vinal wrapping a full car

[bmw2101]

I'm thinking of vinal wrapping my car, i was hoping someone on here would be able to advise me a bit.


The car is a 318ti bmw, i use it for rallying, and it gets scratched quite a bit. I thought vinal wrap would be a cheep way of making the car all one colour again, and also, i don't have access to spraying the car like  i used to , so wrapping is a nice clean solution.


So, i bought some wrap on ebay,

thi si the stuff i bought

i tried to do the front bumper with it, but i found creasing on the corners was the worst problem.


I have seen this

GRAFI WRAP

it looks like 25meters of that wrap in 1220mm wide is £66 and that s a lot cheaper than 2 pack paint!



So the questions are, application techniques, and where is best to buy the vinal from?

thanks

[dodgerover]

Compound curves are always difficult but i'm not sure about that vinyl, I'de usually use more expensive stuff, which is really really compliant and you can pull it round, try warming it up with a hot air gun as you are doing it

[olduns]

Where to start?......
Neither of those vinyls are ideal, probably wouldn't last 3 months before lifting.
cheap vinyl is usually monomeric, when you heat it the molecules try to line up in one direction, not ideal for wrapping when you need in all directions. Cast/wrapping material does this by design.
You could for an easy time 'cut and shut it' on the difficult parts, 6mm min. overlap with modern materials is OK.

squeaky clean prep. whichever vinyl used is essential.
felt squeegees, scalpel blades -renew regularly, cotton gloves to mould vinyl into recesses, heat gun rather than hairdrier, more for post-heating as ideally needs 70-80 deg C .
another pair of hands will help no end when going round curves, one pair to hold vinyl off car whilst others heat vinyl as it's pulled around.
leave plenty of extra over panel edges, when pulling you'll need something to grab.
you can, if you get creases, heat these out....pull off,tension it and heat gently..you'll see the vinyl appear to form ripples then flatten out.
After fitting, leave to go cold before trimming, if warm it will shrink further as it cools.
post-heating.....last thing to do, circular movements 2-3" away, heat until it burns if touched with fingers- make sure not to burn vinyl! this process gives Cast/wrapping vinyl it's final memory for shape.

[composimmonite]

This is the economy method -


Paul H

[olduns]

....and i'll raise you.....



shamelessly stolen from another source.

[bmw2101]

Mar 23, 2014 9:53:50 GMT olduns said:

Where to start?......
Neither of those vinyls are ideal, probably wouldn't last 3 months before lifting.
cheap vinyl is usually monomeric, when you heat it the molecules try to line up in one direction, not ideal for wrapping when you need in all directions. Cast/wrapping material does this by design.
You could for an easy time 'cut and shut it' on the difficult parts, 6mm min. overlap with modern materials is OK.

squeaky clean prep. whichever vinyl used is essential.
felt squeegees, scalpel blades -renew regularly, cotton gloves to mould vinyl into recesses, heat gun rather than hairdrier, more for post-heating as ideally needs 70-80 deg C .
another pair of hands will help no end when going round curves, one pair to hold vinyl off car whilst others heat vinyl as it's pulled around.
leave plenty of extra over panel edges, when pulling you'll need something to grab.
you can, if you get creases, heat these out....pull off,tension it and heat gently..you'll see the vinyl appear to form ripples then flatten out.
After fitting, leave to go cold before trimming, if warm it will shrink further as it cools.
post-heating.....last thing to do, circular movements 2-3" away, heat until it burns if touched with fingers- make sure not to burn vinyl! this process gives Cast/wrapping vinyl it's final memory for shape.

can you tell me what is the best/cheepest vinal to use ? where do you get it from also?


3m stuff looks really goodf but expencive!

[dodgerover]

Those 2 don't go together you very much get what you pay for, I can order it from Hexis for you to save carriage when I next order depending on where you are but it would need to come to me first

Cheap vinyl is really curse word in my experiance for anything other than temporary signage not expected to last more than a couple of weeks, otherwise I use 7 to 10 year or cast for everything.

[bmw2101]

i don't need it to last that long, it will be 3 year stuff really, itll get changed once a year i think.

So, is that right? One roll of hx3000 is £30.50 for 30 meters?

I must have that wrong?

[olduns]

doesn't really matter that you will change it every year, the cheap stuff won't do the job you're asking it to ie curve and stretch into recesses if you're doing it 'properly'

the right material will do as long as the person fitting has some idea of what they're doing.

not got price list for Hexis here but from memory HX3000 is the most expensive? probably £30 for a metre x 1520mm?
KG10000 or 8000 should suffice but is a little harder to fit.
depending on how good you want it to look, possibly S5000 could do but not too sure just how far you can recess it, i can send you some to try if needed?
pretty sure Hexis now do an online sales service?

also look at 3M, Avery.

[bmw2101]

right sorry i see the rpice list and understand it now, now looking at the hx20000, its priced per meter, and then the price goes down after 30 meters etc.

so thats £16.61 a meter


the cheep stuff i bought from ebay, if i had stretched it around corners before putting it down, and also knew how to get air bubbles out easier, that wouldnt have been that bad.

I just need the car to look something like...


i have watched some 3m vids on utube, they do make it look easy but i can see where i have gone wrong deffonatly.

[Deleted]

If your car gets scratched easily during use then wouldn't vinyl also gets easily damaged and look worse afterwards and it would then start to peel away?

[bmw2101]

its done 3 years of road rallying, maybe 15 events or more, and whats on it will polish out but the paint has faded also, it needs a lot of time spending on it, but also i have some new pannels for it.


I jsut thought wrapping it would an option instead of painting

[redratbike]

Reading this as interested in wrapping my motorbike

Obviously need the most beginner friendly wrap...... I take it hexxis is the stuff to use.

[s14x]

You need a heat gun to get out the creases in the corner.

[welshpug]

good vinyl once nailed down well is bloomin tough stuff.

however to do it properly really isn't cheap as I guess you have figured out by now.

[bmw2101]

yes, worked that out now, but still really liek the idea of having a go, so i am pricing some grafiwrap and ill give it another go on an old pannel..


Ill brush paint the new parts for now i think


Having said that the old 'repaint' car paint was good stuff, may have a look for that instead