TOPIC: Bubbly Vinyl application.

I have a started a project that has turned into a mess. I have reasonable experience.
I have vinyl to apply to the sides of a car.
car is black about 5 years old, and the vinyl is white oracal 751.
I am trying a dry install, so I cleaned the car and prepped it using rapid prep.


When i weeded and masked my vinyl things looked good.
So i applied the vinyl and made sure than none of the vinyl touched the car before its time etc...
At this point it still looked ok. After I removed the masking the graphic was ridden by the dreaded bubbles. There were so many i had to remove the whole graphic. There was too many to puncture.
I haven't had this many bubbles before and don't know why.

Help please,
Cookie.

Is your squeegee in good condition, a few nicks in it wouldn't help?

The procedure I go through for prepping the surface is:

• Clean with soapy water, then rinse with clean water (do not leave any traces of soap on the surface).
• Clean away any grease using isopropyl alcohol.
• Dry the surface using clean paper towels which will not leave any small pieces behind, before the isopropyl alcohol has had a chance to evaporate.

You never mentioned cleaning the Rapid Prep off (I have never used this so I don't know what the instructions say). Don't know if this is used much in the UK.

I use kitchen roll for the final cleaning of alcohol, and not towels or rags, as even when cleaned they still hold bits of natural oil and never seem quite as good.

I think unclean surfaces shouldn't have too much to do with bubbles. I think it must be due to the technique - a damaged squeegee or a curved surface usually the reason for most bubbles.


With regards to the above comments about cleanliness - silicone in the car wax can be very hard to clean off, but again probably not the cause of significant bubbles.

Cheers for the input.

Did it a 2nd time without many problems. Only a few bubbles to prick out. My squeegee was in good nick

Did clean it again and applied it on a less hot day. It was a black car that did get a bit warm in the sun. At the time I thought it made the vinyl easier to work with and shouldn't cause a problem. Anyone reckon the heat had an effect?

Hi - Bubbles could indeed have been caused by the high temperature. Vinyl is more difficult to handle when too cold (below say below 10 degrees)(adhesive hard) or too warm (adhesive soft)(above say 20 degrees)and can resulting in excessive bubbling. Also the cleaning of the vehicle is paramount to avoid bubbles and the cleaning technique was perfectly described by Hawkesworth. (Bev - MACtac U.K.)