Turn Heads With Vehicle Lettering | Vehicle Graphics

The adhesive on the film needs a certain amount of time to cure after installation. In colder months with highs of up to 15 °C (about 60 °F), we recommend waiting 14 days before going through the car wash for the first time. At higher temperatures the curing process is much faster, so a car wash can be used after just 7 days.

No! The adhesives on car-wrap and lettering films do not attack the vehicle's paint layers, as long as the paint has fully cured. Be careful with freshly painted vehicles! Freshly painted parts must be at least 6 weeks old before they can be lettered or wrapped.

What's more, thanks to their UV resistance, car-wrap and lettering films act like sunblock for your vehicle's paint. On very old vehicles you could often see a kind of ghost image when the lettering was removed. But even here, the film wasn't the culprit! It was simply the surrounding paint that had faded from sun exposure. The paint under the lettering was protected from the sun and still had its original color and gloss.

Modern automotive paints – at least from German manufacturers – contain UV absorbers in the clear coat, the top layer of paint, which protect the color pigments of the base coat from fading due to sun exposure.

Absolutely! We use only films from well-known manufacturers such as ORAFOL, 3M, Avery and MacTac, all of which can be removed without residue.

For any adhesive residue that may remain, we have two special cleaners – the Avery Adhesive Remover and the Avery Surface Cleaner – which remove adhesive residue in no time. Use the Adhesive Remover to free the paint of adhesive residue, then clean the surfaces with the Surface Cleaner. Both cleaners can be ordered from our online shop.

Cut vinyl letters and full wraps are easiest to remove in direct sunlight. No heat gun in the world can warm the surfaces as evenly as the sun does. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the only option is an industrial heat gun. But watch the temperature! If the surfaces get too hot, the adhesive separates from the film and slows the job down unnecessarily.

For lettering that we applied, we charge our customers by the hour for removal. It usually doesn't take many hours, because we know our material and exactly how old the wrap is. With lettering done by others, we first need to assess the condition of the film to be removed and, if necessary, test a section in order to estimate how much time we will need.

Lettering films are relatively low-maintenance, whether on vehicles or storefront windows. Car washes can't harm vehicle graphics. And storefront windows can be cleaned with all the usual products. A little care is only needed with very delicate lettering or elements that taper to a fine point. This mainly concerns lettering on surfaces such as glass that are cleaned by hand, e.g. with a rough-surfaced sponge or paper towels. Very sharply tapered ends could be lifted this way, since the adhesive strength there is very low. However, we point this out to our customers during the design stage and after installation, since it can happen with shapes like these.