Can you laminate a vinyl sticker under gloss?

General Discussion
1

I have a large sticker I want to laminate on my longboard when I glass it. I’m thinking the easiest thing to do would be to actually stick the sticker onto the sanded hotcoat and then just do a normal gloss coat. Anyone see any problems with that? Just curious as to if there’d be any strange reaction between the gloss resin and a vinyl sticker…Thanks.

2

Don’t do it. I think you’ll have problems. They never seem to lay down well. I’ve done it, but never been really happy with the results.

3

Ahmmm- if you’re doing it with polyester, the volatile styrenes in it might react with the adhesive to give you bubbling and such, dunno about epoxy.

But I think the real problem would be in the relatively impermeable nature of the vinyl itself with any resin. See, the resin won’t bond with the other resin ( or foam, if you were to stick it under the lam coat ) and basicly what you have is a built-in delam from the get-go. On top of hotcoat, under gloss, I’d expect the gloss to come off in a sheet-like segment. These are different than the old decals, which were at least a little permeable.

Then you have the thickness of the thing - not a lot, but it’ll definitely mess with your gloss finish.

So, what are your options?

My move, if you absolutely had to have the sticker graphic under resin somehow, might be to run it through a good scanner and then print it out on rice paper or something very similar, that resin will soak through easily. That will bond okay.

Option B? Well, it is a sticker, after all… just stick it onto the gloss after the board’s done…

hope that’s of use

doc…

4

I would imagine you might find it will raise the gloss and become very thin, easy to sand through! Also as the gloss flattens it will tend to run from the center of the board over the rails, especially the deck this will make the sticker obvious as a raised area. I suppose it depends on thickness of the sticker and placement. Why not lay it under the hot coat.

TM

5

All good point…Thanks. It’s not thqat big of a deal, just htought it would look nice. I can always just stick it on the board if I want it on there I guess…Hey, at least I learned something today.

6
Quote:

Hey, at least I learned something today.

Man, that makes it a very good day.

best regards

doc…

7

you can also use some acrylic clear coat to protect it. i guess you;d need an airbrush too though. or just get a rattle can of krylon’s clear gloss maybe?