Problem.....WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

[skyhigh]

My wife lettered this van almost a year ago. The customer called the other day, and told her the lettering was "Falling Off". Naturally, she is going to take care of the problem. When she went to look at the van, this is what she found.

After viewing the pictures, I formed 2 possibilities as to what the problem could be. I would like any feedback from the professionals here.

Again, this job is a year old.
The vinyl is Arlon High Performance Cast.
All the blue on the van is from the same roll.
Van was cleaned very well.

Only the "Scalli" name is affected. All the rest of the blue vinyl is fine. The "peeling" / "Chipping" of vinyl only seems to be across the tops of those letters in their name (Scelli).
Excavating & Equipment is perfect
Phone #'s are perfect.
Oval is perfect.

Whats your thoughts?

Edit to add: The customers use of the word "peeling" is not how I would describe. There was no loose pieces of vinyl hanging off (unless the customer picked off the loose pieces??). ALSO (very strange)..... its the same on both sides of the van. ONLY the tops of "Scalli" (and only Scalli) are effected, as you see in the picture.

 

[Gino]

Hard to say, with only one small fragment of the overall job.

What is affecting the blue is not affecting the grey, so it can't be preparation or contamination. Also, from the top down would indicate something possibly dripping on it afterwards, but nowhere else on the truck except the complete other side seems out of the realm of possibilities. My only conclusion would be possibly something got on the backside of the blue vinyl, prior to going down and created a non-sticking condition...... or the customer is picking at it at night when no one is watching.

It doesn't appear to be any product failure, application failure or anything attacking it after it's on. Since it's the same word on both sides, I would just replace it and keep an eye on it. Some things are really unexplainable...... and this seems to be one.

Perhaps someone will be more familiar with that brand and level of vinyl and can shed some light that possibly large rounds might crack or peel due to high heat from the sun............
​

 

[skyhigh]

Hard to say, with only one small fragment of the overall job.

What is affecting the blue is not affecting the grey, so it can't be preparation or contamination. Also, from the top down would indicate something possibly dripping on it afterwards, but nowhere else on the truck except the complete other side seems out of the realm of possibilities. My only conclusion would be possibly something got on the backside of the blue vinyl, prior to going down and created a non-sticking condition...... or the customer is picking at it at night when no one is watching.

A couple points you made.....

Also, from the top down would indicate something possibly dripping on it afterwards

That was the first thing my wife said.

My only conclusion would be possibly something got on the backside of the blue vinyl, prior to going down and created a non-sticking condition

I'd have to reject that possibility, only because you can see the adhesive left behind, where the vinyl is chipped away.

or the customer is picking at it at night when no one is watching.

Perhaps he is a sleep walker, and was picking without knowing he was doing it? :Big Laugh

 

[Steve C.]

Very Odd. Gino's conclusion sounds good. Something ran onto it from above to
effect the adhesive, but since it's not effecting the gray it had to happen
before the vinyl was applied. I'll be interested to hear your ideas.
Was the name stored separately from the rest of the vinyl before application?

 

[player]

Could they have pressure washed it off on that area?

 

[HDvinyl]

Just tell them you're not charging for the special Papyrus effect.

 

[Mosh]

Just tell them you're not charging for the special Papyrus effect.

this!!!

 

[mopar691]

Automatic car wash. Does customer use these extremely?

 

[synergy_jim]

Just tell them you're not charging for the special Papyrus effect.

tell them the peel effect was included free of charge….

 

[player]

Automatic car wash. Does customer use these extremely?

Yes~

 

[DesireeM]

Yes~

Player - I don't think the question was directed at you.

When you applied the decals did you let her know that she should be hand washing the vehicle?
We always tell our customers that power-washing and car washes are a no-no. I tell them to just treat the decals like they paid a lot of for them and they usually get the point.

 

[Gino]

Automatic car wash. Does customer use these extremely?

Yes~

So, then why does it only effect the same spot on both sides and nothing else, including the grey shadow ?? There are other round areas and whatnot, but it holds up better in some places more than others ??

Also, in discussing this, birds have been brought into the equation. Unless you have trained pigeons to land backwards at only the word in question, poop and not hit the grey, I hughly doubt their little butts could produce enough guano to hit some areas and not others. The curve of the truck is greater towards the top, but that much poop to do that damage and not hit ANYWHERE else, just sounds too out there for me.

 

[TammieH]

You won't like this, but I would guess that it was not cleaned well enough before application, its pretty much the only reason the vinyl would fail other than it was older vinyl.

If there was a bit of wax residue on the van, the vinyl would lift just enough to allow dirty rain and dust under the vinyl, eventually causing the tearing and cracking.

 

[SignManiac]

Something similar to this happened to me also but it was a sandblasted HDU sign. The cause of the problem was wood peckers.

 

[DesireeM]

You won't like this, but I would guess that it was not cleaned well enough before application, its pretty much the only reason the vinyl would fail other than it was older vinyl.

If there was a bit of wax residue on the van, the vinyl would lift just enough to allow dirty rain and dust under the vinyl, eventually causing the tearing and cracking.

But the problem isn't lifting. If you read the post or look at the pictures the decals didn't peel off the vehicle. The adhesive is still on the vehicle but the color is flaking off from the adhesive layer.

 

[Jillbeans]

I think it's caused by the amount of snow and ice we've had, sitting on the tops of the letters and wreaking havoc.
The grey areas are kind of protected by the blue.
I had to re-letter my painted back window for this exact reason.
First time it's ever happened to me.
Love....Jill

 

[skyhigh]

Anything is possible.......but I don't think cleaning (or wax removal) was the cause.
2 reasons....
1) the adhesive is still there
2) she has OCD when it comes to prep.

The vinyl was a new roll, and the excavating & equipment was one apply (23" tall off a 24" roll), so why not the bottom row of text? Again, contamination I don't believe is the cause.

Lets talk "Car Wash". We use them regularly (along with many of her customers). I have never seen an issue from this. Our truck has had this vinyl on for 4 years of regular automatic car washes, and not one speck of vinyl lost.

One thing I noticed.....This van had quite a bit of bird crap on the sides. While I don't think it was the crap itself that affected the vinyl......I do think it may have been the other end of the birds that picked the vinyl off. Coincidence that its only the top, nearest the drip edge, they would still need to be fluttering while they picked.

My guess would be...
Car Wash.......30% (wouldn't it be more than the tops tho?)
Bird Peckers...60% (odd as that sounds)
Vinyl failure...10%

Anyone agree with birds? Would they flutter and pick? Perhaps the script lettering looked like branches to them. LOL

 

[player]

Player - I don't think the question was directed at you.

When you applied the decals did you let her know that she should be hand washing the vehicle?
We always tell our customers that power-washing and car washes are a no-no. I tell them to just treat the decals like they paid a lot of for them and they usually get the point.

I was agreeing with the comment. I was not having a psychotic episode in which I thought this thread was made by me and now I was getting answers to my problem, which you must have thought by your comment.

 

[Billct2]

Did they spray something on the van to clean off the bird poop? That may have ruined that edge then the weather got to it like Jill said.

 

[Moze]

I would vote bird droppings. The droppings are acidic and if they can damage the paint on a car, it wouldn't surprise me if it's dripping down and negatively affecting the bond between the vinyl and the adhesive.

Birds poop on the van, it drips down, catches the tops of the letters, some of the acid soaks between the vinyl and adhesive and the vinyl blows off when he's driving. And I'd guess the poop is drying before it ever hits the other letters and that's why they're not affected.

 

[HulkSmash]

Moisture got under that froze, and destroyed the vinyl. Is that adhesive left over? Could also just be a bad roll. We don't ever use cut vinyl on vehicles, so i don't have much experience with it.

we're all digital here.