Greenstar White, adhesive separation issues anyone?

[kart45 6]

I've been using the Greenstar vinyl for a couple months now without any issue both on vehicles/racecars and some light/temp storefront installations. I recently ordered up a 24" x 10yd roll of white for a tailgate rig and experienced something I hope to never experience again on an install.

This was on an older GM Step Van that had a nice orange paint job. I prepped using Rapid Prep, then Rapid Tac II (the green stuff) for final prep clean. I applied the white vinyl using Rapid Tac II, Greenstar White and Greenstar paper app tape. Should be textbook, right 

Well as I started to conform around some molding, I squeegeed and squeegeed without much luck. My fingers started to get sticky. What I thought were bubbles of application fluid were in fact gobs of adhesive being pushed out from under the vinyl/tape. Luckily I was able to remove the tape enough to apply heat to the surface and vinyl (by the way, ambient temp was mid 80's and surface temp was within +/- 10 degrees of that. Low humidity, partial shade)

The heat helped but I was left with a mess of bubbly white vinyl which was the base for the rest of the color graphics to lay on, and of course, 12 hrs. until ESPN Gameday rolled into town... I have Oracal on order to replace this, to hopefully keep the customer happy.

So long story short, has anyone else had any trouble with Greenstar, white in particular? I haven't had any trouble with any of the other colors except for this roll of white. I kinda thought the adhesive felt a little different, and a little less tacky on the white. I sold a rear window graphic to a kid prior to producing this tailgate rig and he called asking for a 're-do' cause it didn't stick. He installed it dry on a slider rear window and said he didn't clean the glass very well so I just wrote it off to bad cleaning on his part, but now it starts to make more sense after seeing this.

I just spoke to USCutter support and they are sending another roll, so we'll see how it goes with the new stuff. Benjamin was nice on the phone and shipped the roll no questions asked, which is nice.

I know you get what you pay for, typically I'm a 3M or Oracal guy myself for anything thats going to be installed out in the elements permanently. I'm interested to hear back if anyone else has experienced anything like this with Greenstar Vinyl. 

[robochan 0]

i have used whole role of white no issues. have some on trucks and race cars.

[kart45 6]

Thanks for the response robo...

Hopefully this is an isolated instance, the Greenstar line has been a great alternative for me and I hope to continue using it.

Guess we'll see when the replacement roll shows up. In the meantime 651 is still rollin' 

[roxanneupnorth 106]

Greenstar is 8 cents a square foot less than Oracal 651.....About 25%......That looks very appealing, however, it only comes in 25 colours....So if you are doing an multi colour design do you mix the brands?....From what I have read that is a bad idea.....And does not have the life span that Oracal has.....So to me it is best to just use Oracal....

[john! 1]

Just go with a reputable brand man, oracal or avery. That's all i use and have used for 5 years with NO PROBLEMS. $.8 is nothing to get a headache over installing.

[kart45 6]

LOL thats rare that I hear "reputable brand" and "Avery" in that context... generally the phrase "is not a" is inserted in the middle of those.

Either way - thanks to everyone for the input. 

[hawkeyeent 0]

I've worked in sign shops that use Universal Products... which is an Avery brand. It is great vinyl... however, I use Oracal now for cost and bc more suppliers carry it. Other than that, I find that Avery makes a to-notch premium vinyl

[john! 1]

Yeah Avery is a good brand.  It only has a bad rep due to them having a few bad batches a few years back. It happens to everyone so don't cancel them out.

I've used Avery for 5+ years with VERY good results. Oracal i only use for white, black since it weeds better and digital media.