Recently we were contacted by Germantown Truck Rental to apply cut graphics to a host of like new vehicles. The trucks varied from 16' to 24' in length. Unfortunately, the customer didn't have their artwork from the previous sign shop so it would require us to recreate the graphics and color match the other trucks in the fleet. And that is where it got interesting.
When the first truck arrived, we noticed that the box had been recently painted. Because some types of paint off-gas for up to 5 days, we had to check to see what kind of paint was used and how they cured the paint. One call to the body shop that did the work and we were good to go. When we tried to match the font, we noticed that the font was a proprietary font that Apple has on all of their design computers. This made matching the font more difficult, but not outside of what Optimum Signs does. We also noticed that the main color wasn't a true blue but rather a blue that had elements of three different blues within it. Again, nothing we haven't seen before. Now that we matched the font and color, we have a truck that has been prepared to take the vinyl. All that was left was to measure the truck a second time to make sure that all our measurements were correct, and print the vinyl.
Our platform, the HP Latex 360 has the capacity to hit almost 3.2 trillion colors which makes it the perfect printer to create jobs like this. After 30 minutes we were ready to move the print to the Graphtec optical cutter. Another 20 minutes, and we were applying the application tape and preparing for installation.
The installation went very well. Even when we realized that the box of the truck had very pronounced rivets that landed in the middle of the vinyl. Most companies heat and stretch the vinyl to cover the rivet. This gives the vinyl a chance to lose adhesion and tent around the rivet. We hand cut along the base of the rivet to prevent this from happening. It takes longer to complete the installation but this is the right way to do this kind of install. Once all the vinyl was applied, a last blast of heat from a heat gun to seal the edges and the truck was ready to present to our customer.
If you need to rent a truck to move your home or business, give Jamie a call at Germantown Truck Rental. If you have a truck that needs lettering or a complete wrap, Optimum Signs is here to help. Give us a call at 262.289.9481 or email at info@optimumsignswi.com.
Cut Graphics for 16' Box Truck for Germantown Truck Rental, Germantown WI
SYNOPSIS: Recently we were contacted by Germantown Truck Rental to apply cut graphics to a host of like new vehicles. The trucks varied from 16' to 24' in length. Unfortunately, the customer didn't have their artwork from the previous sign shop so it would r
Cut graphics outfit rental fleet without original artwork
BY: ,
Recently we were contacted by Germantown Truck Rental to apply cut graphics to a host of like new vehicles. The trucks varied from 16' to 24' in length. Unfortunately, the customer didn't have their artwork from the previous sign shop so it would require us to recreate the graphics and color match the other trucks in the fleet. And that is where it got interesting.
When the first truck arrived, we noticed that the box had been recently painted. Because some types of paint off-gas for up to 5 days, we had to check to see what kind of paint was used and how they cured the paint. One call to the body shop that did the work and we were good to go. When we tried to match the font, we noticed that the font was a proprietary font that Apple has on all of their design computers. This made matching the font more difficult, but not outside of what Optimum Signs does. We also noticed that the main color wasn't a true blue but rather a blue that had elements of three different blues within it. Again, nothing we haven't seen before. Now that we matched the font and color, we have a truck that has been prepared to take the vinyl. All that was left was to measure the truck a second time to make sure that all our measurements were correct, and print the vinyl.
Our platform, the HP Latex 360 has the capacity to hit almost 3.2 trillion colors which makes it the perfect printer to create jobs like this. After 30 minutes we were ready to move the print to the Graphtec optical cutter. Another 20 minutes, and we were applying the application tape and preparing for installation.
The installation went very well. Even when we realized that the box of the truck had very pronounced rivets that landed in the middle of the vinyl. Most companies heat and stretch the vinyl to cover the rivet. This gives the vinyl a chance to lose adhesion and tent around the rivet. We hand cut along the base of the rivet to prevent this from happening. It takes longer to complete the installation but this is the right way to do this kind of install. Once all the vinyl was applied, a last blast of heat from a heat gun to seal the edges and the truck was ready to present to our customer.
If you need to rent a truck to move your home or business, give Jamie a call at Germantown Truck Rental. If you have a truck that needs lettering or a complete wrap, Optimum Signs is here to help. Give us a call at 262.289.9481 or email at info@optimumsignswi.com.
