Thread: Wrapped my car...

Decided I wanted one of those mythical Little Red Corvettes... So vinyl was purchased. Time alotted. Much ibuprofin downed to keep my fat ass from dying from the pain incurred from doing this project...

Before...


After.... Just finished it around midnight tonight and had to take some pics...





Never did a wrap before... Neither had the guy that was helping me... So yeah. It's kinda shit if you get close and look real good. I'd have to say it's about 75% good and 25% shit. We learned as we went and by the end we were starting to get decent at it. Next year I'll probably yank it all off and redo it. Maybe next time it'll be yellow or perhaps a more candy-apple red. Unsure yet. But that's what makes vinyl wraps fantastic. A little vinyl and a little time and you can make the car look like whatever you want.

Originally Posted by AetheLove

How does the kit/process deal with things like the badges and such?

Looks good in red (though I think the blue is nice too).


Æ

There's no kit. You just get a big roll of vinyl and cut it to size as needed. You can cut around the badges if you want but we pulled them. That process is real easy. Just use fishing line and pull it under the badges and work it through until it's off. Then you can use alcohol (70% isopropyl just like you get at the grocery store) to clean off the gunk on the car and the badge. Any car parts store will sell 3M double sided tape to replace it after you get the vinyl on. If you try to cut it around the badge on the car you are going to have to be VERY careful or you'll wind up with the vinyl pulling away and you wind up with little lines where you can see the paint underneath.

The same goes for the mirrors and any vents on the car... oh and the top edges of the doors or where weatherstripping/trim is at. The BEST way is to pull all of that stuff off the car because you WANT to wrap around the edges of all the panels and that can be difficult with them on the car. We didn't do that and that is part of the 25% shit parts of my wrap. We DID pull the bumper because it's seam up against the front fenders was so tight there was no possible way I could get anything tucked in.


If you want to do it to your car, do yourself a favor and get on youtube and look up ckwraps and watch a LOT of his videos. You'll learn a lot and you also will see how he does it ALONE. I probably, having watched a lot of his videos would have been better if I had done it alone as well, but the guy owed me and I figured it was a good way to write off that debt. But Christian from CK Wraps is pretty damn good and he will show all the techniques you'll need to know to do it. And it IS sort of tricky. You need to know how to cold stretch the vinyl first and "glass it" out (we didn't really learn how important that was until near the end), heat stretching, how the vinyl has a memory and how you can use that memory to your advantage (fix screw ups, heat shrink it around edges and corners, etc), and how to post heat and kill the memory to minimize peeling, and DEFINITELY hone your cutting skills.

Other things you'll need are good squeegees with felt buffers so you don't scratch the vinyl while installing it. GOOD razor knives (I use exacto #11 blades), painters tape or wider pinstriping tape to cut on so you don't score the paint underneath in some areas, bug and tar remover for that pesky badge and trim gunk (or bugs and tar), possibly some vinyl installers gloves (thin and made of cloth/felt so you can use your fingers in places that the squeegee doesn't fit or work well...

That's about all I can think of right now.

Originally Posted by Kanati

There's no kit. You just get a big roll of vinyl and cut it to size as needed. You can cut around the badges if you want but we pulled them. That process is real easy. Just use fishing line and pull it under the badges and work it through until it's off. Then you can use alcohol (70% isopropyl just like you get at the grocery store) to clean off the gunk on the car and the badge. Any car parts store will sell 3M double sided tape to replace it after you get the vinyl on. If you try to cut it around the badge on the car you are going to have to be VERY careful or you'll wind up with the vinyl pulling away and you wind up with little lines where you can see the paint underneath.

The same goes for the mirrors and any vents on the car... oh and the top edges of the doors or where weatherstripping/trim is at. The BEST way is to pull all of that stuff off the car because you WANT to wrap around the edges of all the panels and that can be difficult with them on the car. We didn't do that and that is part of the 25% shit parts of my wrap. We DID pull the bumper because it's seam up against the front fenders was so tight there was no possible way I could get anything tucked in.


If you want to do it to your car, do yourself a favor and get on youtube and look up ckwraps and watch a LOT of his videos. You'll learn a lot and you also will see how he does it ALONE. I probably, having watched a lot of his videos would have been better if I had done it alone as well, but the guy owed me and I figured it was a good way to write off that debt. But Christian from CK Wraps is pretty damn good and he will show all the techniques you'll need to know to do it. And it IS sort of tricky. You need to know how to cold stretch the vinyl first and "glass it" out (we didn't really learn how important that was until near the end), heat stretching, how the vinyl has a memory and how you can use that memory to your advantage (fix screw ups, heat shrink it around edges and corners, etc), and how to post heat and kill the memory to minimize peeling, and DEFINITELY hone your cutting skills.

Other things you'll need are good squeegees with felt buffers so you don't scratch the vinyl while installing it. GOOD razor knives (I use exacto #11 blades), painters tape or wider pinstriping tape to cut on so you don't score the paint underneath in some areas, bug and tar remover for that pesky badge and trim gunk (or bugs and tar), possibly some vinyl installers gloves (thin and made of cloth/felt so you can use your fingers in places that the squeegee doesn't fit or work well...

That's about all I can think of right now.

I asked because I was genuinely curious, but there's basically a zero percent chance that I'll ever do a vinyl job.

So I'm very happy you answered so completely, but I hope I didn't give the impression that I'd bought my own kit and was waiting on your advice before I did my car.

Felt-buffered squeegees? Yikes.

I've used 2-sided 3M tape to reapply trim that's come off. I'm sure I was much less careful with the door trim on my Jeep than you were with the hood badge on your 'vette.

If I was ever going to invest that much effort in a finish, you might still be my inspiration though. It occurred to me that it might be an interesting effect to give the entire painted surface a very slight sand-blast - just enough to create some texture and grip - and then do the whole thing in coloured sketch pencil.

What would we call such a thing?

Shaded?

Sketchy?

Hmm.


Æ

Am I the only one that saw the title and thought you wrapped your car around a pole?

I thought the vette died, too.

haha. That thought never even occurred to me.

Here's a few pics in the daylight.

Hood stripe added...

Hoping it holds off for a while. We have had a few really mild winters in Illinois so I'm crossing my fingers for a few more.

Otherwise it'll get stuck in the garage until March.