Coming back to the thread, I think I did leave out details that would have given more context but I thought weren't needed. I do understand that I sound like I'm making excuses, but that is unfortunately just how I talk and is one of the things I'm working on improving.
As far as why I used the A6 material -- we use A6 because it sticks really damn well to the boats that make up 90% of my sticky vinyl orders and has stayed on boats for at least 10 years already (8% of the remaining is signs like banners and PVC, the last 2% is mostly one-off type stickers that are meant to be silly for the fishermen's car windows). I am also not the brightest bulb in the mansion and can usually make things work, so I did think it would be fine (obviously I am wrong). The pictures of our store aren't up to date and also don't show how my banner boxes are also invading our tiny bathroom. I, quite frankly, don't have space for cast vinyl that will get used maybe 0.0001% of the time. I know that, physically, I can put things in the spaces you can point out in the pictures, but they will sit there for a pretty long time and end up crushed under the stuff that does work here. I am looking into something better, but for now it's a side project because I'd much prefer to store my vinyl on end, not on top of each other. It would be expensive to throw it all out and replace with A9 and will get me fired. I'll keep it mind, though.
As far as the building market -- when I was in middle/high school, I did work as a grocery bagger for the guy who wouldn't sell to my current boss and get the $100 later. He's just got a gargantuan stick up his butt, and now the building we were looking at is another grocery store that has an alternative healthy schtick going on. Haven't actually seen anyone walk in though, because the bigger store up the hill already does that kind of stuff. The other building was bought by an older fisherman so he could try renting space.
The truck itself -- Again, I should have asked for pictures of the stupid thing, but it's done and the guy thinks it's good so the vinyl is there to stay until we have another freak winter or somebody hits it. The truck is going to be used for storing equipment for fixing electrical and refrigeration problems, so the truck itself is not refrigerated. There are rivets, and at the time of install it was hovering around 65-70* so there wasn't any ice hanging on. It's also not going anywhere any time soon until the Refrigeration guy can also get a bigger workspace (he's operating out of his apartment from what I've heard).
The layout -- I do give it the college try (whatever that means) and try to make good layouts for people, but I'm not spending my time arguing with a fisherman that his kid's art looks like crap when he wants to spend something like $4k on a few pieces with it and thinks that means he doesn't need to know the word "no". Besides, tell them "no" enough times and they go to get it done on a very cheap site, turn around, and complain at me that it looks bad. You don't wanna know how many times I've had to explain "shop local" is not only when it's convenient (online is always more convenient for the price point). It's happened before, and it will happen again. I'd like to grocery shop and hike in peace, thank you. I don't know where he got it done either, because he came into town with the business after our old refrigeration guy retired. Also, bob? You do not wanna see the layout on the original size draft if you thought this layout was tiny. I don't remember and can't find exactly who called the layout tiny, but they definitely shouldn't look at the bike shop's truck if they think this is bad. That project is currently running about $700ish for the one side because he wants to install it on the truck himself. It was originally quoted at $1k for both sides, ignoring tax.
Why I used Windex and so on -- because, again, I am not the brightest bulb and haven't seen anything with it fail yet. I was taught to do it this certain way because the guy before me did it and then he went to film school (he was here for a year, and the guy before him was...not particularly involved in training him). I am going to see if I can't figure out how to keep something else on hand, though. Pretty much all of my experience in this field is from this exact job, so I do need to learn things (like how to account for rivets in the designing stage) and quickly, which is also why I'm here. Like Boudica pointed out, there's not a lot of options on my island (not even a Dollar Tree for letter stickers, and even (S)Ketchikan and Skagway have a Dollar Tree). The options are 1) Homeport Electronics, a marine electronics shop, 2) ACE Electronics, also a marine electronics shop, 3) Go to Anchorage or Juneau on the plane since our governor basically gutted the cheaper Marine Highway, or 4) go online with very vague ideas of what you want.
What I have learned from here and plan to implement -- while A6 is definitely serviceable for fishing boats, I should try to get (preferably) cast for vehicles and get better storage. The Windex hasn't screwed me over yet, but I should keep a soap/water or alcohol/water solution on hand for vehicles in general (I also need to learn when one is more appropriate because I do not want to fuck up someone's truck or boat with the wrong solution). There was a comment about both rivets and wrinkles in the same sentence and accounting for those is something I want to learn (as well as wrapping and printing on vinyl and screenprinting and embroidery...). Regardless of how pissed off you were at my post, thank you for the input and I'll do my best to implement it going forward.
