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My vinyl wrap project

Turbo69bird

Well Known Member
While most people are just finishing their project for the first time, I?m redoing my plane. Who knows maybe I?m the first to ?restore? an RV6 that wasn?t damaged. Lol

Anyway did some vinyl wrap. Let kpme know what you guys think of how it came out.
www.Vansrv6.com
 
Thanks guys, there’s an RV9 video on YouTube, but I had also written an article about it for our fly in 4b9 program. I have done a lot of old school custom paint lace, freak drops, drips, flames etc in the past. Stuff for 60s nostalgia drag cars as well as some newer designs. I had issues from the 2 part paints and had to get away from it. Isocyanates are not your friend. Lol

Anyway long story short it is kind of a similar process as far as coming up with the scheme, prepping for paint (although more printed through the vinyl than I expected.) it was far more work than paint in my opinion but that’s not an option for me anymore.
I decided to go with something that would be a little exotic and that would give a finish that would be hard to spray had it been done in paint.

Thinking back to bumper cars and checkmate ski boats I decided to look for a heavy metal flake look. I got lucky that Avery had just come out with the diamond line of vinyl which gives that exact look.

The base is diamond white which is a bit more like a pearl white, though in the right light it does show the diamond effect. The silver and blue though really show the diamonds in a lot of light conditions.


This will give you an Idea of how the blue looks in the sun.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrn6PWyh5Kw
 
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Just wow!

Jeff,

First off, I have to say your plane looks gorgeous. The fact that you wrapped around the snorkel like that with no wrinkles is crazy/awesome.

Could I ask a few questions?
  1. Have you had any issues with heat and the vinyl either on the cowl or around the exhaust pipes?
  2. Does it look as good close up, as it does from a distance? Some say that vinyl looks awesome from 10' or more, but up close, not as much.
  3. How do you finish the edge around the canopy? On my 8, the fiberglass is pink, and I am concerned about a pink line at the edge, given that the sealant is black, and the color there on my scheme is also black.
  4. What type of screws did you use, such that it doesn't tear the vinyl when tightened?
  5. What did you do in around the control surfaces, such as the rear of the stabilizer, and the rear of the wing? Did you wrap in there, or paint? I'm curious what shows when you deflect the controls.
  6. If I try to wrap something like my tail if it doesn't work out, would it be easy to remove?
I'm sitting right on the edge between paint and wrap, and the items above are potential wrap concerns for me. So I'm really hoping to get answers from someone who has done it.
 
Jeff,

First off, I have to say your plane looks gorgeous. The fact that you wrapped around the snorkel like that with no wrinkles is crazy/awesome.

Could I ask a few questions?
  1. Have you had any issues with heat and the vinyl either on the cowl or around the exhaust pipes?
  2. Does it look as good close up, as it does from a distance? Some say that vinyl looks awesome from 10' or more, but up close, not as much.
  3. How do you finish the edge around the canopy? On my 8, the fiberglass is pink, and I am concerned about a pink line at the edge, given that the sealant is black, and the color there on my scheme is also black.
  4. What type of screws did you use, such that it doesn't tear the vinyl when tightened?
  5. What did you do in around the control surfaces, such as the rear of the stabilizer, and the rear of the wing? Did you wrap in there, or paint? I'm curious what shows when you deflect the controls.
  6. If I try to wrap something like my tail if it doesn't work out, would it be easy to remove?
I'm sitting right on the edge between paint and wrap, and the items above are potential wrap concerns for me. So I'm really hoping to get answers from someone who has done it.



I’ll try to answer as best I can.

I think it looks just as good up close. I do have a couple of spots where the edge of the blue didn’t cut perfectly clean but that was because the cut tape I was using had to be the wire type and I started with 3m and it broke half way through the cut. My vinyl is fairly thick stuff. To get a comparable heavy metal flake like this with paint you’d probably spend $20k

Aside from that looks every bit as good as paint and better in some instances. Planning your seems is a big part of it though. It won’t look quite as thin as paint but you also won’t have to worry about fish eyes, crazing, or any of the other issues as with paint. You will have to worry about dust though as even dust will print through it. Any stripes will need to be knocked down to nothing. One pic of the wing tip shows where I pulled it back off because you could see the lines even after I wet sanded it out. I had to use icing body filler and then sand to get rid of if. It lays down that tight.
All screws that I didn’t go over (like fuel tank screws) I used tineman washers on to minimize contact.you can use nylon washers too my buddy cuts the pm special for vinyl wraps.

The only spot I had a heat issue was right where the exhaust almost touches the vinyl underneath, I had rolled it around the end and when it got hot, it rolled back under because there was no cowling covering it in that area. It touched the pipes and melted. That was my fault I should have cut it back more. This was a spot about 1 inch by 1 inch on each side.

Control surfaces I wrapped it into that unseen area. In hind sight could have been cut back even further but being the first time wasn’t sure and wanted to cover it. You cannot see it at all with the controls at full stop but it was really hard to clean in there on an older airplane. The end caps even got wrapped.though yo could have painted them and it’d look just as good,

If you do it and you want to remove it, make sure you don’t cut with a knife when applying it, use cut tape and heat it to remove it or it WILL pull the paint off. It’s on THAT GOOD,

The lower cowl I ended up having to do in two pieces. I had it done in one but it lifted where the scoop was glassed into the cowl. After doing it once I was like screw this im ok with two pieces. �� I wish I’d dzues fastened the scoop on instead that would give good access for oil changes etc.

Any edges I didn’t terminate on the flat face of the panel, I rolled around to the other side.

If your doing a solid color it may not be worth wrap vs paint, but if your trying to do something trick that would be hard or cost a lot in paint I’d go vinyl. Trying to touch up a tri coat paint job is very hard, touching up the same thing in vinyl is far easier especially if you order some extra and keep it aside.

There’s trade offs with each neither is perfect paint or vinyl. For me the choice was clear because I couldn’t work with paint anymore. I will say I flew it in the rain and it beat on the vinyl a bit, didn’t do anything to the vinyl even in the areas where it’s got the diamonds on the rudder which to me is the most vulnerable spot. The spinner is even vinyl and that holding up so far. It has a seen down one side. I did use edge tape on any seems facing into relative wind.

Nice thing is I can polish it with plexus as easy as cleaning my canopy.

The n number and graphic on the tail I hand cut, it’s not perfect but it’s pretty good, mainly it impresses me that these areas of low surface area are holding up well. ANythung you do you want to post heat to 90degrees Celsius if you can to remove the memory of the vinyl.

Stretching beyond a certain point even if it relaxes back, will also diminish the smoothness / shine on the vinyl.. that being said in most spots in the airplane even flats if I clean it with plexus and set my phone on it it’ll slide off on the ground. I used to use the wings like a bench for my stuff when getting in, now it slides off on the ground. Lol
 
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