I had a highly recommended striper put stripes on my car yesterday - dark blue on a White GT. He worked in the dealer's prep area, so the car was warm, and I was told he put the stripes on dry.

I saw some previous stripes he did on other 05 GTs, and they were flawless.

However, when I went to pick up the car from the dealer, a couple of people mentioned the number of bubbles in the stripes, and yes, there are quite a few tiny ones.

Will these disappear, or what has to be done here? Right now the car is at home, sitting outside in this winter weather, but will go into storage (air temperature, not heated) asap, until I can drive it on decent roads.

Help!

 

It depends, most of the time yes the small bubbles will disappear. But if he put the stripes on dry there souldn't be any bubbles. The vinyl does cure a bit before finally settling. I would ask your striper, although it will almost certainly be fine, check with him before it is too late. Even if some small bubbles remain you can poke a fine hole in them and smooth them down.

 

I would take it back.
I have poked the bubbles in the past and within a few months the pin hole opens showing body color.

 

That shouldn't happen, esspecially if these were just put on. but again i would call your striper befor anything.

 

I would definantly let them know I might have a problem. I had a few small bubbles that I was concerned about, but they went away as the vinyl set.
Good Luck, I had some issues with my stripes also and ended up going and getting a part of them redone at another installer.

 

Adrenalin...aka TMS Vinyl Guru....what's your take on this situation?

 

To be fair, I spoke with the striper today, and he assured me the tiny bubbles would dissipate within a few days. Looking at the stripes (after just getting home) they do look a lot better.

He is willing to re-do any section of striping (or the whole car) if I still have a problem with them.

He did do a beautful job except for the bubbles. He stated that many customers have the same reaction as I did. I guess because I was not able to speak to him when I picked the car up, and some other people pointed out the bubbles, that was the main reason I was worried.

So, I will wait a while longer and see what happens

Thanks for all the advice, everyone.

 

I had mine striped and the tiny bubbles do go away. Try not to sweat it too much.

 

The bubbles will not go away. The reason there is bubbles is because there is air in them. This air has no where to go. You can press on the bubble and it will go away but it will come back necause the air is still there.

1st of all I would take it back to him. If you dont want to I would recommend taking a needle and punch the bubbles. Immediately press on the bubble and it will go away. You also will not be able to see the hole from the needle as long as you use a very thin one. I have done this before on stripes and it worked just fine.

 

Tum tum tum tum taaaaaa tum........

Well here comes my 2 cents worth, ok, maybe a nickel. New stripes, installed dry and bubbled. Poor bugger didn't know what he was doing. Anyway, how small are the bubbles, like the tip of a pen, a dime, etc etc. If the are very very small slowly run your hand over top of it. If it feels really hard then it is not a bubble, it is dirt underneath the vinyl. You can remove small bubbles easily by using a very sharp x-acto blacde, one of the small ones or a sewing needle, I prefer the needle (hmmmm, that doesn't sound right). You only want to put a small, and I mean very small, hole at one end of the bubble, not in the middle. Then apply pressure at the opposite end and work your way towards the hole you made. You will get rid of the bubble and seal the hole. How? Easy. Since they are already dry, when you are pressing down on the vinyl you are actually stretching it a bit. It will overlap a little where the hole was, but the overlap is so small you won't even know it happened.


If there are tons of bubbles I'd say bring it back. The guy obviously didn't know what he was doing.

 

Montrose, keep me posted. It just sounds to me that in some areas he may have used vinyl application fluid which would explain the bubbles disappearing. UNfortunately you and I are far from having hot days around here which would make them vanish even faster.

 

Thanks. Right now, after this snowstorm we've had, the car is so covered in snow and ice puddles, it's hard to see the vinyl that clearly, but the stripes do look a lot better. My striper swears they will look better in a few days, and has offered to do whatever is needed if I am not happy with them. He seems a real upright fellow, so I am sure if I am not satisfied, the situation will be resolved.

I have seen his work first hand, and he does do first-rate stripes. I'll let you know what happens. The bubbles are/were all very tiny.

Come on Spring.

 

They most likely will disappear. Since we are under another lovely cold spell right now I would not go popping any bubbles. I have seen people do this outside when it is very cold and the tiny hole does not seal properly. If it snows or rains and then freezes I have seen vinyl crack in those areas.

 

The only thing I want to pop right now is the accelerator, but that will have to wait!

Or maybe a bottle of champagne to celebrate getting such a great car.

 

Congrats on the stripes. Too bad for the bad experiance so far. I had the same happen with my window tint. They went away with the window defrosters on. I only mention that because it seems that the heat will make the air expand and shrink if not get rid of them. Good luck and nice color combo.

 

I am going to pull a little Cliff Claven here. Did you know that there is a difference between window tint and vinyl? Window tint does not allow water to evapourate throught it. The bubbles actually disappear because the water, believe it or not, evapourates through the glass. Whereas, water will evapourate through vinyl.

Go figure.

Montrose: Keep an eye on those bubbles. I know he said he installed them dry but if he didn't and there is water underneath it will freeze and crack the vinyl. You will know if this happened because it will look like a stone chip in the vinyl.

 

Thanks for the heads-up about water under the stripes. But there's so much snow on the car right now, I wouldn't be able to tell if the stripes were to fall off.