New Transit Custom Rear Door Wrap Advice

[Peter Cassidy]

i would lower my risk and apply it like your red line photo, david.
the pain will be the vinyl you are left with to fold over onto the roof will need a bit of heat and manoeuvring to get it into that shape. it should be easy enough because it is just a solid colour.

[David Hammond]

That was my thought, but then wasn’t sure if I was moving the problem elsewhere.

[David McDonald]

We do them as the yellow and didn’t have any problems.
One thing we found was that we had to bake the colour coded plastic bumpers for ages to get a good stick on them, 2-3 times longer than on the plastic bumpers on previous models. Don’t know what caused this. We were using 970.

Cheers

[David Hammond]

Cheers David,

I’ve had an issue with the van in the picture where the blue swoop came away, and part on the other side, no issues on any other vehicles, just the new ford. I wondered if the paint was different or they were coating them with something.

I believe our paths may be crossing at the end of the month on a training course 👍

[Chris Wilson]

It’s one hell of a shape all over.
Side inlays are MASSIVE. On the other hand, let’s all just be grateful the reversing camera is not in the middle of the back left door recessed panel anymore
🤣🤣

[RobertLambie]

There are multiple ways to wrap any part of any vehicle.
The following are just three examples of “stages” for wrapping the same door.

ONE:
This is the most common method and “failure” process.
too much tension is being built up applying the wrap in these steps.

TWO:
This sequence of applications is fail-safe for the vinyl but can be tricky for the installer to fit it.

THREE:
This method, if installed correctly, will help reduce the tension in the vinyl at key points where failure will happen. It can be argued that steps 2 and 3 could be flipped and still work.
Picture 3, also requires angling of the heat gun towards areas 4 and 5, while floating/levitating the surface to allow the stretch to be taken from those areas rather than the recessed area. (hope that makes sense)

What is not shown, is the cleaning that should be done in all recessed areas to remove dirt, grime, wax/polish etc. More time spent cleaning these areas will ensure a better performance from the vinyl adhesive.

[Mark Johnston]

why are 2 and 3 better and what one is best?

[David Hammond]

All down to how much stretch you put in the material, too much and the adhesive becomes thin, and the vinyl will fail as there is tension in the film.

By working out of the recess, opposed to in, there should in theory be less tension, and what tension there is spread over a larger surface area. I think Arlon actually specify this method for their PCC.

[RobertLambie]

METHOD TWO:
You can see that this method shows that you would be installing the vinyl from the flat area first, working your way out to the edges of the panel.

[1] Yellow

“The Edges” are at the bottom of the recess. Therefore, the vinyl has been applied flat up until this point, so there is zero tension in the vinyl. It is in a 100% relaxed state. There has also been, zero heat required.

Next, you want to work the relaxed vinyl around the curve of the bottom of the recess, proceeding to the straight upright wall of the recess. Again, the vinyl is 100% relaxed and zero heat is required.

So what happens as you progress?
You move up the sides, over the knuckle at the top of the recess and onto the flat area of the panel. At this point, the vinyl is still 100% relaxed and zero heat is required.

CORNERS.
The corner areas of the vinyl, using this process will bunch up in these areas. You do NOT want to allow this to become a tight bunching of the vinyl. Just watch for it forming and hit it with some heat at the hottest setting, but only for a second or so. You will see the bunching, relax. So you then start to work the vinyl up and over the corner areas, onto the flat.
At this point, you can apply some more heat if the vinyl is not relaxed enough and flat-looking, but if you are using some of the better wrapping films on the market and your workshop is room temperature warm, the need for heat will be a bare minimum as the vinyl is supple enough to manipulate.

So, in summary…
You have just applied vinyl relaxed, and with the bare minimum of heat, with the minimum amount of stretch possible.
Therefore, if done correctly with quality vinyl, there should be zero chance of failure.

So, of the three methods, Method two is best, followed by Method three.

[RobertLambie]

METHOD THREE
Method Three will also work just fine, it is the most tried and tested option and could be argued as quicker and the better of the three depending on the graphics design, the film type being applied, and/or the installer’s experience.

My reply here is purely to state which of the three options could technically be classed as the film being installed with the least amount of tension and, therefore has arguably the lowest chance of failing.
However, METHOD TWO is also limited in where it can or should be used on a vehicle.
E.G.
This post has been made to ask for guidance on installing a solid single-colour wrapping vinyl using Avery Supreme, on this certain type and style of rear door.

[David Hammond]

I’ve wrapped two of these this week, and the ‘spoiler’ on the back isn’t as bad as I first thought.

My method was kind of #3, but worked applied the yellow area in the photo first, then working up and out on the pink areas, before applying the recess with the stretch in area 5. Applying to yellow area first with no tension in the vinyl made it a more conventional recess, and then just work it round the corner.

These new vans are easier to do than the older ones, although take great care removing the ford badge as they’re very fragile.

[Mark Johnston]

thanks rob
in the past i would use method one but we had fails and switched to method three.
it is easy to fall back to using parts of method one at times, bad habits i guess.

i understand method two but struggling to get my head around doing it. 😬

thanks for the explanation buddy.

[Martyn]

Regards to method 3, where does the heat and stretch come from to lay into section 2? section 5?

[David Hammond]

Heat and stretch at 5, the theory being the stretch can’t fail on the flat area.

Not so easy when working with something like 970 which will have started to grab whilst working the other areas

[Martyn]

ye tricky. Especially has you dont really want 5 to touch and settle to the panel. Thanks.