Vinyl Decorative Stripes and Decals
A brief history and explanation of quality specifications
"It's not enough that stripes made for your car are labeled “3M” on the backing paper or vinyl. All grades will have that, from bumper sticker to premium."
3M company introduced vinyl adhesive decorative materials in 1950. They were related to 3M Scotch tape. The basic technology of vinyl tapes continues, but huge improvements have been made in appearance, durability, ease of application, and selection, since 1950.
The first American car to use vinyl decorative striping was the 1964½ Ford Mustang. Chrysler did not offer vehicles with vinyl stripes until 1968. Prior to this, all Mopar factory stripes were painted on at the assembly plant.
Chrysler used 3M for exterior decorative vinyl decals and striping throughout the muscle car era. Fasson (Fascal) made decals like the 1969 air box “Ramcharger” and “Air Grabber” decorations, and possibly made the cars’ instructional vinyl decals.
At least half a dozen major makers of decorative vinyl adhesive exist today. All of them make products in this field that range from short-term durability bumper sticker vinyl to Department of Transportation vehicles / road sign vinyl that must last for many years, with little aging.
3M vinyl used for automotive decorative striping in the muscle car era, and today, are in the category of Commercial Graphics. The standard of quality for durability of the vinyl’s appearance is “Unprocessed Exterior Durability.” This means vinyl color fastness, cracking, peeling, shrinking, but not printing of colors on vinyl.
The 3M standard for “Premium” Commercial / Automotive vinyl was, and is, 6 years for nonreflective and nonfluorescent colors. Reflective “Premium” standard is 5-6 years, and fluorescent standard is 2 years. If lower grade material is used, those standards fall dramatically, by 50% or more.
The sun is the great enemy of vinyl striping and decals, even when top quality material is used. Quality decals and stripes will last much longer on cars kept in a garage, not driven on roads with salt on them, and mostly kept out of the sun.
It is not enough that the stripe material made for your car is labeled “3M” on the backing paper or vinyl. All grades will have that, from bumper sticker to premium. But no grade of vinyl is labeled for quality level.
The muscle car era of 3M non-reflective stripe material was the 3650 Scotchcal series of premium. It was 2 mil thick, meaning 2-thousandths of an inch thick, measured without the adhesive, without the backing paper, and without the carrier paper. The 3650 series used a paper backing; it is still available, but only in black and white.
The current, much-improved Premium 3M vinyl for commercial / automotive is 7725 Scotchcal series. It is the same vinyl as 3650, but has improved adhesive, and a plastic backing, instead of paper backing. This eliminates the problem of the stripe picking up a layer of paper backing when the backing is removed, which was a serious problem of 3650 series.
The vinyl-only thickness of 7725 is also 2 mil, just like 3650. The overall thickness with vinyl-adhesive-plastic is 3-4 mil. That has not changed. 7725 series is made in most of the Dodge and Plymouth stripe colors, except a very few rare ones.
3M Scotchcal automotive / commercial vinyl has a unique texture and appearance that is not present on other brands, or on lower grades of 3M. It just “looks right” because it is correct.
“Thick” non-reflective vinyl, meaning 4 mil thick without the adhesive-plastic / paper, must never be used on automotive exteriors. It has several inferior qualities. Each vinyl material manufacturer sells the thick material, and none is recommended for long term automotive use. Most of it is not gasoline resistant.
“Thick” non-reflective vinyl is “calendered” material, meaning that a large ball of vinyl is squeezed through progressively higher pressure rollers until it is 4 mil thick. This method causes the vinyl to have a “memory”, and it will always, even when applied to the car, want to shrink inwards towards the center.
Correct vinyl 40 years ago, and today, is “cast” material. The vinyl is poured into an extremely precise mould, where it solidifies to 2mil. There is no memory shrinkage with cast vinyl. All Premium Commercial / Automotive vinyl made by 3M is cast vinyl.
The real reason for using calendered vinyl is cost. A 24 inch-by-50 yard roll of calendered vinyl is $104.78. The same size cast vinyl roll costs $367.22. The car owner is fooled into buying an inferior stripe / decal, while the stripe cutter / printer pockets the big difference in material cost.
3M Comply vinyl has air channels, or ribs, which allow it to be applied without using liquid, and it can be applied over rivet heads. It is intended for customers of large and small decals, who have little or no experience applying them. The ribs will always show, and nothing will make them go away after the vinyl is installed. Touching the adhesive will reduce its adhesion. This peel 'n' press corrugated vinyl is incorrect in appearance for all automotive purposes.
Reflective Premium Commercial / Automotive vinyl by 3M has also had improvement over the past 40 years. Its old product number was 580 series. Plastic backing is just being introduced, and the 680 series now has a user-friendly feature. The decal or stripe is repositionable until squeegeed, even when using the recommended water / soap / spray window cleaner.
Reflective material was made by very precisely aligning tiny aluminum shavings in the vinyl. Now glass beads are used, for better reflectivity, while keeping the original appearance.
All Premium vinyl that is reflective is much thicker than premium non-reflective. It measures 6-7 mil without the adhesive. 3M Scotchlite is the name of Premium reflective material. It costs $1,195.00 for a 24 inch-by-50 yard roll. The inferior grades from 3M, or anyone else, cost much less.
3M also makes a Premium vinyl that is just like 7725 series; it is called 220 series. It has an edge-punched paper backing, for use in cutting machines with cogged material-guidance wheels.
Two years ago, an extremely thin, durable vinyl was introduced by Graphics Fusion Company. It is called “Nanostrate”, and is only 25 microns thick. That is 7 times thinner than 7725 material. It is now used on planes, boats, Indy racecars, and custom cars. It is likely to be the future standard.
The original matte black vinyl striping on 1970-73 Mopar muscle cars was a unique material called DiNoc, made by 3M. It had a fine, but noticeable texture, and a very flat sheen. DiNoc has not been available in an automotive grade since then. It was 2 mil thick.
In about 1973, dealer replacement stripes for cars that originally used DiNoc flat black were available only as one-side-of-the-car replacements. The replacement matte black was not as flat a sheen, nor as textured. So the entire side stripe had to be changed.
Date codes on original stripe boxes will help you find original DiNoc material. Some of it is labeled as such, but some is not. If the date code is something like 3309, that is the 330th day of 1969, and that dealer replacement stripe will indeed be DiNoc.
© Performance Car Graphics 2008