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Vinyl Wrap?

wilddog

Well Known Member
There have been some beautiful wrapped RVs posted here but I?m wondering if any builders tried wrap and didn?t like the results or gave up in frustration? If so, could you explain the problems encountered and possibly post a picture of the not so beautiful results? I am considering wrapping my -8 and only see good videos and favorable reviews, there must be a down side.
 
Since we in the subject of vinyl wrap has anyone paid to have it done and if so could you give the idea of how much? My airplane is all white and I want to do the rest in vinyl
 
Yes.... .

Let me give a little bit of background. I finished my Rv-8 about 3.5 years ago and have flown it for about 350 hours since.

I flew the airplane completely unfinished for a year and a half (there was actually an Oshkosh picture in the EAA magazine from my first year at Oshkosh...). After a year or so I got tiered of people complaining about my pink nose so I gave my kids a pile of 3M vinyl (the kind others on this forum have used too) to cut random shapes which I applied to the cowling. Also put vinyl on the canopy skirt and have been flying around like that for close to 2 years.

Now the results are mixed. The canopy skirt still looks good except for the area where it seals with the windshield in the front (RV-8) where the Vinyl "rubbed" off.

The cowling is a different story. Looks pretty good on the bottom part. However after 6 months on the top I started getting bubbles when the engine was getting hot in the summer in particular after a flight when parked in the sun. First small once barely noticeable now they are the size of a quarter. They disappear when things cool down.

Now I am not that unhappy considering that I got 2 years out of a couple of dollar investment but if I would have paid the thousands of $$ the professionals charge (the quotes I got were much cheaper then a comparable complex paint job but comparable to a simple paint job) I would be pretty :mad: .

So at this point I decided to polish the aluminum (don't want the weight of paint) and paint the cowling and other fiberglass. My only problem now is how to paint my cowling in all of those random shapes my kids had cut out. I kind of got used to it now .... .

Oliver
 
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Costs

I am just finishing my vinyl. I purchased about $1,000.00 in material online and I paid a local guy $2,000.00 to apply about 85% of the job. I have done the rest. Most of the aircraft is polished. The material I ordered was 3M 1080 vinyl, two different colors.

I initially tried to apply the vinyl but the compound curves of the empennage fairing and the cowling where just beyond my skill sets. Wasted a lot of material in the attempt. The installer was good enough to discuss his techniques and how to figure out where seams can/should go. Probably a topic for EAA, maybe even at OSH. Could I do it now? Maybe. I'm doing the wheel pants now.

 
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it's all about the seams..

planning for seams (which are near invisible) is the key for us a amatures doing a vinyl wrap. I'm almost done a partial wrap on polished metal and it looks darn neat professional. I do have some wrinkles around the strobes and aileron tips but you have to look for them.

honestly, doing this vinyl wrap has been the one part of building my plane that I've actually enjoyed. Hated everything else, and no, I'm not joking.
 
Thanks for the replies! Could you all elaborate on placement of the seams? Especially on curving areas like the cowl, fairings and tips.
 
planning for seams (which are near invisible) is the key for us a amatures doing a vinyl wrap.

That's two who have mentioned the importance of planning for seams. I can understand the importance but could someone talk about what to consider in the plan?
 
The cowling is a different story. Looks pretty good on the bottom part. However after 6 months on the top I started getting bubbles when the engine was getting hot in the summer in particular after a flight when parked in the sun. First small once barely noticeable now they are the size of a quarter. They disappear when things cool down.

Oliver,

Curious ... did you seal all the pinholes in the cowling prior to applying the vinyl wrap?

A friend vinyl wrapped his RV-9 and has had no issues ... after the initial learning curve of the vinyl coming lose from fiberglass components due to poor prep. He figured the vinyl would stick just fine so did not take the time to do a wash of Acetone diluted resin to seal all of the pinholes. After sealing all the fiberglass components to give the vinyl a smooth sealed surface to stick to, he has not had any issues and it has been 5 or 6 years now (even has vinyl on the spinner).

Happy flying,
 
My wrap saga--mostly good, but some lessons learned

Wilddog,
I completely wrapped my aircraft, had it done by AircraftWraps.com. Here is my VAF write-up on the project from 2015:
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=132000

Now, 2.5 years and 500 Hobbs hours later, I have a few lessons learned that I can pass on to you.

Cost and Benefit: This design's wrap, compared to the estimate to paint the same design, cost about 2/3rd's less than paint ($9500 vs $13500). It weighs half as much as paint. It is actually a tad more streamlined than paint, since the vinyl bridges gaps and overlays rivets and unimportant screws (which can still be accessed if needed). It is easier to clean: No waxing. I bath the aircraft with Dawn for dishes, and clean bugs with a water/rubbing alcohol solution from a spray bottle.

Build prep: There was no need to prime the aircraft, nor did I need to fill pinholes, but all other fiberglass surface prep was still essential because vinyl will accentuate surface flaws. My concern for water intrusion at wrap gaps has been completely unfounded, because this 3M aviation stuff really adheres nicely. It's UV tolerant and high-sub-mach strong.

Minuses, and Pluses:
(1) Hangar rash. Vinyl is not as durable as paint, and will scuff, rub, or gouge more easily. However, it is easier to repair than paint: With a razor, just cut a shallow outline of the vinyl area to be removed, heat it SLIGHTLY with a heat gun to soften the adhesive, and remove the bad patch. Replace with a new vinyl patch cut SLIGHTLY LARGE than that area (to give edge overlap), smooth it into place (air bubbles), and heat it with the heat gun to activate the adhesive. Results: Nearly perfect repair, except that the edges of the patch will be visible at 1-foot observation.
Compare this to paint: I understand that paint may be more durable in the hangar, but tougher to repair (I'm not sure about this, since the only aircraft I have owned is wrapped).

(2) Rain durability. When I wrapped this aircraft, it was a day/night VFR aircraft. I have since upgraded it (and me) to IFR. The vinyl has problems standing up to the occasional flight into rain, particularly around the more complex curve areas like around the cowling air intakes and on the tire fairings. Again, these can be repaired as discussed above.

Am I glad I did it? Yes.
Would I do it again? Yes, but I think I'd use the approach discussed by others: Paint a simple base color, and accent with vinyl.
 
Oliver,

Curious ... did you seal all the pinholes in the cowling prior to applying the vinyl wrap?

A friend vinyl wrapped his RV-9 and has had no issues ... after the initial learning curve of the vinyl coming lose from fiberglass components due to poor prep. He figured the vinyl would stick just fine so did not take the time to do a wash of Acetone diluted resin to seal all of the pinholes. After sealing all the fiberglass components to give the vinyl a smooth sealed surface to stick to, he has not had any issues and it has been 5 or 6 years now (even has vinyl on the spinner).

Happy flying,

I did follow the instructions sanded it all to get it smooth and afterwards thoroughly cleaned it with alcohol using gloves to not recontaminate with my hands. I did not fill pinholes as the commercial guys don't recommend it.

As said the bottom of the cowling and the canopy skirts look fine. No issue at seams either. It's only the top of the cowling I have issues with. It's clearly caused by the heat of the engine.

For me this was an experiment to figure out if I should do the whole airplane that way. Looking at the results 2 years later I decided to paint the fiberglass and polish the aluminum. I am glad I did an experiment before jumping into doing the whole thing. Others might make different choices. If I wanted a more fancy designed I might consider a partial wrap with high wear complex areas (e.g. cowling wheel pants) being painted.

Oliver
 
That's two who have mentioned the importance of planning for seams. I can understand the importance but could someone talk about what to consider in the plan?

where you have tight curves or larger compound curves the idea is to split a piece of vinyl into smaller sections to avoid wrinkling, or ruining the install. generally you want to follow the body lines.

for example, wrapping the top of the cowling in a single piece can be challenging. wrinkles or wrecked vinyl during the install may result..

in my case I split the top cowling into three sections by adding an accent color in the middle that goes from the front of the cowl to the rear. now I have three smaller pieces of vinyl that will be much easier to install than one large piece, with less chance of screw ups.

you can do the same thing in a single color as the seams are near invisible.
 
CK Wraps Videos

To learn more about how to apply vinyl search on Youtube for CK Wraps. There are dozens of videos posted by a professional wrapper who makes detailed videos of the application process.

While the application on the videos are all for cars, all details are identical for applying vinyl to an aircraft.

If you are bright enough to build an airplane you can certainly learn how to do a good looking vinyl wrap. It's not hard but like everything, there is a bit of a learning curve, albeit a short one.
 
Seams

To add to what Indwarrior posted. Some of the seam placement is based on air flow over that section. Of course you want the upstream vinyl overlapping the downstream so the airflow does not pick at the edge.

For visual considerations think about how the aircraft is viewed when walking up. For example, the wheel pant fairings that go over the leg fairings were a complex curve that was beyond my capability to handle in one sheet. So I split it into two sections. I placed the forward / top section of vinyl over the bottom section. What you see is curved vinyl because the seam is slightly below the curve of the fairing. Had I done it the other way the light would have caught the edge of the seam and made it more visible. Some locations are not really visible, like the inside, aft section of the wheel pants. Your seams just don't matter in that location. If someone wants to crawl under my aircraft and inspect the aft edge of the wheel pant...have at it. Just be prepared to show me your aircraft. So as you plan your vinyl color scheme start to build a sequence of how the vinyl will be applied to reach your goal.

One other suggestion. I painted recesses that I did not want to try to wrap. For example, my tail is black so I painted the horizontal and elevator end caps and the exposed skin on the sides of the horizontal black to match the vinyl.

There are places where you can see the seam. I'm okay with that, others won't like it. For an initial investment of $3,000.00 I can change my aircraft's look several times before I get to the price of a paint job. If each application lasts 3 years and I change it 5 times that is 15 years and 5 different looking aircraft. But that is just my perspective.
 
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I've been thinking of wrapping as a short-term solution....~2 years

Have any of you wrapped and then removed it for paint later down the road? What complications resulted from the wrap when applying the paint?

Phil
 
I've been thinking of wrapping as a short-term solution....~2 years

Have any of you wrapped and then removed it for paint later down the road? What complications resulted from the wrap when applying the paint?

Phil

Is it really that short?
 
I want to use vinyl as accents, ie... strips etc. How does one go about doing that install?
Do you buy the vinyl in sheets, cut it yourself and stick it on? Or do some measuring and order the right size from a retailer?
Thanks
 
I want to use vinyl as accents, ie... strips etc. How does one go about doing that install?
Do you buy the vinyl in sheets, cut it yourself and stick it on? Or do some measuring and order the right size from a retailer?
Thanks

Either way. An RV-8 on our field ordered custom stripes from a company in Connecticut I believe. Or you can put it on and cut it to your specifications.

Check youtube for knifeless tape.
 
I want to use vinyl as accents, ie... strips etc. How does one go about doing that install?
Do you buy the vinyl in sheets, cut it yourself and stick it on? Or do some measuring and order the right size from a retailer?
Thanks

If you can draw well just use the knifeless tape and lay out your stripes ( careful not to pull hard on the cut tape as you lay it down or stop while laying down a curve) when done on one side and vinyl is cut and laid down, then take some long roll paper, tape it over the graphics on one side and trace along the stripe edge with a ball point pen pushing toward the stripe edge. This will give you a perfect template for the other side.
(Don’t forget if your filament in the tape isn’t on the end of the tape you need to correct for that )


Be careful which cut tape you use, there’s at least three types. One won’t cut thick vinyl, one will cut anything (including your fingers) that’s the wire type but won’t always cut a perfectly clean line (because of how it pulls off the side) and the third will likely be just right.

Of course this all depends on the vinyl your useing. There’s warp cut. Design line 3m and finish line 3m read the specs on them.

To use it can be tricky to some, but you basically fold over the end to capture the filament. Pull the tape to the edge of the vinyl fold it forward over the edge then put your finger tightly on the cut tape, now pull forward to get it started. (Try to pull in one nice clean motion when you can )

I get so many people asking me how to start the cut tape and when I started it took me a bit to find that info.

Wrap cut tape is a little different you really want to snip the tape where you want it to separate but don’t cut the wire. Wrap cut is a great product for thick vinyl, but could use a little work IMO on its placing on the end of the wire instead of a slit design like 3m, and how well it stays along the edge of the medium holding the wire. (Sometimes it’ll cut the vinyl medium that holds it) it it Can cut a little funky sometimes and if working the edge of a large piece of vinyl fixing it can be tough.

To fix, You need to slip a putty knife under the edge and cut with a knife to straighten it out without cutting the layer under it. Especially On curved edges it can be challenging to fix it properly. And when you start getting tired STOP working, lol this is something you want to do when your thinking clearly. ��
 
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Either way. An RV-8 on our field ordered custom stripes from a company in Connecticut I believe. Or you can put it on and cut it to your specifications.

Check youtube for knifeless tape.

Wonder who it was in CT ?

It’d be nice to know but there’s a lot of people with plotters that can cut vinyl for you. It was always just easier to cut it myself on the spot. I even hand cut my N number and graphic on my tail.
Www.vansrv6.com While it’s not perfect it was done that day. Lol. I think it looks pretty good for hand cut.

I’ve had a lot of people visit the hangar that compliment me on my really nice paint, the most recent was a vinyl siding installer, I couldn’t help but see the irony in that one. You’d think if anyone would know vinyl when they saw it it’d be him. ��
 
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I hope Doug will forgive me for posting this on his RV forum, but I just got this quote from AeroGraphics. The stripes will be individual pieces and the stars in the blue field will be pre-cut. Wish me luck applying it.

BNHaVC.jpg
 
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