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My first knifeless tape job

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It wasn't exactly how I would have laid out the stripes, but that's the way the customer wanted them.

kt2.jpg

kt3.jpg

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The knifeless tape worked great however I used Oracal 751 and did a wet install which made it more difficult to use the tape. When the tape gets wet it's really hard to get started pulling it, the little filament wants to separate from the tape instead of pulling straight through it. The corners of the vinyl also have to be stuck down really good or else they'll move and the tape will cut crooked in the corners. Other than that, when I was able to keep the tape dry, it worked just like it does in the videos. Easy peasy!

The moral of the story is that I really should have used wrap vinyl with a dry install. I wasn't prepared. The customer called wanting a racing stripe and I asked if two 8 inch stripes with a 1 inch gap between them sounded good and they said yes. I cut that on my plotter but when I showed up that's not what they wanted at all. I had the tape and the roll of matte black with me so I tried it.

It's definitely worth using knifeless tape a little bit to get used to it. I'm certainly no pro at it now but I think I could redo that car in half the time and I'm remembering other jobs where I should have used the knifeless tape in the past, but didn't because I had never used it and wasn't sure how well it would do.

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Thanks for the update and info. Do you think you could make a very careful cut at the point you want it to start? I am picturing one right beside the filament about 1/2" to give it a good start. Some day I will try this stuff out. 

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11 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

Thanks for the update and info. Do you think you could make a very careful cut at the point you want it to start? I am picturing one right beside the filament about 1/2" to give it a good start. Some day I will try this stuff out. 

I should have clarified that the problems with the corners were at the end of the cut, not the beginning. For the initial cut, I would put two fingers on each side of the vinyl and give the filament a tug and it cut like a charm but when I got to the end, the corners of the vinyl weren't stuck good because I did it wet and they would lift up and the filament wouldn't cut them straight. I quickly learned to hold the corners down at the end of the cut too.

But this only happened because I did a wet install. A dry install with wrap vinyl would be super easy.

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I did another small knifeless tape job today. We repainted the quarter panel on this Fiat 500 and had to replace that one piece of the stripe. Normally I would have labored over the plotter and tested it with the pen attachment until I got the dimensions just right and finally cut the vinyl to be a perfect match, but I decided to have a little fun and cut the "500" lettering out of a rectangle of black 3M wrap vinyl, put it on the car, and used knifeless tape to cut out the proper shape. I put some transfer paper over the "500" to help get it on the car, worked out the wrinkles, and pulled the tape. It worked great.

Ready to rip:

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After the cut:

500-2.jpg

 

Peeling the extra:

500-3.jpg

 

Finished:

500-4.jpg

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I'm interested. Thanks for the heads up on this knifeless tape. I keep forgetting about it...I need to pick up a roll

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Here's another one I did last week. We painted the hood on it so that's the only stripes I had to replace. I used Avery wrap and Langeman Wrapcut on this one, that's why the tape is red instead of the Knifeless Tape's green color.

 

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The Wrapcut worked just as well as 3M. The only real difference is that the filament is near the edge of the tape instead of the middle. I had a harder time starting the pull with it at the edge as opposed to 3M filament which is in the middle, but I think it'll be fine with more practice.

It stayed on the car even when I lifted and repositioned the vinyl several times and made a nice clean cut. All in all it seemed fine. I don't think I've used either enough to have a preference but Wrapcut is half the price of 3M so I think I'm going to keep play with the different Wrapcut and 3M tapes and see which I like for different things.

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I've tried both knifeless and wrapcut.  The shop stocks wrapcut because of the cost but for accuracy and the cleanest edge I use knifeless.  (Commercial wraps vs consumer wraps)

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