Real Gold brand and edge sealing

[SellersSign&Design]

Several months ago when I was placing an order with Real Gold they told me their materials no longer require edge sealing. I verified this later when I was placing another order just to make sure the warranty is still valid without the edge sealing. I just don't know how I feel about it, especially when the material is going on fire trucks. If it is fine without it that is definitely the route I want to go because it saves a lot of time and looks much better, but I don't want to deal with failures down the road. I feel confident that Real Gold would stand behind the product, but even then having to redo a job is still a pain. So, for those who use Real Gold, are you still edge sealing?

 

[Gino]

I would do what you think and will stand behind on your own, before what anyone here or anywhere else thinks or does. You are responsible for your own methods and you know what you can and cannot do. Besides, not many here are as into realistic and quality as you are, as proven over your time here. You are a well organized and disciplined person and will not tolerate what some of these other hacks will tell you they do.

If a fire company is willing to go with any kinda gold leaf vinyl, they are already conceding to inferior products. I would weigh out what you can get away with if things don't fare in your favor. When we do fire apparatus, we still use the real thing. We size, apply 23.5kt and then varnish overtop due to the extreme conditions some of these machines can see...... not to mention the multitude of washings these things go through.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I would do what you think and will stand behind on your own, before what anyone here or anywhere else thinks or does. You are responsible for your own methods and you know what you can and cannot do. Besides, not many here are as into realistic and quality as you are, as proven over your time here. You are a well organized and disciplined person and will not tolerate what some of these other hacks will tell you they do.

If a fire company is willing to go with any kinda gold leaf vinyl, they are already conceding to inferior products. I would weigh out what you can get away with if things don't fare in your favor. When we do fire apparatus, we still use the real thing. We size, apply 23.5kt and then varnish overtop due to the extreme conditions some of these machines can see...... not to mention the multitude of washings these things go through.

You are definitely right, I am all about quality and I completely agree with you on the gold vinyls. There is only one real gold leaf, and that is real hand laid gold leaf. But unfortunately I would be out of business if I refused to do anything except real gold. I've noticed that real gold leaf is common up north, as are extremely nice and expensive fire trucks. But things just aren't the same (for the most part) the further south you go. It seems like everyone around here asks for "real gold leaf" and then shows me a picture of Sign Gold. I think this is partly due to a lot of the shops around here that are selling Sign Gold as real gold leaf, which really annoys me. I've had to come up with ways to serve my customers, compete with these other shops and still be confident I'm giving them a quality product, even if they can't afford or don't want real gold. So if hand laid gold is out of the question I give them the option of Real Gold brand vinyl, or printed reflective gold leaf. I refuse to use Sign Gold or any of the many variations of the cheap 3 year gold vinyls. The job I'm working on now is re-lettering a fleet due to bad materials that were originally used. One truck has the 3 year R-Tape gold vinyl that has now turned silver and black, and another truck has what appears to be Leo's gold that is now green, wrinkled and sliding and peeling off of the truck. As far as the edge sealing goes, I hate the way it looks. I take the time to go back after it is installed and poke holes and work the trapped air out from around the gold vinyl, but I still don't like the way it looks. It is a much cleaner install without that clear around the edges.

 

[jfiscus]

We only use the extended overlaminate on products where it is required. (like Leo's) We do not do that on Real Gold brand products.

 

[letterman7]

I concur with Gino - do what you feel is right. Personally, I have never edge sealed anything but the silver, either using a laminate or a pen (and it is messy, let's face it..) and to date nothing has ever failed because the edges weren't sealed.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

I contacted Mr. Crowley, who is the president of Real Gold and asked what his thoughts were on edge sealing. He said that none of the Real Gold products require edge sealing, but his only concern would be firemen with high speed buffers doing damage to the graphics. I am also a fireman, and I will admit I've seen the graphics on trucks get completely destroyed because people think they can just go at it with a buffer. So I definitely understand that could be a problem, but honestly even with the clear laminate edge sealing the graphics would still be toast if someone runs over them with a buffer. So from here on out I believe my policy will be no edge sealing on the Real Gold graphics. I have always made it a point to educate the customer on the proper care of their graphics, but I will emphasize that even more now.

 

[cwade440]

I contacted Mr. Crowley, who is the president of Real Gold and asked what his thoughts were on edge sealing. He said that none of the Real Gold products require edge sealing, but his only concern would be firemen with high speed buffers doing damage to the graphics. I am also a fireman, and I will admit I've seen the graphics on trucks get completely destroyed because people think they can just go at it with a buffer. So I definitely understand that could be a problem, but honestly even with the clear laminate edge sealing the graphics would still be toast if someone runs over them with a buffer. So from here on out I believe my policy will be no edge sealing on the Real Gold graphics. I have always made it a point to educate the customer on the proper care of their graphics, but I will emphasize that even more now.

Just saw this thread... I have had issues, on boat lettering, when I have not edge sealed Real Gold product. Yes it's a PIA, but I seal now when I use their vinyl.

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Just saw this thread... I have had issues, on boat lettering, when I have not edge sealed Real Gold product. Yes it's a PIA, but I seal now when I use their vinyl.

When did you have issues? They just recently made the product to where it doesn't need to be edge sealed, I think it's been less than a year ago when I was talking to them. I was a little skeptical, but they said the warranty was good on it and they have been great to deal with so far. I haven't been using as much of it recently due to the printed reflective gold leaf getting so popular, but so far I haven't had any problems.

 

[cwade440]

When did you have issues? They just recently made the product to where it doesn't need to be edge sealed, I think it's been less than a year ago when I was talking to them. I was a little skeptical, but they said the warranty was good on it and they have been great to deal with so far. I haven't been using as much of it recently due to the printed reflective gold leaf getting so popular, but so far I haven't had any problems.

It was last year I think, and when I spoke to Bill he said the product did not need to be edge sealed. After my issue I still use their product but edge seal now.