Paint for Billboard Vinyl

[melodiousdirge]

Hello all. I built a geodome for 2011, with a billboard tarp canopy. The outside is white, and the inside covered in misc. advertising. This is fine for the most part, except inside at night it's quite dark and hard to light up, even with head lamps. I'd like to install a little light fixture this year, and to get the most out of it, I was hoping to paint the inside of the dome a nice reflective white, so it doesn't suck up so much light.

I was originally thinking of krylon fusion, as I know this is excellent paint that bonds to the vinyl material, but they advertise only 25 square feet of coverage per can, whereas my dome canopy is somewhere around 750 square feet. (30 cans). 30 cans seems pretty expensive and inefficient; does anyone know of an equivalent kind of paint that I could buy by the gallon and spray with a paint gun? Obviously it'll need to be something that I can be sure will not come off and generate a billion paint flakes worth of MOOP.

Something that did occur to me was wiping it down with acetone to take off the billboard ink. This does work, but it would be a ton of labor and I'd be a little worried what it was doing to the integrity of the vinyl.

[ygmir]

I'd submit you're going to have to balance the labor of prep, the cost of a good appropriate, paint, and moop factor.

[trilobyte]

+1 to what ygmir said. You may want to consider some other kind of covering - most other folks I've known who've used billboard vinyl in the past moved away from it for exactly the reason you mention.

[melodiousdirge]

Well, I see what you fellows are saying, but I have to say that 3 years of on-playa abuse and the only thing about my canopy that's starting to wear out are the zippers. Billboard vinyl is pretty awesome generally speaking, but it is a bit of a bummer that it's so dark inside. I think I may try using a white floor tarp this year. I have plenty of 12v power available, so I might just use some brighter lighting to offset the dark canopy. I would still be interested to hear of anything LIKE krylon fusion that comes in larger quantities, as it requires almost no prep in my experience and I do already have a paint gun and compressor.

[GreyCoyote]

Mel: read here for some good ideas - http://www.colorguardfloors.com/guardfloors/paint.htm

No affiliation with any site or product. I just found this a few months ago in response to a similar problem I had.

[FIGJAM]

Contact one of those vinyl siding companies and see what they recommend.

[unjonharley]

I know if you have to paint PVC, I have to give it a "quick" wipe of acetone to rough the surface .. Paint peels off a perfectly smooth surface.

[BAK3R]

My dome is also covered with white billboard vinyl. I use a cheap tent light (ring of 12 leds) I have it hanging from an eye bolt connecting the apex of the top Pentagon. The light reflects great off the curved white surface. Lights my whole dome (16 dia 5/8 3 V) ceiling is 9 or 10 feet tall. The light hangs down about 3 feet on a string. I did pick out an advertising that is mostly white so do not have the issue of dark graphics inside.

[DoctorIknow]

I wonder if the ink used only your billboard vinyl would respond to paint remover? I know there are non-toxic varieties available, some will remove paint and urethane... If I used it, I'd detergent and powerwash the heck out of it after as even if non-toxic, it could smell bad,,,

[BAK3R]

When I was gluing mine with HH66 I noticed the acetone in the glue was removing the paint. I think you are on to something.

[sadie]

Have you considered attaching a lightweight/light color fabric to it? Maybe spray adhesive or some kind of fabric glue would work. If glue isn't an option, maybe strategic snaps or rivits to make a sort of drapey effect... I've never worked with billboard vinyl before, so you may know reasons this would not work...just a thought.

[melodiousdirge]

Wow, thanks for all the replies everyone. Lighter colored fabric is something I considered too, it's just that the canopy is kind of a big heavy dusty beast, and attaching anything to it will make it heavier, and will have to be done very sturdily. I might look further into that though. I think what I'm going to do is TRY a can of krylon on it and see just how much coverage I get. They say 25 square feet, but I saw 100 in one of the links someone posted, so if I can get that much, we're not talking about 30 cans anymore. It might also make enough of a difference to just have a party at my house and let everyone tag the inside of the dome, as long as they pick from a light colored palette. I've also sourced a snow white floor tarp for this year, whereas in the past I've used blue and grey (all playa colored after 1 day anyway, but hey).