Finished my vinyl wrap.

[alfaitalia]

Alfa, the thing about the panel gaps is for two reasons. First, the car has bright yellow paint, which clashes big time against the purple/bronze color, so I have to go deep in the jambs to make sure no yellow showed. (I still have to plasti-dip the rocker pinchweld black actually.) Even on a modern vehicle, when you wrap a wildly contrasting color on top of paint, you have to go deep in the jambs to ensure no original paint shows through and ruins the effect. Plus, the gaps are larger on old dodges than anything modern, so it's even more necessary.

That's what I meant....most of the wraps I see go right into the jams and around the door edges....so even when you open the doors there is no trace of the original colour visible at all.....rather than  wrapping into the jams just far enough that you cant see it with the doors closed..

[JR]

Yeah you can wrap full door jambs and everything Alfa. You have to remove the doors to wrap the jambs properly, but it's entirely possible.

I plan on changing the color frequently, so it wasn't necessary to do them here. This color will be on for six months to a year at most. If I were planning to leave it on for the whole three years, I would have taken the time to do the jambs.

[1970Moparmann]

This is a great thread!   Help me understand the 3 year piece please.   I understand about lease vehicles, but what will happen if the wrap is on the car for 5 years?    Is the issue that the paint won't breathe and could start cracking?

[JR]

This is a great thread!   Help me understand the 3 year piece please.   I understand about lease vehicles, but what will happen if the wrap is on the car for 5 years?    Is the issue that the paint won't breathe and could start cracking?

Well, I mean, you could leave it on longer, and probably be okay. It's just that 3M and most other brands of vinyl recommend it's removed by then. They don't guarantee clean removal past that time.

Mainly, you don't want to leave it on past that time because it becomes a royal PITA to remove after that. It's not that the paint underneath dries out, it's more that the vinyl will dry out and come off in tiny shards and will take forever to fully remove. If you take it off before the end of it's lifespan, it comes off in nice, big clean sheets with a minimal amount of glue left behind.

Here's what wrap removal looks like.

https://youtu.be/YrVu_kP9PR0

[alfaitalia]

Wow....that stuff really sticks....thought it would peal off rather easier than that. Did not realise heat would be needed to remove as WELL as install it. Interesting.

[JR]

Yes Alfa, heat is a must for removal. You can also let the car sit outside in the sun a few hours before removal and have the same effect. For application, we use it around all the hard edges, door jambs, etc because it erases the memory in the film, which eliminates the chance of it lifting later. Also, it makes the vinyl more forgiving going around complex corners. Here's an example of some stuff I did in training to illustrate this. These HHRs were the training vehicles, and given all the complex curves and corners, you can see where heat would be beneficial here.


But as you can see in the video, very little glue is left behind when using quality vinyl. There's not much clean up to do afterwards. And the paint was protected from rock chips and UV rays while the wrap was on.

[smithenhiven]

Did you use the knifeless tape or whatever its called to cut out your V21 hood scallop blackouts?  If so, is that stuff easy to use?

Turned out great, wish you were closer I'd have you do mine.

[JR]

Yes, I used the "finish line" version of knifeless tape. I prefer working with it over the "design line" stuff. But it's a breeze to work with. Love the stuff.

I also used it on all the edges. I try to minimize cutting on the vehicle as much as possible.

There was a suprising amount of interest from the cassic car owners last night about possibly having a wrap done. It really suprised me. I suspect there maybe alot more wraps done on vintage musclecar builds in the future.

[Homerr]

Just need a palette of the high impact colors for wrapping all those green chargers.

[1970Moparmann]

This is a great thread!   Help me understand the 3 year piece please.   I understand about lease vehicles, but what will happen if the wrap is on the car for 5 years?    Is the issue that the paint won't breathe and could start cracking?

Well, I mean, you could leave it on longer, and probably be okay. It's just that 3M and most other brands of vinyl recommend it's removed by then. They don't guarantee clean removal past that time.

Mainly, you don't want to leave it on past that time because it becomes a royal PITA to remove after that. It's not that the paint underneath dries out, it's more that the vinyl will dry out and come off in tiny shards and will take forever to fully remove. If you take it off before the end of it's lifespan, it comes off in nice, big clean sheets with a minimal amount of glue left behind.

Here's what wrap removal looks like.

https://youtu.be/YrVu_kP9PR0

Great information!   That's what I was wondering.  Thanks!

[chargervert]

This is the car that I am considering putting a wrap on.  I have a question about wrapping the car. Can the car be wrapped over urethane primer, or does the car have to be painted to apply the wrap over?

[JR]

Sorry for this silly question chargervert, i just wanna be sure we're referring to the same thing. By urethane primer, do you mean High build 2K filler primer? Or Epoxy primer?

I would finish out the bodywork in 2k and get it to the sealer stage, seal it with epoxy primer,  then give that a final sand with 600 grit if I were going to wrap directly on top of the primer.

From what I remember, 2k primer isn't UV resistant and will break down with no top coat, where as the epoxy primer won't.

The wrap would adhere perfectly fine to either, but if the 2k primer starts breaking down from heat or exposure, it will lift, and take the wrap with it. Epoxy wouldn't have that issue.

If you decide to go this route, just spend extra time prepping all the edges of the panels most people skip over when paint prepping. Be extra thorough when prepping the car and there should be no issues.

[chargervert]

JR,I was talking about the 2k primer. I appreciate the information, and I think you are correct about going with the epoxy primer.

[JR]

I took some photos today of the funky bright colors that may fit the old school metalflake type color you mentioned chargervert.

[chargervert]

Thanks for posting those,they have some pretty cool colors!

[WHITE AND RED 69]

The wrap looks great! Nice work     I've been wanting to try out a matte blue on another car just to switch things up.

Question though, for a roof and quarters where there is no panel gap or vinyl top that breaks it apart do you do it all in one piece or is it done in multiple sheets? Seems like it would be a pain in the ass to get one piece to cover the roof and both quarters in one shot. Or is there a way to get the sheets to line up so you don't see a seam between the two? 

[Homerr]

Since we're talking about wraps:  I endorse wrapping Chargers in General Lee regalia.



Easier to undo. 

[JR]

That's a good question white and red.

The vinyl only comes in 60 inch wide rolls. On newer cars, this doesn't present any issue at all because all late model vehicles have a ditch moulding, or a hard break between the pillars and the roof panel. Doing each quarter and the roof is done in 3 pieces, with no issue.

On a vintage Charger with a painted roof, I don't see any way around having that seam. I was lucky to have the vinyl roof already, so I never encountered that problem.

I went and took a quick look at mine with the measuring tape, and it would appear the best way to handle it would be a "butt seam". Maybe on the horizontal roof surface? I'll have look into this some more.

Here's a video explaining the process. This one has horrible video quality, but explains the process.

A well executed butt seam should be hardly noticable.

https://youtu.be/C-XkNFL_OKw

[bull]

I like it!

So what's the cost of materials?

[JR]

Thanks Bull.

The material is sold by the foot, and the price varies depending on brand and type of vinyl.

It took me 50 feet of vinyl to do my car. (If I had to wrap the roof this number would have gone up.)

But for 50 feet of a satin 3m color, (I just verified my receipt)  it cost me $660. Add in 50-100 more for various supplies needed.

It could be a little cheaper using other brands of vinyl, but I was trained on 3M and stuck with it for my first full solo wrap.

Here's some more pics. I still need to plastic dip the rocker panel pinch welds and inner valence, I just haven't had the time. I'll get to them this week.

[Troy]

I like it! Whether people like the color or not, there's a lot of value in understanding the process, benefits, pitfalls, and so on. You had a specific purpose and I think you definitely achieved that goal. I'm guessing this would be a 6 month process for me!

Troy

[JR]

Thanks Troy!

There's definitely a learning curve to it. If someone was really determined, they could learn to do it by trial and error and YouTube videos. It's totally possible.

I picked this satin color intentionally so it looks like a wrap, and the attention has been overwhelming so far. I had to brake to avoid having someone drive straight into me in a parking lot yesterday. They seemed to be in a trance staring at the car.

I can honestly say, if Margot Robbie in a bikini was on the hood, it still could not possibly draw more attention. I've never seen anything like it. (That maybe due to living in a small southern town, but still.)

For the purposes of advertising my wraps,  it's certainly working great.

[roadrunninmark]

How long did it take to wrap the car?  I am about 40 mins south of Atlanta, sorta in your neck of the woods.  I was thinking of putting some wrap on my daily driver, same color, just to cover up the failing clear coat.  I've also thought about wet sanding that off and spraying clear on it.

[JR]

Hell you're right next door man. I live around Newnan now. Doing that myself takes me a week or so doing it part time here and there after work.

The thing about wrap is it amplifies whatever surface is under it, just like clearcoat does. If you wrap over the top of fading clear, that bumpy texture will come through the wrap. I would sand/feather the whole panel smooth with a 1000 grit final finish, and wrap over that.

[Hammer759]

Looks really nice and the changing colors is interesting.  I wrapped my 3rd gen in matte lime green and matte black.  Really looks like paint and you can play with the body lines.