Decals

Jayco23FB wrote:
People have been waxing the decals and graphics on vehicles for years. Why would an RV be any different? You can see vehicles that are taken care of and those that are not with cracked and faded decals. I wax mine twice a year, still look like new.

You obviously are not old enough to remember the fake "woodgrain" look decals of the late 1960s-1980s and the revival of said fake woodgrain on the 1980s "mini vans"..

My parents had a 1968 Mercury wagon that for it's first 10 yrs of life spend the majority of it's life garaged, only out long enough to get groceries and was never driven in the winter..

The last 12 yrs of it's life was a lot harder on it as us kids grew up.. The fake wood grain decals were totally shot, faded and cracked..

Dad retired that wagon in 1990 when it was deemed the frame was not salvageable with almost 200,000 miles. Yeah, Dad "waxed" those decals, and every time he did, they looked worse between each waxing.

Start waxing vinyl and you are married to waxing it.

I have delt with cars with vinyl roofs, a sure fire way to destroy a vinyl roof in a hurry is to get wax on it..

One thing you do not seem to get is the fact that most auto waxes have Petroleum distillates as the FIRST or second ingredient. You might as well just smear on a bunch of Vaseline.. Petroleum distillates will attack the vinyl decal since most vinyl products also happen to be made from crude oil fractions..

Some auto waxes sub in Silicone (Turtle wax comes to mind) and that might be a bit less harmful but Silicone comes at a high price if you ever need to repaint.. Silicone embeds into the surface then can make repainting a real bear..

On edit..

HERE is what 3m says about caring for automotive vinyl graphics..

"IMPORTANT NOTE

3M does not recommend using wax or other similar co
atings on vehicle graphics."

"Store Indoors or Under Cover Whenever Possible
Vinyl graphics (just like paint) are degraded by pr
olonged exposure to sun and atmospheric pollutants,
particularly on the horizontal surfaces such
as hood, trunk lid and roof. Whenever possible, sto
re in a garage or at least in a shaded area during
the day. At night protect the car from dew
or rain, which may contain acidic pollutants (a com
mon problem in many large metropolitan areas). When
a garage is not available, consider
using a cloth car cover at night. If your graphics
start to discolor or turn brown, immediately remove
the graphics from the vehicle to avoid staining
the underlying paint."

Not my words, 3Ms words and THEY SHOULD KNOW BEST SINCE THEY MAKE, SELL AND WARRANT THE VINYL USED TO MAKE THE GRAPHICS...