Vinyl zapper weirdness...

[Circleville Signs]

Just started on a 116 vehicle fleet job (removal and relettering). Pretty big job for my little shop. The vans in the job (87 of them) are old Econoline's, and the current vinyl that is there has been on anywhere from 3-10 years. No worries, or so I thought. I'll just zap the old stuff off...

We start working on one of the vans that has old vinyl. The zapper is NOT cleanly removing the vinyl AT ALL. I've never seen anything like it. Normally, it takes the vinyl and adhesive right off. On these vans, it is basically taking the majority of the vinyl off, but then smearing some of it into he old adhesive, and then smearing that around further. So, when I take off a 2'x4' section of blue lettering, there are just smears and streaks of blue tinted adhesive left over. Additionally, each one of these vans has probably 30 sf of actual vinyl that needs to be removed. I should be able to get 3 vans out of one zapper wheel. NOT ON THESE BAD BOYS!

Getting 1 van/wheel.

Anyone seen anything like this before? Am I better off using a steamer of some kind? I estimated being able to strip 2-3 vans/hour, and right now it is taking almost 90 min/van.

Any suggestions are welcome, as this job is going to crush my soul for the next 6 weeks if I can't figure out how to get back on track.

 

[signage]

Find a place that will rent a steam cleaner! But be very careful it can remove the paint!

 

[SignosaurusRex]

I have only experienced that issue once. Are you getting the same results with other vans in the fleet? One thing that will cause that issue is if the vinyl was applied a little too soon after painting of the van. With that many units to strip, It might be worth looking into renting a portable commercial heated steam cleaner / pressure washer. We had to go that route with a fleet of police cars once that had been repainted and vinyl applied too soon after paint. It worked like a charm.

 

[gabagoo]

yes, I have experienced this. usually when I take those ford thick fake chrome identity plates off it can leave a pretty thick adhesive behind, which the wheel does just what you say. it smears it around, but I continue until it is more manageable with the rapid remover to get the rest off. I have also seen the pigment of the color vinyl spread around as well, so you are not alone.

 

[Circleville Signs]

So some kind of hot pressure washer? That would definitely make it a little easier. I have no idea about the paint, etc., as these things are old - and the vinyl looks older than the vans...lol.

Where would I rent that kind of equipment? Does anyone have knowledge, or can share their experiences using it?

I guess what I am asking is, what is the best way to do this job? I need to realistically be able to get at least 2 vans done/hour. Right now I am at 1/2 van/hour....

 

[Moze]

I don't have any personal experience to share, but a few people on here have said how well the wallpaper steamers work. I purchased one but haven't used it yet. You can pick them up from Home Depot. Might be a good place to start...maybe get someone started with that method while you explore the power washer method...?

 

[SignosaurusRex]

Just curious... What model Zapper are you using? Electric or pnuematic?
Electric models are 3200 rpm max, pnuematic are 3500 rpm. That 300 difference is a big deal at times like these. The sq. ft removal rating is approx. 35/50 per hour respectively.

 

[Circleville Signs]

It is electric. Don't have a truck with a generator and air tank for pneumatic...I just found a hot pressure washer for rent, so we may give that a try and see how it goes...

 

[gabagoo]

I don't have any personal experience to share, but a few people on here have said how well the wallpaper steamers work. I purchased one but haven't used it yet. You can pick them up from Home Depot. Might be a good place to start...maybe get someone started with that method while you explore the power washer method...?

I just used my modified wagner wallpaper steamer to take off some lettering that had to be over 15 years old. Works well with the lil chizler and a thick glove so as you dont scald your fingers...but it is not a fast process and usually leaves more glue behind than a heat gun.

By modified I mean that someone I lent the steamer to once, broke the square piece off the end, so now we just have this hose that squirts out the steam and it works better than how it origianlly was designed

 

[rjssigns]

X2on the high pressure steam cleaner. Steam is the key. One of my clients can attest to that. It ripped the graphics off the truck when a shop hand got too close.
Was only s'posed to letter 2 new trucks. Ended up doing 3.LOL

 

[SIGNTIME]

steam jenny ftw i used to work maintenance in the port we had 30 or so forklifts and when we repainted them we would wipe aircraft stripper on them and shoot them with the steam jenny... just be careful until you learn how close to get.

 

[HulkSmash]

dude if you have that many, go buy a HOT power washer. They'll come off like butter.. but it has to be the one that heats the water.

if you don't want to buy.. rent.

 

[Border]

I agree with Colorado on this one. A hot pressure washer works awesome.

I also have an electric zapper and have found that sometimes the speed causes too much heat and melts some vinyls, so I made a box with a dimmer switch that controls an outlet plug and I plug my zapper into that and dial the speed back a bit. Makes a world of difference on certain jobs and works like charm. Saved my butt just last week and really helps the wheels last longer.

 

[JERHEMI]

Just had a similar situation for a 20 year old box truck with 20 year old cut vinyl on it. The client had a Hotsy hot high pressure washer on site so we utilized it. It took the vinyl off, but it also took some paint off too in the process! Luckily the client understood the truck was 20 years old and wasn't in great condition to begin with. You Sometimes you don't get brand new vehicles to work on and they are a pain in the butt! Someone needs to develop a better solution for removing old vinyl from old vehicles!

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Someone needs to develop a better solution for removing old vinyl from old vehicles!

Let the customer deal with it. That's my solution. Just kidding, but that would be great in a perfect world.

 

[SightLine]

Yup.... with that volume of stuff - steam pressure washer for sure. Used them before and they rock. Blasts the vinyl and most of the adhesive right off. Messy though. I recently got one (govt surplus) but I have not yet had a chance to put it to use yet. They also come in different fuel varieties, kerosene (or diesel or heating oil) being the most common for the big commercial ones (what ours uses) but there are also propane and electric ones. The electric ones cannot compete though, they just cannot sustain the volume needed for steam pressure cleaning.