Vinyl wrapping for airplanes vs painting

Fracpilot

Fracpilot

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Fracpilot
Has anyone done the vinyl wrapping for airplanes? It’s seems the avg cost to paint a 310 has increased $6-8k in the past 9 months. I don’t have to have a paint job now and can afford to wait it out.

I’m saw there is a company that vinyl wraps airplanes instead of painting them. Of course I’d like to have my planes surface corrosion treated first before wrapping it. Has anyone done this or have any recommendations about it?

Thanks in advance!


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Weight is a huge concern. Have you looked into that aspect of it?
 
Vinyl burns pretty well. I'd ask at your local FSDO.
 
I believe there have been problems with corrosion around rivet heads. They create a bubble where moisture, perhaps from inside, can find its way along the rivet and into that bubble and stay there and do damage.
 
Dan Thomas said:
I believe there have been problems with corrosion around rivet heads. They create a bubble where moisture, perhaps from inside, can find its way along the rivet and into that bubble and stay there and do damage.
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Corrosion is the big risk. Moisture seeps under an edge of the vinyl, creates corrosion, and the corrosion creeps further from there. You need epoxy primer or paint under the vinyl to avoid this.
 
Fracpilot said:
Of course I’d like to have my planes surface corrosion treated first before wrapping it.
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Are you talking about a TC'd aircraft or E/AB? Wrapping is not a replacement for paint in most cases. Some new E/AB-LSA aircraft use it but for existing TC's aircraft it can be problematic. If your paint is not in good shape or you have corrosion issues, wrapping can worsen the problem especially when you go to remove it. Plus it has a finite life. In addition, wrapping an entire aircraft requires additional approval vs simply adding accents, etc. There have been several PoA threads on this that go into more detail, along with the current guidance which I can't post at the moment. But if you do pursue this on a TC'd aircraft be sure your APIA is on board and the installation vendor understands the existing guidance and only uses aviation grade vinyl products.
 
In 2015 I got a price quote to wrap my plane while I was also getting quotes for painting. Wrapping was going to cost just as much as painting for a full wrap. As others have alluded to, wrapping only hides your ugly existing paint and is very questionable concerning corrosion underneath. I saw no advantage at that time to wrap a plane with the cost being so high. Also, as stated above in a previous post, you need to consider the weight gain of the wrap. When your plane is painted the old paint is removed and there is no net weight gain. I have been really happy with my paint job and feel like I made the right call for me. I think there is a place for vinyl on airplanes if you want to do some special limited graphics that would either be difficult or impossible to achieve in paint. I just don’t think full wraps are a good idea.
 
MickYoumans said:
In 2015 I got a price quote to wrap my plane while I was also getting quotes for painting. Wrapping was going to cost just as much as painting for a full wrap. As others have alluded to, wrapping only hides your ugly existing paint and is very questionable concerning corrosion underneath. I saw no advantage at that time to wrap a plane with the cost being so high. Also, as stated above in a previous post, you need to consider the weight gain of the wrap. When your plane is painted the old paint is removed and there is no net weight gain. I have been really happy with my paint job and feel like I made the right call for me. I think there is a place for vinyl on airplanes if you want to do some special limited graphics that would either be difficult or impossible to achieve in paint. I just don’t think full wraps are a good idea.
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Thank you. Exactly what I was looking for.


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We experimented with wrapping an F-16 and a C-130. Paint won out.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
What about a hybrid approach, just painting a plane all white, which would be the cheapest paint job possible. Then use vinyl lettering for N numbers and some stripes?
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Look at any newish Cessna. I think that is how they come from the factory.
 
Wrapping has gotten so expensive It's not worth it unless you want a very elaborate paint job or advertisements all over your airplane. Different colors and complex patterns can easily double the cost of a paint job in labor. That's when a wrap really shines. Otherwise I would avoid them other than maybe using them for accents.
 
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