Vinyl wrapping

[sil3nt]

cost me $80 to wrap my whole bike :P

I am far too impatient to wait for overseas delivery. Got this stuff to try it out and if it looks ok I will buy it from overseas. Got almost 3 full sets of fairings that can be wrapped

[imdying]

What, did you want lime? Lemon? Sambucca?

Any of those is better than fake carbon, doubly given the wide range of cool looking vinyl you can get.

[Gremlin]

Got the cheap one to practice with for now. Will try and wrap the mirrors on my bike.

Depending on the mirrors, it's probably one of the more tricky areas to start with, most have quite rounded shapes... but see how you go, after all, you can always pull it off

[sil3nt]

I spent an hour on this last night. The mirrors have seen the road in the past (deep scratches on them) and the paint is flaky so no the best surface to be sticking to.

I also didn't have a sharp knife so when I tried to cut around the glass it ended up dragging and ripping rather than cutting nicely. The photo of the glass side actually makes it look 100 times worse than it really is. It was the last part I did so rushed through it.

Getting around the stalk was easier than expected.

This cheap vinyl is a pain to get air bubbles out of. Have to keep lifting and re applying. It would have been a lot easier if I did it in the garage with it attached to the bike. It is a job for three or four hands not two!

I am happy with how this turned out. Might give the stalk a go tonight and then the other mirror. I am sure working with 3M vinyl on flatter fairings would be a lot easier.

[tigertim20]

It takes a fair bit of patience!!!.
Objects that arent fairly broad and flat are much easier to do, it you have one person to hole and rotate / move the item itself, and the other person to apply the vinyl. When we did Hayd3n's tank, thats how we approached it, and it still took the two of us a good while to get it done, and we did it in two pieces. would have been way longer using one piece

[3umph]

we wrapped my bike in 6 hrs Attachment 300680
has been onfor over a year now
you can buy a 3m adhesive that helps the vinyl stick alot better

cool stichers on your bike

[3umph]

Advice from someone in the signage industry...

make sure you know what vinyl you are actually buying... cheap vinyls are just that, you get what you pay for... good vinyls for conforming and doing quality jobs cost more but make life easier...

There are vinyl suppliers around the country that will sell to people and also most signwriters will get some in for you as well...

You need a High performance cast vinyl as they mold to shape and remember the shape when heated then cooled.
Also do not expect the vinyl to stretch to far without problems and parts lifting. They age good but not designe to stretch more the 15-20% from memory.
I tried as an experiment to wrap my daytona side panel in one piece with matt black but the deep air vent was just to deep and the vinyl pulled off in the inside corners due to the tension that it was under (deepest part was about 75mm), other then that it was on in one piece.

There are adhesion promoters and advise to use if tension will be an issue and also good on edges to reduce lifting.

If you can get air release then thats heaps easier.

Also take your time, use a heatgun when needed to mold the vinyl. Its amazing how flexable the good vinyl gets with heat...

Don't do it on a cold day in a cold room or you are asking for problems!!

Having 2 people also helps, one can heat while other molds and hold tension.

Use a soft squeegee or wrap soft side of velcro over squeegee edge to give a softer edge or use a felt squeegee.

Start on the easier parts before attempting the harder parts. Its also easier t do still mounted on the bike then flopping about on a bench...