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First time wrapping
Long read.
Hey guys I’m new on this forum and have just discovered this forum a few days ago. I’m not at all familiar to Vinyl/wrapping at all, so all of this is fairly new to me.
I really just want to be able to wrap my own car for race and show purposes, which has lead me on this journey, and forum as well. Never even knew there was a community about wrapping, but now I’m glad I found it.
So through a little bit of research, I found the following things to look for.
First, for my car, I want it to be Cast Vinyl, as it won’t revert into it’s original form of a ball like Calendar Vinyl.
Second, make sure it’s indoor/outdoor as the car obviously will be daily driven through sun and rain. Also make sure it lasts at least 5-7 years.
Third, lots of patience.
So with that said, I went to buy my first test roll of vinyl today. The only one close to me carried only the 3M 7125 Series. So I bought a small roll of that. I attempted to do my side view mirrors.
The outcome was …elementary to say the least. I did it 3 times (3 new cuts of film) and the outcome was …still unsatisfactory, although it did improve each time.
First I misted the surface, after cleaning it. Then started on a flat surface, and I used the heat gun too. I noticed that to my surprise, it takes a lot less heat than I’d imagine. It wants to "melt" quiet quickly. Second, I don’t really know what the proper way to use the squeege is. Do I wrap the squeege in cloth so it doesn’t scratch the vinyl? How much pressure do I want to apply? How should I be using the squeege…90 degrees? 45 degrees? Almost parallel? Lastly, do I constantly need heat, or is it actually that for the most part you don’t really need heat?
Sorry for the long read, I just have so many questions to ask before I want to get out and try again. 😀
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18 Replies
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Hi Welcome to the boards,
vehicle wrapping is a skill that takes a log time to learn, so you would be best advised to leave it to a pro.
as a forum we are not here to help the general public do their own jobs,
however if you are taking up wrapping or indeed signs as a business, then we would be willing to helpPerhaps if you introduce yourself in the Hello section, you may get some answers to your questions, what is your background have you used vinyl before may also be relevant to the info given.
Peter
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Peter,
Thanks for the quick reply. I do not own a business in vinyl/wrapping, but am planning to pursue it. I would like to get acquainted and just a bit more familiar with it before I start it, of course. I’m mainly looking into vehicle wraps, not so much banners/signs business wise.
I still do appreciate any suggestions, as this will transfer over into a business.
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Side mirrors are probably the hardest along with bumpers.
Are you misting so its wet then using heat to stretch the vinyl?
Learn to do it dry less problems.
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vehicle wrapping is a tricky thing to do and most signmakers go on a course to learn how. Its not really the easiest thing to learn as a complete beginner. There is more to it than just heating a piece of cast vinyl. You will first need to learn the basics about vinyl application onto flat surfaces before even thinking of wrapping. I would leave it to the professionals who have experience as you could spend alot of money trying to do it yourself. Alternatively book yourself onto a course and learn how to do it properly.
Sorry to pour water onto your enthusiasm but like all trades, it takes time (years) and experience to become a good sign fitter and/or wrapper -
quote Jason Xuereb:Side mirrors are probably the hardest along with bumpers.
Are you misting so its wet then using heat to stretch the vinyl?
Learn to do it dry less problems.
Jason,
Yes, I’m misting it lightly, just about 1-2 sprays of fine fist, just enough so it’s not droplets, and then using heat to stretch the vinyl.
I will try it dry right now.
quote :vehicle wrapping is a tricky thing to do and most signmakers go on a course to learn how. Its not really the easiest thing to learn as a complete beginner. There is more to it than just heating a piece of cast vinyl. You will first need to learn the basics about vinyl application onto flat surfaces before even thinking of wrapping. I would leave it to the professionals who have experience as you could spend alot of money trying to do it yourself. Alternatively book yourself onto a course and learn how to do it properly.
Sorry to pour water onto your enthusiasm but like all trades, it takes time (years) and experience to become a good sign fitter and/or wrapperJayne,
Thanks for the feedback. I realized that it would be a while until I become proficient at it but I would still like to try to learn as much possibly myself before enrolling into a class. Kind of like baking your own cupcakes before enrolling into culinary school, if that makes any sense.
I do appreciate your feedback though, thanks.
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Hi! Being my specialtity wrapping isn’t something to take on lightly!
Fair play for giving it a go tho!
Just a bit of advice…Depending on the vinyl depends on how much shrinkage you’ll get! Every bubble thats ‘pricked’ is potentially a 1mm hole after a few weeks!
Wish you all the luck in your venture!
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Thanks Matt.
What exactly is "pricked" mean?
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Air bubbles are ‘pricked’ with a needle or scalpel to allow the air out…….if there is tension in the vinyl…..a hole can appear.
john
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After finding this thread – I’d like to ask a quick question.
Can normal vinyl be used for wrapping? or do you need specialist vinyl?
I know I’m likely to get a lecture for asking this question, but ill give it a go.Out of curiosity, i wrapped my phone up in vinyl, seemed to work fine. Now all the phones in my house are bright orange.
I thought it would look cool if my car had orange wing mirrors…
didn’t go too well – ended up trying to do it in sections, but the joins are horrible. I’m gonna end up painting them now – but it’d be nice to know how I should have done it. -
Wrap vinyl will make the job MUCH easier.
john
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Michael,
Your mirrors you’d need a cast material. You can ‘wrap’ using any vinyl. But the complexity of the object your wrapping will determine what type of vinyl you should use.
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Thanks for the quick response!
Will be looking into appropriate vinyl now.
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The other tip I can give you is to start applying on the flat area of the mirror.
Then you want to picture this. Imagine you pulled off the mirror off the car and you held it in a position so that flat area was facing the ground. Now if you can imagine submerging the mirror into a bucket of water the level of the water will be constant.
You want to apply the vinyl in the same manner working slowly right around the mirror. If you try to do one side then the other you will be pulling the vinyl and it will want to touch the mirror before you squeegee it down.
This is the best I can explain this concept in text.
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That makes perfect sense!
Do people generally do this on their own?
I mean, two hands to stretch the vinyl, an extra one for heat, and another one for the squeegee! 😛 -
I do it on my own. But if I got two people watching I get them to hold the vinyl for me and I am a tone quicker.
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quote Jayne Marsh:vehicle wrapping is a tricky thing to do and most signmakers go on a course to learn how.I would like to go on the course to learn to wrap but would i need to go more than once to do a full wrap? its very expensive, the roland dg course is £600.00 pounds each, is it worth it?
Thanks,
Chris -
Chris,
put it this way,
if you do a wrap, and charge £1000,
then have to do it again a few weeks later because it fails, then the £600
for a course is money well spent. and has paid for itself on the fist job,
I think you would need to be fairly proficient at fitting vinyl to start with to be able to do a full unassisted wrap afterwards.Training should be considered like buying in the correct materials to do job.
Inferior materials just dont do the job.
Peter
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quote Chris Rundle:the roland dg course is £600.00 pounds each, is it worth it?Depends. 😀
If you want to make a career out of wrapping, then it will probably be the best investment you can make.
Iif you just want to wrap your own race car, then you’d be better forgetting the course and getting a professional to do the job.
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