Aircraft Wraps

I am seriously considering an "aircraft wrap" instead of a conventional paint job on my plane. Has anyone else had this done- if so how do you like it and how well does it hold up? Here is an outfit that does it.
http://www.aircraftwraps.com/

I have been slowly adding vinyl on my 2 year old -10. It would be great to exchange some info with others. It is great to see others doing this as well.

I was initially only planning to cover the leading edge of the main wings. However, after seeing how good the vinyl looked, it made the rest of the plane look worse. Thus, i have now wrapped almost all of the horizontal surfaces so far. Most everyone at my local airport, who were at first skeptical, are just amazed at how good it looks. It even works well for things like abrasion resistance from fiberglass fairings or extra corrosion protection. Quite a few surprises with this.

I am now considering wrapping the tailcone and main fuselage. I am still considering different strategies and layouts, etc. I will probably stick with paint for fiberglass pieces, just because they are more easily painted off the plane anyway.

It is hard to make direct comparisons with painting. They both have their tradeoffs of pluses and minuses. The true test will come in 5 or 10 or dare say 15 years time when it starts to wear and fade more. Will it still peel off nicely leaving nice shiny metal underneath? I guess only time will tell.

Jae

My only two concerns would be weight and corrosion. I've seen quite a few cases, including on my kit, where I left the blue plastic on until I was ready to work on an sub kit, only to find corrosion under the plastic, typically starting at the edges where moisture started wicking between the plastic and the aluminum. The general consensus now seems to be moving towards getting the blue plastic off the parts sooner rather than later...I would worry that corrosion would progress in a manner that couldn't be seen until very far along the destructive path.

Not sure what you meant about weight being your concern. That is in fact one of the advantages of a wrap, it weighs less than paint.
Corrosion is a point well taken, but I would think that comparing it with the blue stuff is probably not valid, since our blue protective film is specifically applied with the intent of being removed soon.
I would never own a plane if I had to let it sit out in the weather, so fading and weathering is not a big concern of mine.

jjconstant said:

My only two concerns would be weight and corrosion. I've seen quite a few cases, including on my kit, where I left the blue plastic on until I was ready to work on an sub kit, only to find corrosion under the plastic, typically starting at the edges where moisture started wicking between the plastic and the aluminum. The general consensus now seems to be moving towards getting the blue plastic off the parts sooner rather than later...I would worry that corrosion would progress in a manner that couldn't be seen until very far along the destructive path.

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I'm also intrigued by the idea and concerned about corrosion, especially living on the gulf coast. I see that the company is also in Florida, so I am assuming they have considered this issue. Would love to hear from somebody with long term experience with this in a harsh environment.

Chris

My skyhawk (1997 vintage) has white base paint with vinyl stickers / highlights. I'm assuming it is a similar process.

17 years and they look good as new. The paint, well, it's peeling and chipping in some places.

Someone (DanH I think?) mentioned concerns about seeing smoking rivets if the entire structure is covered ...

I have had good luck so far...

I applied vinyl-based paint film on the coaming of my -4 cockpit. This initial paint took a beating after the 1st 5 years of flight. The film has been in place 8 years now and still looks new.

I used flouropolymer paint film on some interior parts. Those parts, too, still look good. In both cases, the films were applied over alodined and primed surfaces.

I have seen these films used on boats and planes and have been impressed with the durability. Seams are always visible, but not objectionable, in my opinion.

Regards,

Photos...

Those who have had their wraps in service a little while, and are doing progressive jobs, please post some pics. I'm very interested in this as a "repaint" option for my tired 14 yr old paint job. BTW, I've researched the materials and application process pretty deeply. I have very little concern about corrosion or other issues. Kind of like the old Monokote covered RC planes, you just have to put it on with edge wear and streamlined seams in mind.

My advice is to make sure you use cast vinyl instead instead of calendared. Calendared vinyl starts out kind of like a big wad that's pushed and spread to make the vinyl sheet, which results in a significantly higher tendency to shrink and warp as opposed to the cast stuff.

Rootski said:

My advice is to make sure you use cast vinyl instead instead of calendared. Calendared vinyl starts out kind of like a big wad that's pushed and spread to make the vinyl sheet, which results in a significantly higher tendency to shrink and warp as opposed to the cast stuff.

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Is this company in Florida the only place doing this, or are there other options?

-Dan

And what about those domed pop-rivet heads on our RV-12s? Can the wrap cleanly conform with the heads or will there be some noticeable "spanning" from rivet head-to-adjacent base skin??

There's a company called Plane Vinyl near Atlanta that offers wraps too...

http://hstrial-dblack856.homestead.com

.

All-

Vinyl is a good way to go, BUT, don't forget that every place you put the vinyl it's not going to get sun bleached. So, plan ahead with a design that can easily be covered up with a new design in the same spot. You will have a bleach line and discolored paint over a few years after you peal the vinyl off. Again, vinyl is a great way to go, but just keep these I'm mind.


Thanks!
Jason

Vinyl

I saw first hand yesterday two beautiful vinyl wrapped airplanes. I believe they are a new advertiser here on vans in the advertiser section. I was impressed! No bubbles in the vinyl and the finish on the edges were perfect. If you get extra vinyl you can cut strips and even hide the hinge pin on the cowls between cowl removals. I was about to paint the rocket but now I think I'm gonna do a complete wrap with nose and tail art. You cannot tell up close if it's painted or wrapped especially around the rivots. The rivots showed perfectly with no bubbles. The main reason I wanna do this is not just the cost savings but the ability to sell the plane and the next guy can keep the wrap or peel it and redo with different color wrap or paint it his or her way

I'm not affiliated with this company and I don't know these guys.

The biggest concern is all the button head rivets. It's hard to get the vinyl get in tight to it. When bubbles form they will start there. Cessna had these problems when they used vinyl for stripes on new 172's. I made a lot of money in the past pulling off vinyl and painting the stripes back on.

That was one of my concerns as well, they claimed it was no problem, and are sending me some photos of pop rivets covered.
I worried about those hollow heads filling up with wax residue and dirt, this will solve that problem (if there ever was a problem).

DHeal said:

And what about those domed pop-rivet heads on our RV-12s? Can the wrap cleanly conform with the heads or will there be some noticeable "spanning" from rivet head-to-adjacent base skin??

Click to expand...

Glad people are getting excited / talking about our vinyl wraps and thanks bill for the comments about our work!

Yes, we are a new pay advertiser with VAF. We appreciate the support that our VAF community has shown us with our selection of advertising capital. I refrained from post about my company when I hadn't earned the right of promoting my company without first compensating Doug

[email protected]

Regards,

Scott

PS we are doing a sonex now with the round pop-rivets.

Do the vinyl wraps need a coat of primer?

What kind of prep happens to the skin? Mine has the normal scratches of of the build process that I assumed would be sanded out at paint time. I'm not that far from the ocean in Virginia and want to make sure I have the right corrosion protection.

The inside is being primed as I go.

How much does paint weigh for an entire paint job versus how much does a complete wrap weigh?

.

Point taken In an attempt to remedy this, we will donate all proceeds from the my post if it does generate business to VAF. I'll edit my post in a few, but it wasn't my intentions to drum up business, it was just to state who we were and our opinions since we have done both sides of this whether it be paint or vinyl. Wraps are a great way to go, just wanted to bring to light the sun bleaching effect if the entire airplane isn't wrapped.

Thank you-

Jason

Rhino889 said:

Glad people are getting excited / talking about our vinyl wraps and thanks bill for the comments about our work!

Yes, we are a new pay advertiser with VAF. We appreciate the support that our VAF community has shown us with our selection of advertising capital. I refrained from post about my company when I hadn't earned the right of promoting my company without first compensating Doug

[email protected]

Regards,

Scott

PS we are doing a sonex now with the round pop-rivets.

Click to expand...

Dream Scheme Designs said:

Point taken In an attempt to remedy this, will will donate all proceeds from the my post if it does generate business to VAF. I'll edit my post in a few, but it wasn't my intentions to drum up business, it was just to state who we were and our opinions since we have done both sides of this whether it be paint or vinyl. Wraps are a great way to go, just wanted to bring to light the sun bleaching effect if the entire airplane isn't wrapped.

Thank you-

Jason

Click to expand...

Jason,

My post had nothing to do with you? I was simply stating that I've had a lot of pilots asking about this. "I" not you was the topic of my post. We have several hundred hours of flight testing completed and during that time it was very hard not to post about what we were doing. (I post a lot )

Please don't take it as directed towards you...

I just looked at your website... very nice designs!

Kindest regards,

Scott

Founder/Director of Aircraftwraps.com

My sales director is yelling at me...

I actually came on just to post some formation photos... cruising VAF after a long day of work... isn't that what we all do?

We will be back on the thread to answer questions once we have some free time - vaf response has been amazing since our ad went up.

Scott

Lol.. The internet would awesome if we all couldn't type on it. You do fantastic work as well! I'm always excited to see companies brining new ideas to market.

Look forward to jointly working together someday, somehow.

Ok, back to vinyl wraps!

Jason

I don't do vinyl wraps for a living but I work for a company that makes and sells the machines that print to the material.

For weight... I work with a few NASCAR teams and one found they saved 7-8 lbs per car by wrapping rather than painting. Keep in mind these cars are bare metal with the exception of a few places they put bondo and prime to feather in some transitions.

For rivets... A good wrap material, installed properly, will have no problems on a hangared aircraft for 10 years or maybe more. If it sits outside probably 5-7 years.

If it were my aircraft... I would paint it a solid single color as light weight as possible. Then complete what is called a partial wrap. That means that areas of the paint are exposed and part of the scheme. I would use Avery or 3M brand media. 3M is easier to remove after a few years but Avery looks like paint when it's applied.

My hangar mate wants a warbirds scheme one his -4. I told him just paint it silver and we can wrap whatever scheme he wants and even change it every few years.

weight

Sid Lambert said:

I don't do vinyl wraps for a living but I work for a company that makes and sells the machines that print to the material.

For weight... I work with a few NASCAR teams and one found they saved 7-8 lbs per car by wrapping rather than painting. Keep in mind these cars are bare metal with the exception of a few places they put bondo and prime to feather in some transitions.

For rivets... A good wrap material, installed properly, will have no problems on a hangared aircraft for 10 years or maybe more. If it sits outside probably 5-7 years.

If it were my aircraft... I would paint it a solid single color as light weight as possible. Then complete what is called a partial wrap. That means that areas of the paint are exposed and part of the scheme. I would use Avery or 3M brand media. 3M is easier to remove after a few years but Avery looks like paint when it's applied.

My hangar mate wants a warbirds scheme one his -4. I told him just paint it silver and we can wrap whatever scheme he wants and even change it every few years.

Click to expand...

That's a significant weight savings. I was thinking about doing exactly as you mention. Paint one color then wrap the graphics. The paint shop cost would be much lower.
I would think resale would be easier too. The new owner can have a totally different scheme if wanted.

For what it's worth, I used cast vinyl for decoration on the polished -6 I bought. Over flush rivets, it sucked down tight after a little while and now looks like it was painted on... You can clearly see the whole rivet heads, even the dimples in the center on some of them. I was told that the same would happen around round head rivets, or pulled rivets, but I haven't covered any so I don't know what it would look like.

I've been looking into wrapping as an alternative to paint as well... What I've learned so far suggests that the tail surfaces would be easy to do, but the wings and fuselage look like they would take a small crew to get it done nicely.

What I'd really like to know is how it stands up to oil on the belly, and how heat from the exhaust would affect it.

Good to know that it weighs less than paint. The education continues...

jjconstant said:

Good to know that it weighs less than paint. The education continues...

Click to expand...

This was my primary reason for wrapping aircraft in vinyl. It comes in at half the weight of paint. Scratch resistance and significant cost savings was only a secondary benefit to the increased performance.

I would agree with Sid on the saving at NASCAR given the surface area. However, we wrap and paint our aircraft top and bottom and that savings is increased by the increased surface area.

(NASCAR fleet was one of my research areas for our product. Last check, years ago was 60-70% of the fleet is vinyl wrapped and not painted. NASCAR enjoys the weight savings while also being able to switch sponsors overnight with a removal and new install).

Regards,

Scott

Snowflake said:

For what it's worth, I used cast vinyl for decoration on the polished -6 I bought. Over flush rivets, it sucked down tight after a little while and now looks like it was painted on... You can clearly see the whole rivet heads, even the dimples in the center on some of them. I was told that the same would happen around round head rivets, or pulled rivets, but I haven't covered any so I don't know what it would look like.

I've been looking into wrapping as an alternative to paint as well... What I've learned so far suggests that the tail surfaces would be easy to do, but the wings and fuselage look like they would take a small crew to get it done nicely.

What I'd really like to know is how it stands up to oil on the belly, and how heat from the exhaust would affect it.

Click to expand...

Respectfully... the tail section is horrible and tedious. Myself and our in house aerospace engineer designed the install over 10 months. Our installers have the skill set to negotiate the very tight compound curves... I do not and... I've done A LOT of vinyl work

Regarding the fuselage/wings and crew to do the work:

I agree and we have crew of 3 installers/1 Director working inside a sterile hangar to provide the correct install procedure.

We install in a very specific and planned manner. Over hundreds of hours of flight testing in every weather condition has allowed us to refine the process till we came to what we have now. Honestly the manner, knowledge and process we use is our hard work gathered over any competitor. Like any new market we needed to learn by doing. We have had to go back and reinstall after running into issues. Flying from 20' to 16,000' and heavy rain needed to be calculated and installed for. Our vinyl selection is very specific based on these data points as well.

We are confident that we have the best aircraft wrap process to offer our customers. This isn't some sales pitch. Thats not my position in the company. However, I am the Founder and Director. I/We (AircraftWraps.com) stand behind our product and services. We are very excited to create and set the market as the only company to specifically focus on aircraft. To my knowledge, we are the only company to have completely wrapped an entire aircraft (we have several) from tip to tail.

(sales director told me to stop posting last night. I've been a part of this community for years. The first RV8 being constructed I saw was back in college! These planes have been in my blood for to long to stop communicating with my friends and brothers of VAF! I wake every morning, drink my coffee and read VAF... just like I have for years)

My goal is to give everyone that wraps, a showplane quality install at a price that the pilot feels is AMAZING. We do this by using a "cost plus" structure for now. We do not worry what the market will bear... for now. Early adopters are defiantly enjoying great rates while we gain access into all regions spread from California to Florida

+++edit: I missed the oil and gas question. The only time my wing doesn't get fuel poured on it is when some one else does it! I can also show you the pooling oil on my tailwheel hangar spot. My smoke take is set to "ridiculous smoke" and sprays the entire belly. My planes belly is disgusting with oil, this oil flows down while sitting on the tailwheel and pools on the floor. Yes, we adjusted our install process for such factors.

Regards,

Scott

Founder/Director
www.aircraftwraps.com

Even though I'm a few years away from paint or other finishing, I've had a couple people refer me to your website in the past week. That says something, I guess.

Anyway, some questions:

1. What kind of surface preparation is recommended? Prime, paint, leave bare, polish, scotchbrite, or...?

2. How are removable items (access covers, fuel tanks, wingtips, cowl, etc.) handled? Are control surfaces removed and fully wrapped separately? Are things like antennae and lights removed so the wrap can get underneath the edges?

3. Is the process made easier by bringing the aircraft in disassembled (e.g., trucking it in with the wings off)? Is it easier to do prior to first flight so you don't have to clean oil and bugs?

4. If you can provide a ballpark estimate, what would a simple two-color full-aircraft wrap run?

good observations Scott

I have to agreed with pretty much everything you've noted about vinyl on aircraft, I think I did my first set of registration marks with hand-cut Fascal vinyl in about 1984.

question: why does your 'sales director' not want you communicating with 10,000 potential customers? How much more targeted and audience could you possibly have? I've worked in advertising, and can't think of a better ROI!

keep up the info stream, do it on your coffee break, or whatever, (tell him to go back to skool!)

Thank you

Before I start answering questions I just wanted to say on behalf of us here at AW - thank you for the overwhelming responses we've seen from the VAF community since Doug (thank you for having us Doug) put our ad up.

I've spoken to some fantastic chaps over email (ladies where are you!) and seen some great examples of homebuilding and many dreams realised - I guess we consider those pictures to be 'airporn' over here (we're a strange bunch).

If I missed a question feel free to throw it back at me, I can only apologise for the next few posts as they are going to be me quoting people and responding.

Last point on my introduction is to say that we do plan to do some things for the VAF community further down the road as well as a charity or two I have noticed around the forum, if you would like to be kept in the loop about items such as this please do go and visit us at

http://www.aircraftwraps.com/#contact

Submit the form and add in the message 'add me to mailing list'

or just drop us an email at [email protected]

Thank you again

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

flyboy1963 said:

I have to agreed with pretty much everything you've noted about vinyl on aircraft, I think I did my first set of registration marks with hand-cut Fascal vinyl in about 1984.

question: why does your 'sales director' not want you communicating with 10,000 potential customers? How much more targeted and audience could you possibly have? I've worked in advertising, and can't think of a better ROI!

keep up the info stream, do it on your coffee break, or whatever, (tell him to go back to skool!)

Click to expand...

Because he needs to be in a Hangar directing people!

There, I've said it !

Scott - carry on, the masses have spoken!

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

jchang10 said:

I have been slowly adding vinyl on my 2 year old -10. It would be great to exchange some info with others. It is great to see others doing this as well.

I was initially only planning to cover the leading edge of the main wings. However, after seeing how good the vinyl looked, it made the rest of the plane look worse. Thus, i have now wrapped almost all of the horizontal surfaces so far. Most everyone at my local airport, who were at first skeptical, are just amazed at how good it looks. It even works well for things like abrasion resistance from fiberglass fairings or extra corrosion protection. Quite a few surprises with this.

I am now considering wrapping the tailcone and main fuselage. I am still considering different strategies and layouts, etc. I will probably stick with paint for fiberglass pieces, just because they are more easily painted off the plane anyway.

It is hard to make direct comparisons with painting. They both have their tradeoffs of pluses and minuses. The true test will come in 5 or 10 or dare say 15 years time when it starts to wear and fade more. Will it still peel off nicely leaving nice shiny metal underneath? I guess only time will tell.

Jae

Click to expand...

Hi Jae

Your post touches a subject a number of people have addressed and some have emailed in (I will respond to them also).

We wrap fiberglass daily - our vinyl adheres just as well to fiberglass as it does to paint or bare metal (thats the email people done) - I would say that painting fibreglass is fine but why not just wrap it?

Once you paint you are 'sold' to a particular color unless you decide to wrap over it or re-paint - now you are layering and adding weight (minor but it addresses other peoples comments) You also need to make sure the paint matches the wrap.

I'm glad you mentioned the corrosion and abrasion resistance - Scott likes to throw his keys down his wing when showing his aircraft off, I always get a kick out of peoples horrified faces and I'm sure he does as well!

As for removal - we are going to do a video at some point of us peeling a wrap, I know right now that the guys here at AW are literally sweating wondering if its there's I'm going to target....

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

Bugs,

I'm curious to know how vinyl holds up to removing dried bugs? Seems like it would take a beating.

Here are some random thoughts.

I am using 3M 1080 from metrorestyling.com. Ask for Tom. You can order samples for every option.
http://www.metrorestyling.com/3M-1080-Scotchprint-Gloss-Vinyl-Wrap-s/19976.htm

The only pop rivets I have done were on the LE of the ailerons. What 3M recommends doing is heating the area at least up to 200F, let it cool down a bit so it can be handled without damage, work a plastic scraper all around the circumference of the head. Pressure and heat activates more of the adhesive removing the air bubbles. It turns out perfectly, which was surprising to me.

Actually, I did the horizontal surfaces first, which is easier. The hershey bar wings were the easiest things to wrap because of their flat surface and symmetry. It required no stretching around curves which is the hardest thing to wrap. I chose to do mine all in 1' wide strips which my vendor scored for me on their CNC machine.

I am doing mine over polished metal. There is no risk of paint failure underneath or anything like that. Vinyl will pretty much perfectly preserve the shine. One day i can peel it off and start over with shiny metal.

The automotive vinyl installers are VERY careful about what they wrap over. Typically, they want OEM paint with clear coat finishes only. It has to be both perfectly strong and perfectly smooth. Primer starts to get trickier because it might not be smooth enough. I found vinyl to stick fine on my sherwin williams epoxy primered interiors. A spot on my HS, it wouldn't stick though for some reason.

As a test, I took a vinyl piece out of the trash, put it half on uncleaned bare metal, half on the fiberglass windshield fairing right in front, flew some 6,000 nm and the vinyl stayed perfectly in place!

I am not sure about weight savings or not. I heard it does save weight. I think some of that comes from the consistency of the material. Instead of having thick and thin layers and multiple coats of paint, Vinyl is a consistent 3mil or so and up to 7mil i believe for some of the fancier carbon fiber matte designs.

I think worries about corrosion and other issues come down more on installation itself vs. material. A bad install job will ruin things more than any material. They have been vinyl wrapping cars for 30 years already They have been using it on billboard signs for even longer. It is only recently that people are starting to hear about them now. 3M realized a bad installer would damage their reputation. Thus, they have a comprehensive certification course to try and ensure better install quality. Unfortunately, this is mostly for auto techniques, so we are on our own for planes.

Also, it is very labor intensive. You can just spray paint and get broad coverage very quickly over a lot of area. With vinyl, you have to purposely cover every square millimeter of area, which takes conscious thought and planning for the least amount of waste and effort.

Scott, i love your passion. I wish we were closer and not 3,000 miles physically apart. I would love to look at some of your full wrap jobs, as i always wondered why i had not heard anyone doing this yet. I am still formulating my strategy for how to do this.

flyboy1963 said:

I have to agreed with pretty much everything you've noted about vinyl on aircraft, I think I did my first set of registration marks with hand-cut Fascal vinyl in about 1984.

question: why does your 'sales director' not want you communicating with 10,000 potential customers? How much more targeted and audience could you possibly have? I've worked in advertising, and can't think of a better ROI!

keep up the info stream, do it on your coffee break, or whatever, (tell him to go back to skool!)

Click to expand...

LOL!

I'm supposed to be in the hangar directing the install

The installers only touch the vinyl. They all have years of experience dealing with luxury "rich guy" toys. We have this requirement because they need to handle our customers aircraft as items of high value... not just $$$, but also we pilots cherish our aircraft. I don't care if its a $23,000 RV3 or a $240,000 RV10... to every pilot/builder the emotional value of that plane is priceless. My installers will respect that as fact.

Anyways, I'm supposed to be in the hangar. Besides directing the installers, only the original directors touch the sensitive parts (antenna, panels, fairings, etc for removal and after wrapped assembly). Sounds easy??? what about when that RV6 antenna is beneath the right seat and you need to disassemble the entire floor system to get to 1 little connector... very time consuming

Besides... I'm a pilot/builder first. I will talk, fly and work on planes all day, everyday with a huge smile on my face... typing and grammar... no thank you

You guys will see me any place one of our planes are! Just today I video conferenced with my team. They said I'm having to much fun flying all over the southeast trying to meet people. I say, I am having fun flying RV aircraft around... get back to work!

The response has been huge for the VAF community. We have responded to every email within 6 hours. We called everyone personally that got forwarded to voicemail because we were talking to someone else. We are trying to be the company you know will get stuff done and do what we say.

Kindest Regards,

Scott

Low Pass said:

Those who have had their wraps in service a little while, and are doing progressive jobs, please post some pics. I'm very interested in this as a "repaint" option for my tired 14 yr old paint job. BTW, I've researched the materials and application process pretty deeply. I have very little concern about corrosion or other issues. Kind of like the old Monokote covered RC planes, you just have to put it on with edge wear and streamlined seams in mind.

Click to expand...

Low Pass

I was going to respond to the comments before but I have to say - I couldn't have said it better myself.

How the wrap is applied is key - its much like a paint job in that respect, you want someone doing this that understands the product and how it needs to be applied - application is dependant on use, aircrafts are a special breed and what we do with them in the air also needs to be taken into account.

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

Dream Scheme Designs said:

All-

Vinyl is a good way to go, BUT, don't forget that every place you put the vinyl it's not going to get sun bleached. So, plan ahead with a design that can easily be covered up with a new design in the same spot. You will have a bleach line and discolored paint over a few years after you peal the vinyl off. Again, vinyl is a great way to go, but just keep these I'm mind.


Thanks!
Jason

Click to expand...

Jason nails it on the head perfectly here - so thank you!

I have seen 2 posts about doing a 'partial wrap' and whilst professionally I can say ' go for it ' I personally have the following advice.

Someone mentioned an easier sell with a partial wrap because it can be removed and the new owner can have whatever he wants, I am going to disagree here (I'm sorry I'm the argumentative one over here at AW).

Why? Well for me its this - when you do a partial wrap, just like Jason said you are going to leave an imprint on that painted aircraft, what you once thought was a reversible decision is going to be like ghosting on the sides of boats when the name is removed - your option now is to go back with the wrap you had or cover it over with a larger one (levelling again - what if the new owner doesn't even want your base color? The bleaching is now a secondary issue).

Instead of increasing the options you have limited them. Why not just wrap the entire aircraft and leave the blank canvas really a blank canvas?

Just my thoughts.

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

DonFromTX said:

That was one of my concerns as well, they claimed it was no problem, and are sending me some photos of pop rivets covered.
I worried about those hollow heads filling up with wax residue and dirt, this will solve that problem (if there ever was a problem).

Click to expand...

Lots of people wanting to know about rivets - we will update when we have a decent photo, I've tried to convince Scott to just pop a few rivets in an old piece of sheet metal and wrap it but he refuses as he wants a good visual for future sake - it will come.

We will do a before and after

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

i am right down the street from AW. the latest 6 i saw being completed was a white base. they said the underside was done with one piece so i got down on my back and took a good look. wow, if i didnt know what i was lookn at i would of thought it was a great paint job. i am impressed. no runs, overspray, or orange peel.

if there is one guy i know who needs to get er wrapped it is the VMAN. i love his scheme but believe he will never stop flying to do it, unless he wraps it in a week.

a wrap is not for every one but considering the benefits of cost, time to wrap, performance, and weight this is a great option for many.

also, i love flying with rhino because it is like flying with your personal airshow. smoke and all. cant wait for the inverted system to be installed.

KTM520guy said:

The biggest concern is all the button head rivets. It's hard to get the vinyl get in tight to it. When bubbles form they will start there. Cessna had these problems when they used vinyl for stripes on new 172's. I made a lot of money in the past pulling off vinyl and painting the stripes back on.

Click to expand...

Bubbles - our Vinyl has air channels (not visible to the naked eye), this makes a huge difference.

Glad you made some money out of Cessna!

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

rv4bill said:

I saw first hand yesterday two beautiful vinyl wrapped airplanes. I believe they are a new advertiser here on vans in the advertiser section. I was impressed! No bubbles in the vinyl and the finish on the edges were perfect. If you get extra vinyl you can cut strips and even hide the hinge pin on the cowls between cowl removals. I was about to paint the rocket but now I think I'm gonna do a complete wrap with nose and tail art. You cannot tell up close if it's painted or wrapped especially around the rivots. The rivots showed perfectly with no bubbles. The main reason I wanna do this is not just the cost savings but the ability to sell the plane and the next guy can keep the wrap or peel it and redo with different color wrap or paint it his or her way

I'm not affiliated with this company and I don't know these guys.

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Bill, I know Scott said thanks already but the same from me - its nice to have our work publicly recognised, makes all the hours shouting at Scott worth it!

The wrap and peel for the next guy is a very big bonus.

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

xCountry22 said:

What kind of prep happens to the skin? Mine has the normal scratches of of the build process that I assumed would be sanded out at paint time. I'm not that far from the ocean in Virginia and want to make sure I have the right corrosion protection.

The inside is being primed as I go.

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If we told you we'd have to....

Those normal scratches won't be visible xCountry22 - the vinyl is 3.5mm thick.

Scott will confirm with his own wrap that he did not sand (I'm letting him post )

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

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this is vinyl. I put it on myself. looks great! 1 yr old no problems. I cut the checker boards squares and tail # on my machine, had the side vinyl cut lsewhere. i have experience in appling vinyl stuff over 30 yrs. total cost $500. total paint job..........$1000's
fwit
fred

turbo said:

i am right down the street from AW. the latest 6 i saw being completed was a white base. they said the underside was done with one piece so i got down on my back and took a good look. wow, if i didnt know what i was lookn at i would of thought it was a great paint job. i am impressed. no runs, overspray, or orange peel.

if there is one guy i know who needs to get er wrapped it is the VMAN. i love his scheme but believe he will never stop flying to do it, unless he wraps it in a week.

a wrap is not for every one but considering the benefits of cost, time to wrap, performance, and weight this is a great option for many.

also, i love flying with rhino because it is like flying with your personal airshow. smoke and all. cant wait for the inverted system to be installed.

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Turbo

I will never live this down.... (I'm pretty sure a follow up post is coming from Scott about his flying...)

Thank you very much for your kind words about our work.

I've heard from Scott about VMAN - and the challenge is on if he can spare the week? Failing that we will work out a way to wrap it in midair!!

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

Thank you all

Thats it for today from me, I am back to work and back to emails for now (some of you are about to get responses).

I will definitely be back to answer anymore

Thanks again

Guy

www.Aircraftwraps.com
Replacing paint with performance.

tanks

Curious how you handle screws in the fuel tanks. Remove them, then install thru the vinyl? What about the issue of paint blisters discussed extensively on VAF with paint on the tanks? Any concerns with vinyl?

Thanks,

SeanB said:

What about the issue of paint blisters discussed extensively on VAF with paint on the tanks? Any concerns with vinyl?

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I was wondering the same thing.

My guess is a pin hole to let the fuel/vapor out will take care of it???

tsneidin said:

I'm curious to know how vinyl holds up to removing dried bugs? Seems like it would take a beating.

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Another benefit:

wipes off with a spray of water and cloth. The vinyl is a very smooth with little for the bug guts to hold on to.

Beating as in damage? I've flown our planes at 200mph or more through heavy rain for hours at a time Jax-pbi-jax-pbi is my test runs... feel free to check flight aware with my Tail#. That site logs my ADSB track and speeds. This vinyl will be just fine with bugs.

Regards,

Scott