Company Signs

[Streakn1]

Wanting to know if anyone else has run into this problem:

Our signs were put on our truck when it was new in 2001. First they began cracking around the box rivets about two years ago. Then more recently they began cracking all over (like antiquing), first the darker letters followed by the lighter blue ones. We let it go for awhile before finally deciding to just have the signs removed from the box and have it buffed. Approximate cost $250- $400. Wrong!

We put our truck in a reputable paint and body shop only to be told it would look better to repaint the box.$1600.00 quote. We were fine with that.Wrong!What was to be 8-hours labor removing the signs,and 12-hours labor cleaning and sanding the area the signs once occupied,then painting the box became 16-hours labor stripping the whole box down to the bare aluminum,plus 12-hours labor repriming the whole box,and applying two coats of high grade enamel. Obviously the price went through the roof and the truck will be in the shop another 3-days.

This is on a Kidron Reefer box. Appearently the glue used on the signs ate into the paint and caused it to crack the paint down to the bare aluminum,thus requiring that the box be stripped.Yet,
everywhere else the paint looked new.Our paint guy said in his 20-years in business painting commercial vehicles and trailers he's never seen anything like it.The glue was so hard they could hardly get the letters to peel off! When they did peel, they took the paint with it.

You can bet after this experience we won't ever let anyone else put signs on our box! I'll give em the cab doors.x(

 

[greg334]

Streakn1
sounds like the people who did the paint work didn't know how to do the work. There are a lot of products that will take off the decals, adhesive and the paint so to have the box ready for a good primer, one is a great aircraft paint remover, Spurce aircraft supplies sell it. I use it to remove epoxy paint and powdercoating from parts.

I had to deal with this with some of my used trucks and the guy who did the paint work striped it all off with this stuff within 2 or 3 hours and had the primer applied and the truck ready to paint the next day. Mind you the surface area was a bit smaller (not much though) but the decals were on some trucks for 5 years before I got them.

 

[Streakn1]

You may be right! He is a large well established business here in Fl and has long standing paint and repair contracts with the City,County, State,and also with some of the large food service corporations in our area.He is also the Kidron repair and service location for our area. With a bio like that you would think you're in the best of hands.We've had work done by him before and it was of highest quality.We feel we will get the same again, just wished it was'nt taking so long!

 

[Streakn1]

Well, we got our truck out of the paint shop Monday afternoon. Although we lost an additional week's revenue waiting on it it was worth the wait. It looks great!

We got a suprise when we picked it up.The original work order was for them to strip the lettering off the sides of the box,prime and repaint them, plus buff the rear doors.We planned on leaving them identified. Instead they de-identified the whole box and stripped it.Then they primed and put 3-coats of high grade enamel on it.When they realized they were'nt supposed to strip and paint the doors they dropped the total bill back to the original quote.The rear doors were part of the additional labor that delayed the Friday delivery.After seeing it we're glad they did the doors to!