Why am I getting bubbles in the vinyl?

[der maler 0]

Hi everyone, I have a question I recently was doing a rear window sign. It was just one color/layer, I did it on three vehicles two in white and one in silver vinyl. the entire size was 47" wide x 15" high all text 3" lettering.

The two I did in white are perfect but the silver one has a lot of bubbles I am not experienced enough to know; Is there a difference in white and colored vinyl?  or the only other thing I can think of is that the window that they wanted in silver has a pretty good curve of it vs. the two white ones which are on truck windows very flat. Because of this curve I put it on in sections on the car it was easier than trying to do one large decal on the curved window.

Any help or suggestions to help me prevent this in the future would be much appreciated. I also want to do over the parts of the sign that have the bubbles for my customer.

Thanks

[Guest fivestar]

What type of vinyl did you use?  Is it tiny bubble?  Did you do it dry or wet?

[stormy 5]

Dry + Windows = Bubbles

More common in colors, especially silver and gold.

[der maler 0]

The vinyl I used was just some stuff I bought on ebay not the best quality I'm sure and I did apply the decal dry. I didn't think I could apply it to a wet surface because of the adhesive. Is that my issue do I need to wet the surface position the decal and then squeegee it.

[stormy 5]

Yep. Go to DG and get a bottle of wintergreen isopropyl alcohol and a 32 oz spray bottle. Mix 4oz of alcohol, a couple drops of dish soap, and fill the rest with water.

Clean window with alcohol. Spray window with solution. Apply and position vinyl. Squeegee all solution out from underneath of vinyl. Let sit for 2 minutes. Spray top of app tape with solution. Peel away app tape. You should be left with no bubbles.

Wintergreen is just a personal preference. Do not use clear tape.

[stormy 5]

added note: There are probably some youtube videos of this process.

[der maler 0]

Awesome, thank you so much for help Stormy I really appreciate it.

[cutme 5]

i like this video from tap plastics. although i had no idea they were in the sign vinyl buisseness.

bb

[cutme 5]

this is some amazing stuff!

bb

[der maler 0]

Awesome videos!! thank you so much. Everybody in this forum has been so helpful, hopefully some day I will be experienced enough to help out other new people starting in this business.

Thanks Again,

Dom

[Big-Kid 0]

So this "recipe" is pretty standard?  ......bottle of wintergreen isopropyl alcohol and a 32 oz spray bottle. Mix 4oz of alcohol, a couple drops of dish soap, and fill the rest with water

And can some explain why or how the clear app tape is not as desired (or won't work well) as much as the white app tape?  Thanks

[haumana 1,220]

clear tape is plastic. the "white" tape is paper tape, so when you do a wet application the paper tape will release (after being sprayed).

stormy's solution is pretty standard. There are a few other application fluid recipes listed, but it's all just about the same.

[mortalimmortal 7]

Paper tape can cause bubble is pull and stretched when applying to the top of vinyl.

[Big-Kid 0]

grgrgrgr ........'kay, they didn't tell me about that difference between the clear and white when I asked BEFORE I bought a big old roll.  Okay, live-n-learn.  

I've cut & weeded a bunch of decals.  Only had the chance to apply 3 or 4 so far.  Most of them went down fine.  I did notice that one of them really stuck to the clear app tape I have.  I just backed up and squeeged it more and it came off okay.  I figured I would need to do more of the wet application to prevent that from happening, but I guess I also picked up the wrong app tape .......oh boy.  

[haumana 1,220]

grgrgrgr ........'kay, they didn't tell me about that difference between the clear and white when I asked BEFORE I bought a big old roll.  Okay, live-n-learn. 

I've cut & weeded a bunch of decals.  Only had the chance to apply 3 or 4 so far.  Most of them went down fine.  I did notice that one of them really stuck to the clear app tape I have.  I just backed up and squeeged it more and it came off okay.  I figured I would need to do more of the wet application to prevent that from happening, but I guess I also picked up the wrong app tape .......oh boy. 

If the stuff you're cutting is pretty small in size, then the clear app tape will work just fine. It's when you get to the bigger stuff that can become more difficult. A wet application will buy you more time, and the adhesive is pressure sensitive, so unless you start to press down on the vinyl, you'll have a little time for final placement.

[Big-Kid 0]

Mahalo's 

[signman911 1]

One thing you have to remember when doing vinyl on glass dry , the glass as to be the right temp.

make sure the glass is not to hot when you do vinyl dry on it .I always do glass in the shade.

[cyndipurple 0]

Does this solution work when placing the vinyl on a race car? Should I be using paper or clear tape. I have been using paper and didnt clean with alcohol first.

[OWJones 1,981]

If you're applying vinyl to a car, I recommend using Rapid Prep as a cleaner. It strips away wax, silicon, oil, dead bugs, all sorts of crap that can interfere with good adhesion, and so far I have not seen it have any ill effects on paint or glass. I bought a gallon jug on ebay for $30 including S&H and I use it to clean everything before applying vinyl.

I have tried exactly one wet installation and that was before I knew to use paper tape - it took 2 hours of finagling to finally get the app tape off and leave the vinyl behind - the liquid simply can't evaporate from behind the plastic tape, so you have to peel up a little bit at a time, let it dry, peel a little more, etc. It was a disaster, but luckily it wasn't for a customer so no one else was there to see it.