TomA

Spray Paint ON TOP OF vinyl

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Are there any issues with spray painting ON TOP of vinyl? Is this advisable? I have requested information from Oracal but have not received a reply. So I thought I'd ask here.

 

Clear cast acrylic lens material, reverse cut vinyl applied and then enamel paint sprayed on top of the vinyl and acrylic. The lens would then be adhered using VHB tape to a substrate such as ACM/Sintra. (The painted side of the clear lens would then be adhered to the substrate.) Concern being the paint may crack/shrink when exposed to sun. And/or discolor/damage the vinyl.

 

Insight greatly appreciated. Thank you!

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although I haven't done it in years back when Krylon came out with their fusion paint for plastics we experimented with fades using it on vinyl with good results - then came the solvent printers that were much better and easier option

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I can't offer any advise on paint, but I'd love to see a photo of your final product if/when you make it. Got me curious as to what exactly you're doing. :)

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This is ACM board that's been painted - white on top, bronze on bottom. The black, gold, and white vinyl applied on top of the paint. Works fine, looks good. Now imagine a clear lens material with the vinyl reversed cut and applied. Then the top half painted white, and bottom painted bronze with gold vinyl strip in between. The clear lens was then secured to an unpainted piece of ACM. So the thinking was it may give a 'cleaner' surface look. But the concern is having vinyl and paint sandwiched between the lens and ACM board. How would the vinyl react being coated in paint? Not to mention sandwiched under a lens. We can outsource this job easily enough for vinyl printing but thought this idea might be viable. Opinion? Thank you very much.

 

IMG_3355.JPG

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P99, Acrylite by Evonix. It's a cast non-glare sheet from which we cut insert coverings in our sign holders. Sorry, I should have specified. Thank you!

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I personally would just stick with what you have. Or if you really want the Acrylic, why not just put it on top of the sign? Mirror cutting and sticking to the inside of a window is usually not recommended as the glue breaks down from the UV light. I'm assuming you'd have the same issues with acrylic. Also, when you look at the glue side you can see every little bubble that you were not able to work out. From the other side those tiny bubbles go unnoticed but they really stand out on the inside.

Now if you're wanting the matte finish and not gloss you obviously can get matte paint, but you can also get select colors of vinyl in a matte finish. Black and White are easy to find. Gold might be hard, but it's a simple straight line, you could easily paint that portion and just use vinyl for the words.

If your goal is to make the signs more durable, for the cost of the acrylic you could make 2 or 3 more signs, so you could just make a bunch of extra and have them on hand to replace ones that start to look worn.

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You can spray clear coat over vinyl. I've done it several times with vehicles, but after I applied the vinyl, it was professional automotive painters using PPG clearcoat that applied the clear coat. It's may not be something you'd want to do yourself.

I don't know what it does in the long term, but in theory the clear coat protects the vinyl and it more or less lasts forever. I was putting factory decals on an older Honda motorcycle last week and happened to glance at the instructions and noted that they actually recommended that once the decals were installed, the bike be taken to a body shop to have the decals cleared over for longevity, so I guess Honda believes in that theory too.

It looks great. It shines and if you feel of it or look very closely, the vinyl becomes gentle raised letters that seem to be melded into the substrate (because it kinda is!). I think it would do what you're looking for without flipping the vinyl and painting the Acrylite. Something about painting a clear material like Acrylite bugs me. My instincts tell me paint wouldn't last as long on a clear material, but I have zero experience doing it so I could be wrong.

 

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Are you talking applying the reverse vinyl to the back side of the clear panel then spraying the back side to create the background. This would leave the clear plastic in front. I think the paint would adhere better to the plastic surface than wood. You wouldn't have moisture getting into the wood causing expansion/contraction. Any bubbles would be visible in the clear though. 

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