Stickers on fresh paint???

[ninemill]

Hi guys, Just preparing the stickers for our fleet of cars at the moment but one of our drivers is having a couple of wings and a door on his black golf resprayed a few days before we leave. Will stickers knacker the paint work being as it won't have been on long??? How long do modern car paints take to fully harden and cure??

BTW He's having the panels done because of an accident, not cos he's a concours-obsessed Zymol monkey or anything!!!

[cheekymonkey]

interested to know too as one of my doors is being done today!

[markCSC]

Depends on the paint, the colour and thickness. Black paint is really soft and takes ages to dry properly.

What you could do is wax (and I mean wax not polish) the area you are going to sticker to protect the paint.

Edited by markCSC on Friday 2nd June 10:17

[Moose.]

When my brother had his side repainted (silver) after some to55er bent the door to break in, he was told not to wash, polish or wax for at least a week as the paint would need to harden. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

[chocolatemonk]

Be careful with stickers, full stop. I am sure every1 can remember how hot it was last year and a few of the cars in our group were permanently scarred , with the stickers causing paint damage when removed.

I think you can get some stuff, signwriters call 7 day vinyl , the sort of stuff used outside car dealers on display.

I dont think i will sticker up now i have the Fezza as i would imagine the door would fall off as i peeled off the stickers!

[morebeanz]

Echoing the above sentiments, I just wouldn't go there at all.

If he's going to put temporary stickers on, could he have it resprayed after Le Mans? Or is the damage too bad...

[tjdixon911]

I had a new rear Bumper on my Boxster two weeks before Le-Mans last year - I stuck stickers on that with no Problems...

[ninemill]

No he can't wait - it's dented so that he can't open his passenger door at the moment. Think I'd do better to think how the car can be stickered up to avoid the 'soft' areas.

[Polarbert]

I think you have to know that stickers and vinyls are different things. My understanding is that Vinyls will be better for the car than stickers. I have mostly vinyls on mine, but a couple of PH ones are stickers, am hoping that they will be okay.

Vinyls are kinder to the paint is what I thought.

[morebeanz]

Polarbert said:

I think you have to know that stickers and vinyls are different things. My understanding is that Vinyls will be better for the car than stickers. I have mostly vinyls on mine, but a couple of PH ones are stickers, am hoping that they will be okay. Vinyls are kinder to the paint is what I thought.

That's a very good point, which I, for one, had not considered. I shall have to review my application accordingly!

[markCSC]

Moose. said:

When my brother had his side repainted (silver) after some to55er bent the door to break in, he was told not to wash, polish or wax for at least a week as the paint would need to harden. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

As an aside
A friend of mine is a Pro valet. He told me that he regulary waxes black new Rolls Royce Phantoms. The paint takes over a month to cure properly but becasue he uses a natural wax, "Carnauba", the paint can still breath but is protected by the wax.

[ninemill]

hmmm... his is neither a brand new Rolls Royce, nor will be covered in Canuba wax before the trip so who knows!!! Good point about the sticker/vinyl thing though - I used the term sticker but I will actually be cutting the designs out of sheets of signmakers vinyl using a plotter/cutting machine I'm borrowing - still don't think I've got the balls to plaster his new doors in General Lee numbers though!!!

[Polarbert]

Quick question. I read somewhere that its advisable to spray on washing up liquid and water to the area before you apply the sticker/vinyl so that you can rearrange it if necessary.


I also read that using washing up liquid on a car body was a big NO NO.

Whats the answer? I assume car shampoo would be acceptable?

[mogul]

Polarbert said:

Quick question. I read somewhere that its advisable to spray on washing up liquid and water to the area before you apply the sticker/vinyl so that you can rearrange it if necessary. I also read that using washing up liquid on a car body was a big NO NO. Whats the answer? I assume car shampoo would be acceptable?

The idea of water & washing up liquid is to be able to move the vinyl whilst applying (you only need to usea tiny amount of fairy to a pint of water). Once in position, squeegy as much water out as best you can from under the vinyl working from the middle out in all directions (using a credit card covered in a soft cloth). Any liquid left under the vinyl will disappear shortly when it dries.

You can buy a multitude of vinyls. When my company used to supply BSM for their fleet of learner cars we used 6 month vinyl which was then screen printed and then applied to the cars for up to 9 months. In practice most vinyls are easy to remove as long as they're not left on the car for very long - vinyls adhere better the longer they're on a surface. Bear in mind that it's UV light not the vinyl that does most damage to paint.



Have you ever seen an old BT van far example?

Edited by mogul on Saturday 3rd June 19:12

Edited by mogul on Saturday 3rd June 19:13

[///m-power]

girls, girls, girls. all this fuss. Just get em on. Wax first, apply wet and remove in the sun or with hairdryer. It's easy peezy.

[venom500]

Lemon squeezey!

[Polarbert]

Thanks for the advice chaps. Tuesday will be a good day, may push it forwards to Monday all being well.

[///m-power]

post pics

[welshnobby]

///m-power said:

girls, girls, girls. all this fuss. Just get em on. Wax first, apply wet and remove in the sun or with hairdryer. It's easy peezy.

...what do you mean by apply wet? Previous posts suggest putting wash shampoo with water.....will this not remove the wax from the paint? Can you just put water, or i was thinking of using the Swissol quick mist spray which just freshens up a previously waxed surface. Previously i have just done it straight onto a freshly waxed but dry surface, it is a bit of a leap of faith as not much scope for fine tuning the position. I like the idea of being able to do this. There would be nothing worse than some wonky stripes!!!