I've searched for this but I'm not able to find who makes a vinyl checkered flag for the roof with a cut-out for the sunroof, as in the attached pic.

help?

 

I can do that for you.

It's the same price as a roof graphic. It will still be printed for the whole roof but you can just cut out the sunroof piece and remove it if you don't want that part on there. I designed my graphic so it can be put on a roof with a sunroof and still be all one piece.

http://www.aestheticreations.net/gal...%20Sunroof.htm

Here is a link. PM if you want something

 

I also saw one on CooperFlags that covers the sunroof, but it's perforated vinyl, supposed to be almost invisible from the interior. So you still have the out the roof view but have the full width graphic on the roof. Worth looking at, IMO.


BP

 

I do that too.

 

FYI: I had a perforated sunroof flag from CooperFlags which I bought and installed last June. After 9 months, the clear vinyl over the perforated material began to peel with little perforated dots of clear vinyl coming off of the decal. It looked terrible and I removed it last week.

I contacted the new owner of CooperFlags and was informed that I had been sold a sub-standard product by the previous owner and it was not the 3M brand vinyl I had been told it was. The new owner did offer me a 15% discount on a replacement, but did not honor the 3-year warranty that the previous owner had promised. I decided that I just was not going to put myself through this again. I appreciated the offer for a small discount, but felt that I deserved a full replacement.

If I were to do it again today, I'd order from Aesthetic Creations because his website states a 3 year warranty for his genuine 3M products.

 

unfortunately the Aesthetic Creations checkered flag has larger 'checkers' and I'm partial to the smaller ones in the example pic... Would I have to go custom?

 

The checkers is no problem, if you want smaller checks then I can do that. I like to do everything possible to make my customers happy.

As for warranties on the vinyl. 3M says it is good for up to 3 years. So I will honor that as a customer satisfaction guarantee.

 

Oh, that really burns me up! Had a similar experience with a SCUBA shop. Interesting that a new owner believes they can purchase only the ASSETS of the business (customers, supplier network), but not the LIABILITIES (defective merchandise.)
You did the correct thing, IMO. If he doesn't want to accept the liability of poor merchandise, he loses the asset (customer.)

 

I agree 100%!

Just an idea - if you're going to pay the same price for the roof design minus the sunroof panels, just order the whole thing. Someone will definitely buy just the sunroof panels from you; I've seen that on a few cars. It'll save you some $ overall.

 

It doesn't quite work that way. If you're not interested in have the sunroof covered with the perforated material than it would not be included. That is a seperate print. The material that you wuld get is made for the roof without a sunroof or if you want to cover the sunroof from the sun. So once it has been put on the roof the sunroof material then has to be cut out and removed making it unusable material.

I suppose you could lay the material down and then cut out the sunroof before applying the vinyl. But it would be quite hard to get the material to line up right after that.

Unfortunatly that is the only way to get it all one piece with out using paint. When Cooper Flags sends you the material for the roof with the sunroof excluded they send you three seperate pieces. It then has to be over-lapped wich in my professonal opinion looks tacky.

I hope that all this discussion helps you to make a desission on your roof graphic.

Cheers
Mike

 

Understandable, but the warrantee that both Cooperflags and Asthetic are giving are solely due to the warrantee provided by 3M. If the product sold was not actually 3M, then the manufacturer would not warrantee the product. I have had several dealings with CooperFlags before and after the ownership change. I find the current owner to be a very respectable, and upfront guy. They've gotten some bad press over the past few months during the ownership change, but they're back on track now. I haven't dealt with Asthetic, but they sound like a good stand-up company as well. I'd say go with whoever you feel most comfortable with, but I can't entirely blame CooperFlags for this particular incident.

 

The product sold to me (according to the new owner) was NOT 3M, but when I bought my flag, I was told that I was buying genuine 3M material and not a sub-standard product.

I paid for 3M, I was told I was getting it, but only learned that the inferior product sold as 3M was not the genuine article when I recently contacted the new owner of Cooper Flags concerning the material failure.

The new owner told me that the previous owner had received some material from a supplier that may have been deceiving his customers, and my sub-standard flag may not have been knowingly sold to me as an inferior product.

However, at the point that this was discovered, it would have been very good business practice to inform customers of the problem and take a proactive stance to preserve the integrity of the good Cooper Flags name.

I have no hard feelings against the new owner of Cooper Flags. He was a very up-front guy and told me the truth about why my flag did not survive even a single year. He assured me that he had made steps to improve product quality and has tightened his quality control measures.

His products may be fantastic now, but I will never know because the new owner has chosen not to support his previous customers that paid for 3M quality but received inferior products in the past. It is his business decision and I respect that entirely, but I will take my business elsewhere in the future and will share my actual experience with others when appropriate.

 

I'd definitely recommend Mike at Aesthetic Creations.

Here's a quick photo of the custom graphic he did for us, and installed (free of charge) at AMVIV. You can easily see out the sunroof, but it does block incoming light a little, making the cockpit a shade darker.

I can't recommend him highly enough.

 

I don't want to belabor this, because I definitely don't know the first thing about roof graphics (and obviously you do), but why would you then charge the same price, if you're providing the customer with less material? It doesn't seem like you'd be forced in any way to manufacture the sunroof panels if someone doesn't want them, so why not give such a customer a discount compared to a customer who's ordering the same item PLUS the sunroof panels?

 

<MBA rant>
I'm sure the new owner is a good guy, but regardless, as part of his due diligence in purchasing the company, he should have reviewed the books, and discovered that the previous owner didn't actually buy the 3M material (it IS the primary raw material for the company.) He should have then factored that in to the purchase price and made allowances for dissatisfied customers. If nothing else, unless he expressly purchased only the assets of the company, he should be on the hook for the poor product previously distributed. Alternatively he just opens up his own 'new' business, and then is not responsible for anyone else's prior bad acts. When you buy a name, you buy both the good and the bad. That's just how it works.
</MBA rant>

 

I believe the graphics are created by running large sheets through a (very large and expensive) printer. You'd likely still have to use the whole sheet (and just cut out the sunroof part). So, making the "only the outside" requires the same materials (a roof sized sheet) and more labor (the extra step being removing the center) than a full roof graphic.

It's my understanding that you are sort of "forced" to make and then remove the sunroof panels.

If you wanted to do both (and be able to see out the sunroof), you'd need to run the printer twice, using twice as much materials, then do twice the labor (cutting the inside out of the "outside graphic" and the outside off of the "inside graphic").

 

Yucca and I both bought the Union Jack Sunroof Flags from CooperFlags last year, and right after Yucca's began to fail, mine did too!

I met Mike, owner of Aesthetic Creations, at AMVIV, and was impressed with his great attitude and with the installs of vinyl he did at the Vegas Boot & Bonnet show. :smile:

He has offered to drive to my sister's in Arizona to install my new graphics, so Wanda can be dolled-up for the Dragon! We're planning that right now!


Clover

 

Well here is how it works. If you check out my website you will see the difference in price for a roof graphic with and without a sunroof.

Tom is really close with the explanation. You have to print the whole piece at once regardless. If you want it all one piece that is. My charge for this design that I'm offering to Cooldaddy is just the price for a roof graphic without a sunroof. There is another charge if he wanted the print on the sunroof. So if you think of it in that sence he is already saving a large amount of $$ by not getting the perforated material.

I have very high standards for my company and I don't accept anything less than perfect.

 

I really appriciate the input on this item, when and if I want to do this I know my options. Again, thanks for the input.
Marcel.

 

Sometimes these threads have a way of running away from the topic at hand. I tried to keep it as much on topic as I could. I'm glad it was able to give you some insight.

Good luck with your venture whatever you decide to do.

Cheerio

 

Wow - I have the same thing going on. I ordered my roof from CooperFlags about 2 years ago, and you know, there is a difference in the materials on the different parts of the roof. The vinyl on the car's metal roof parts is fine, but the perforated panels are coming apart - peeling/curling up at the edges and the clear coating also coming off. Looks pretty narly.

When I contacted CooperFlags about it they offered to charge me $135 to re-output just the sunroof panels so they could be re-installed (at my expense obviously)...never said anything about a 3 year warranty.

In fact, the reason I came onto the boards today was to try to find instructions on how to remove it...

 

Though my perf CF sunroof graphic is also turning itself to shreds, I remember its backing had 3M logos on it. I don't remember if I saw that on the first or the second graphic; the very first one I got was missing the 3rd clear layer for the rear half of the graphic. (!) Of course we were never told to use 303 back then. I had a small amount of peeling after a year, but now at 2 years it is starting to get to the point that I want to remove it. I'm fine with a 2 year lifespan.

You can't expect a 3-layer, perferated in the middle trapping air, sticker on hot sun exposed glass to last that long. That said I love the perferated sunroof cover, and will most certainly do it again. Maybe next summer, if funds allow.