Tiny camper vinyl wrap trials

I thought vinyl wrap would be the ideal exterior for my camper project but I first wanted to test its ability to stick to plywood.

To get an answer, I bought a small 1′ x 5′ roll of satin black vinyl wrap from Amazon and cut several panels of scrap plywood to a similar size. I wanted to try a few different scenarios to see if there was a particular combination of wood, wood finish, and vinyl that worked better. Another factor was the use of special vinyl wrap adhesive. Would using the recommended 3M 94 Primer affect how well the wrap stuck to the surface?

Test Panels

I ended up with 8 plywood test surfaces, 4 of marine grade plywood and 4 of regular plywood. Each panel was divided into two sections. Since the type of plywood did not have any appreciable effect on the outcome, I’ll skip talking about that variable and just focus on the panel treatments. Consider, for our purposes, that we had a total of four panels, each divided in half.

• Panel One was a piece of plain plywood. One side primed with 3M 94, the other side plain.
• Panel Two was first coated with a water-based primer sealer. One side primed with 3M 94, the other side plain.
• Panel Three had a coat of Minwax Polycrylic, a water-based protective polyurethane finish. One side with 3M 94, one without.
• The final panel had a coat of an oil-based primer sealer. 3M 94 on one side, None on the other.

To each panel, I applied a patch of satin black vinyl, then hit it with a heat gun to activate the adhesive and make the wrap really stick. I gave them all a chance to set overnight. On the next day, I tried each one to see how easily I could remove it.

The Results

I was pretty surprised and pleased with the results. The only panel that showed any issues with peeling was the panel treated with the oil-based primer. I guess it made sense that the adhesive on the vinyl would not stick well to an oil-based product.

The vinyl applied to the plain plywood adhered better than I expected and plain ply with 3M 94 was pretty strong. This was followed by the Minwax Polycrylic panel.

Although I had no instruments to measure the actual forces involved, it felt like it took the most effort to remove the vinyl on the panel that had been coated with a water-based primer and with 3M adhesive. On the back of the vinyl I tore off, I could see the top layer of the ply sticking to it. So that meant the wood ply was failing before the adhesive was giving up. That’s a pretty strong bond.

After that experiment, I decided to give vinyl wrap a try, and I’ve been really happy with the results. I switched to using wraps with some kind of pattern. Camouflage works really well because it looks cool on the camper, it’s appropriate, and it helps hide the surface imperfections in the plywood (and in my application of the wrap). If it gets dinged, it is really easy to patch, and if you want to change it up later, it’s easy to “repaint.”

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