. That way I can lift the tape and adjust as needed until I'm happy with the positioning. And for the stripes themselves, I'll use clear masking (where possible, such as flat surfaces) so I can see the edges better. Clear masking works better than regular -- doesn't stretch as much.

 

[somcalmetim]

You need vehicle wrap vinyl...3M 2080 has an air release, repositionable adhesive that would do this easily in one app...lately we use Air-Mask for premasking...its clear and very conformable...much easier to use on vehicles than normal 2ml vinyl...if you had started with these materials I am sorry to say how easy you would find this job...standard 2ml black is slightly easier to weed for small lettering than the 2080 but it cannot touch 2080 conformability for wraps or stripes. In 2080 even if you got some of those bubbles they would likely push out through the air release adhesive.