It's off the same roll as what I used to do the exterior; so it's identical. It's quite a thin film, and my front bumper is covered with chips now sadly :( there is absolutely zero deterioration that I can see in the vinyl. Really happy with the long term result. It's been over a year now since I did it, too.

I buy it from Viperstripes Direct. Always had great service from those guys.

Edited 30 April, 201313 yr by Harry_vRS

I did mine two weeks ago, looked really good but it looks like the glue on the back of the vinyl is loosing its stickiness as its coming off the parts i wrapped, not happy about that.

I wrapped the radio surround and light control bits as well as the gear surround and ashtray.

Unfortunately the hot weather has caused the vinyl to move a bit. I will be spraying them gloss black now.

Good guide though.

@w8 - I've not had that problem yet, thankfully, and had purposely left the car in direct sunlight to see if it had an effect. Long may it continue as it is!

@harry - (tried to pm this, but it wouldn't send!)

I had a look at vinylstripes after your recommendation. If you don't mind, I've got a few questions about the process!

Are there sheets large enough to cover the roof or bonnet in 1? It looks like the rolls aren't big enough to do that (unless I'm missing something on the site!)

Were there any guides online you consulted? I've been asked to help wrap a friend's bonnet and I really don't want to screw it up!

Cheers

Danny

Looks really good! I also have an A5 Cab would it be possible to wrap the hood cover?

Harry?! Please help! :p

@harry - (tried to pm this, but it wouldn't send!)

I had a look at vinylstripes after your recommendation. If you don't mind, I've got a few questions about the process!

Are there sheets large enough to cover the roof or bonnet in 1? It looks like the rolls aren't big enough to do that (unless I'm missing something on the site!)

Were there any guides online you consulted? I've been asked to help wrap a friend's bonnet and I really don't want to screw it up!

Cheers

Danny

Hi Danny,

The sheets are 1.52m wide (5') and are wide enough to do any panel on the car. Around a 2m length of vinyl is enough to do your roof. You buy the vinyl in multiples of 1m. So, if you want 20m (just enough for a car an Octavia's size) then you'd order 20 x 1m lengths of vinyl, and it'll all come on one continuous roll.

As for guides, I did a LOT of research on YouTube. There is a tonne of info on there. I did a lot of it on my own, if I were to do it again I'd employ a mate to help me as it was so much easier when someone else was there to lend a hand. The sides of the car including the doors were all done in one go. This helps to save vinyl and you get a better finish, because believe it or not, there is a direction to the vinyl and in direct sunlight there will be a different finish between panels if the vinyl on each were applied in different planes.

I used a mop to wet the floor in the unit where I did it, to trap dust to the floor and stop it rising into the atmosphere and ultimately onto the vinyl. Loads of little tips like that, that you probably wouldn't think of, really help improve the process.

Edited 9 May, 201313 yr by Harry_vRS

That looks great, you can see a lot of care has gone into it! I would love to do mine in yellow at some point.

Hi Danny,

The sheets are 1.52m wide (5') and are wide enough to do any panel on the car. Around a 2m length of vinyl is enough to do your roof. You buy the vinyl in multiples of 1m. So, if you want 20m (just enough for a car an Octavia's size) then you'd order 20 x 1m lengths of vinyl, and it'll all come on one continuous roll.

As for guides, I did a LOT of research on YouTube. There is a tonne of info on there. I did a lot of it on my own, if I were to do it again I'd employ a mate to help me as it was so much easier when someone else was there to lend a hand. The sides of the car including the doors were all done in one go. This helps to save vinyl and you get a better finish, because believe it or not, there is a direction to the vinyl and in direct sunlight there will be a different finish between panels if the vinyl on each were applied in different planes.

I used a mop to wet the floor in the unit where I did it, to trap dust to the floor and stop it rising into the atmosphere and ultimately onto the vinyl. Loads of little tips like that, that you probably wouldn't think of, really help improve the process.

Cheers Harry, that's great. I'll research it thoroughly and give it a bash.

The one problem I envisage with doing the entire side in a single go is that it doesn't really *wrap* too well and ends up looking like a massive sticker. The 'pro' done wraps I've seen on a lot of commercial vehicles (with graphics printed) look ****e up close. You can clearly see the edges of the vinyl, the original paintwork around the edges and, also, the corners are always frayed because they haven't got enough vinyl to work it around the panel effectively. It might be painstaking doing each panel at a time and trying to manually line up the pattern, but I think it is worth it in the long run.

Are you going to any meets in the near future? I've love to see your motor in the flesh!

That looks great, you can see a lot of care has gone into it! I would love to do mine in yellow at some point.

Do it pal! I have just finished the whole car now and I'm really happy with the finish. If I get a yellow VRS, I plan to vinyl wrap the grill and some of the interior in claret (the colours of my football team's away shirt!) as it looks great and would be very unique!

Right, an update, which will illustrate what rob_quads offered to the thread.

I did the rear doors today. So much easier when you pop the door handle cover off!

You can see the gap here;

Stick a screw driver in and gently lever until the bottom half starts to come away and you can hear some creaking;

Then grab both the left and right of the handle cover and pull with both hands.

It pops off really easily. For your reference, the metal clips and plastic slots can be seen here, after I yanked these off a spare door card;

The finish is much more crisp than cutting, as I did in the first post.

I'll be off to the national meet mate - see you there hopefully

Hopefully so. Just planning my trip now.

Still on my to-do list is this but its now nearer the top than before and with a weekend of on-call looming, I might get myself some vinyl and give it a go!

Hows is everyones holding up? Someone above mentioned it came off - anyones still good as the day it was done and if so, where was the vinyl from?

Mine is spot on still, after a month or so of pretty high temperatures in the cabin.

Mines ok too but the radio surround vinyl is coming away due to the heat and the tight edges in the design of it. Needs redoing really

Mine has been fine in all the recent heat

OK, another question - for the interior, how much vinyl did you need/order? Got a weekend with some time free coming up and want to get mine sorted...

Moved to the General Guides? Why's that?!

Great post mate.

Thanks

Very handy thread, been wrapping this weekend. After 2 attempts of the centre radio panel, still not perfect. Need to perfect the round edges and cutting out the area for the climate controls.

maybe i need to be more generous with the heat gun. Although, my heat gun on the lower setting seems to melt the vinyl.

I will have another attempt and may consider sending off to a pro.

Don't buy the cheap **** off eBay, as soon as the car heats up it will fail, most of the stuff advertised on eBay is Callander film made for sign writing not wrapping, you need a good quality cast vinyl like 3m's 1080 or avery supreme, and you MUST reheat the vinyl to its required temperature to reset it's memory or it will never stay where you fit it, and for the price of it, just buy a squeegee too instead of using spoons. Use a heat gun, not a hair dryer, they blow too much and don't give out enough heat, you should be reheating vinyl to around 100 degrees, so a heat gun is needed, if people need any solid advice and not hear say give me a shout, I've been doing this a long time.

Thanks Redders

I'll have to get some decent vinyl, as I got off eBay - at least I have had some practice now!

ATB

Paul

Bumping this old thread.  Looks good! Been meaning to do this for a while and seeing this guide has made it feel less daunting.

 

Would one of these be enough?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-1080-Black-Gloss-Car-Wrap-Vinyl-G12-152x120cm-/401158211920?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

Edited 6 March, 20179 yr by planehazza