Covering side panel with gloss black vinyl

[Luke Culpin]

I’d say that would be pretty easy to measure, redraw over a photo and cut to shape!

[Denise Goodfellow]

Can’t you just do a quick measure, cut making sure you have a straight edge, then drop it in place and trim away everything else around the Windows edge with a knife

[Chris Windebank]

Hopefully a straight edge top or bottom. Would use air release metamark M7 for ease then trim or wrap cut to finish

[David Stevenson]

I find wrapcut great for straight lines, if you’ve corners to go round 3m’s design line is much better. It’s designed to handle corners 🙂

[Martyn Heath]

ok the 3m design line sounds interesting, wrap cut has struggled with corners in the past i just end up cleaning it up free hand.
Neither the top or bottom lines are straight, and i was planning on using avery 700 to do the job.
Interesting points about drawing a template from a picture but i dont think this will be accurate enough. I have the outlines for this vehicle but never trust them with this sort of accuracy.

Atm im going towards wrap cut, clean up any edges free hand (unless i can get 3m in time). Pre cut the angled line and lead with the straightest edge which looks to be the bottom.
I will probably lay it wet without app tape, heat in along the wrap cut and go from there. If it doesnt work out then i know i chose the wrong option 🙂

thanks for the input guys. Once its done it will post a pic of the finished product

[Kevin Flowers]

You could always go old school application tape and pencil, lay over vinyl and trim

Kev

[Martyn Heath]

Out of interest has anyone ever cut a panel shape from the impact outlines to see how far out it is?

[Jamie Hunt]

Wrap cut is ok for straight lines you need the designer 3M Knife-less tape from Hexis it works brilliantly
https://online.hexis.co.uk/Product-Deta … s%26Blades

[Jamie Hunt]

quote Martyn Heath:

Out of interest has anyone ever cut a panel shape from the impact outlines to see how far out it is?

Yes i have and its quite a bit out you tend to end up trimming it anyway go for the Designer knife-less tape from Hexis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jywYn0O_J8

[Peter Johnson]

Agree with everyone about the 3M DesignLine knifeless tape. Goes around corners and curves very well. I have done several ‘in-panel’ wraps/prints and the knifeless tape is brilliant.

[Stuart Miller]

I’d second Kevin’s way using app tape and a pencil to make a template to lay over vinyl.

[Martyn Heath]

Cheers guys!

[Martyn Heath]

Hi just an update as promised. So did the van just after xmas, went with the design line 3m tape in the end. Had a bit of trouble on the long side as i laid it wet (1 man job) and heated it along the tape line but it was difficult to get the line to begin cutting into the vinyl. Obviously dry over this tape is the key.
All in all happy with the result as was the customer.

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[Hugh Potter]

looks good!!! I’d do it dry to be honest, usually I’ll buy in a few mtrs of decent air release wrap to do such a job if there’s any kind of curves there, sounds lazy but it’s so much quicker and the vinyl is easier to work with than straight cad films.

[Richard Urquhart]

Design line is a winner just remember it is a little more fragile so when pulling the filament take care but the stuff is brilliant

[Richard Urquhart]

This was done with 3m cast [emoji12] but fitted with clear app tape you get no bubbles also I only used fine line on this one

[Martyn Heath]

yes dry would have been ideal but i used avery 700 and didnt want to risk it with handling best part of 3m on my own.
I did notice the filament was fragile but was ok once you get it started