Bruce@wedosigns

Hey Full Tilt I started with Signblaser years ago! It was a great starter program in its time. The problem with purchasing sign hardware(cutter, ect) is the software! All of them need different software,color profiles, color meters, ect. OK you have a cutter, Do you have a real vector program like corel draw or adobe illustrator? If you have corel you can cut straight out of corel with signtools 3 a corel addon. Believe me, learning new hardware, software combos is a never ending battle. Good luck Bruce

I do it dry, both layers. Winter, wet with rapid tack 2, it goes to minus 60 here and the only thing to make decals stick in the cold is rapid tack 2. Squegee angle is the best way to eliminate bubbles, wet r dry.

Check out vector magic. It is real simple!

I would have sent them down the road to the flea market! Three color layout with cut vinyl for $6 is crazy and a PITA! You should have let them know your shop min. is $45 or what ever it is.

I agree with SA 1000%. Never apply any wrap material wet. It will in time disolve the adhesive and fall badly. Get in doors out of the wind, wrap material is way easier to apply at a steady temp.. You will learn a feel for it. Stroke from the middle to the outside of your panels. When you get wrinkles pull it off and apply just enough heat to form it back, then reapply. Never tent or stretch it over a concaved area. Push the vinyl in. Try to not stretch the vinyl, only apply heat until it looks like glass then squeegee. If you have had to stretch any area make sure you post heat so the vinyl will lose memory. Justine Pate has great videos, or take one of the mmm courses. Good Luck, you will get there!

My neck off the woods $20 in material based on 24" 651 and med tack pre mask for $220 yes I would do that all day! 1/2 hour install if they are all there at 1 time(rare). Bonus he let you tag his limos, WOW!

Sounds like you need sublimation, but post a pic of what you need.

Nice choice of colors.

Nice Job!

Here is a link to my facebook page with some of my recent recent work. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/We-do-signs-inc/114901905219341 Cheers Bruce

Yes start up costs are high. The learning curve is intense. You will need the printer of coarse(used $7500), a laminator ($4000), Rip software($4000 and up) an i1 color meter($2000). Once you have the equipment it will take you about a year to learn how to start putting out consitant color. If you are going to do wraps I would suggest training from 3m, or at the very least Justin pate videos. Also wrap your own vehicle first to make sure you can do it. Oh ya, you will need a tech at $300 per hour if you are not using the printer everyday. They like to clog up and if you don't have perfect test prints your color will be off. You can always outsource untill you have the need for your own equipment.

I use 2 magnetic tape measures(1 foot long), place them vertical and horizontal on the side of the vehicle. Take a pic load it into photoshop, illy, or coral. Scale to the tape measure. You now have a perfect template that you can design from. All those templates that are out there are not accurate. The even put it in their disclaimers. The hood you may even use knifeless tape so that you make sure it lines up to the sides. Cheers Bruce

Thanks for the welcome backs!

I checked out your site. You do amazing time consuming work!