How difficult is it to wrap vinyl? Is it DIY?
I suggest Youtube University if you're fairly handy. There are two kinds of wraps, 'wet apply' (Xpel, Suntek, et al) and 'dry apply' (most newer opaque wraps). Dry is a little more challenging and you should have at least two people to lay the wrap, although there are tricks like 'hinging' it. (peel off a little on one side to stick, then peel from the other side) It's still unstick-repositionable. Heat gun to conform, doing as little stretching as possible. Plastic squeegee (ideally with felt edge) to fasten, then for 'dry apply', heat hot to bond. Best to remove the parts you want to wrap if they're practically removable. For wet and dry, allow a week to bond before waxing.
The fast-and-dirty shops use templates of your car to cut out the shapes of pieces from a bulk roll. (and it costs them alot to use the templates) These are easy, but do not wrap around edges and may come dislodged over time (car washes), so I prefer cutting larger pieces out of bulk rolls to custom cut and wrap around edges. And wrapped edges should be primed with 3M tape primer for far better stiction.
Problems are: particles ending up under the wrap causing bumps (or white spots for transparent), which is why hinging is a good method to reduce that. Clay wipe (there are clay wipes - auto body supply) the whole surface right before application.
Surface chips or deeper scratches will show through any wrap, so polishing (with a
random-orbital) is a good idea. For transparent wrap any surface flaws (swirls) will be enhanced, so once again polish and use a single-source light to find swirls, especially on darker colors. Key to polishing is to keep the pad clean. I use a microfiber cover over the pad and change it when it gets dirty; or if you have an air gun you might be able to blow off the pad.
(he's pretty proud of his toy, but ignore that)
To apply
wet-apply you use two spray bottles:
- Tack (adhesive side): 15% of 70% isopropyl alcohol
- Slip (outside): 2-4 drops of johnsons baby shampoo
What brand of wrap is the next question. 3M has a rather bad reputation for quality on wrapper's forums, which came as quite a surprise to me. So I bought Xpel and Avery. Brushed metal wraps (like my Brushed Steel) only have a lifetime of a couple years, so I'll be applying Opticoat Pro+ to it to make it last,
if I can find someone who will sell it to me. "Opticoat Gloss" is the consumer version, but it only lasts a couple years, and dealers are prohibited from selling Pro+ to civilians, for cartel reasons.
And that's all their secrets.
