Vinyl wraps

[Toilet Duck]

Hello all,

Does anyone know how "stretchy" the material used for vinyl wraps is? Specifically, could a single piece be used to cover the yellow air scoop behind the driver/passenger in this pic of an Ariel Atom?



Cheers in advance

[Toilet Duck]

MrC986 said:

l think if you read the websites for some of the companies who do this, they heat the vinyl & can apparently wrap almost any shape & even have a finish that looks like carbon fibre.

Yeah I had a look at some youtube clips (one of them was a "carbon look" wrap as well!) and saw that they used heat guns to make the material stretch. I just wondered if it was possible to wrap that Atom air scoop as its such a unique/odd shape; not only does it have the curve but it tapers down at one end, so the wrap would have to stretch a massive amount.

I imagine that there are both decent vinyl wrap materials and completely dogste materials, with everything in between. Does anyone have any experience or could recommend specific makes to avoid/buy?

Thanks

[Toilet Duck]

Conian said:

would carbon dipping be suited to that part perhaps?

Not heard of that before; I just had a quick google and that seems a very neat idea!

I'm not actually looking for a "carbon" look. I recently bought some 3m Ventureshield paint protection film and had a go at fitting it myself, I'm very pleased with how it came out. It got me thinking that if vinyl wrap is a similar material, I might try my hand at that. A quick google seems to indicate that the material is not very expensive, and on an Atom there is only two proper "panels", the bonnet section and the air scoop. If its possible to wrap the air scoop, then I'd like to have a go at changing the colour of both panels with a vinyl wrap myself. For such a small area, it would be possible (and cheap) to change the colour a few times a year if I fancied it. I'm just not sure if the air scoop is too much of an awkward shape.

Cheers

[Toilet Duck]

burrelly7 said:

3m 1080 Controltac.

I use it to wrap loads of parts (spoilers,interior parts,roof,mirrors).

It's the best stuff available and great to work with

Thanks very much for the info!

Are you able to recommend any suppliers for this material?

In your experience, do you think it would be possible to wrap the air scoop on the Atom using the 3m stuff?

Does it stretch as much as 3m Ventureshield? That stretches just by pulling on it, I've not tried using a heat gun on that stuff, but from watching youtube it seems that you have to apply heat to vinyl wraps to get them to stretch.

Cheers

[Toilet Duck]

burrelly7 said:

Yes mate. It stretches with ease once heat is applied. It will wrap the part you have highlighted. The bonus with 3M1080 is that it holds its colour even when stretched and is memory vinyl so once it cools it holds it mold form (if that makes sense).

I've wrapped loads of stuff especially with there carbon and it looks mega.

I use a company called William Smiths based in Barnard Castle. If you google them you will get all the info you need :-)

Thats great, much appreciated

I found their website but it doesnt seem to work/open for some reason (tried opening it with both IE and Chrome). I'll give them a call in the new year.

When applying heat, is it best to use a heat gun or a hair dryer? I don't want to melt the vinyl but I don't know if it needs more heat than a hair dryer generates. I assume you apply the 3M 1080 dry and don't use soapy water as with Ventureshield?

Thanks again

[Toilet Duck]

pro paul said:

to the op the shape of the scoop shouldnt cause you to many issues

i would recommend you warm and stretch the material along the length of the panel a little first

this will cause the sides to naturally droop and start to self form

then dress downward

burrelly7 said:

Yes mate. It stretches with ease once heat is applied. It will wrap the part you have highlighted. The bonus with 3M1080 is that it holds its colour even when stretched and is memory vinyl so once it cools it holds it mold form (if that makes sense).

I've wrapped loads of stuff especially with there carbon and it looks mega.

I use a company called William Smiths based in Barnard Castle. If you google them you will get all the info you need :-)

this is complete miss information - if you just heat and stretch the material, over time it will pull back and fail due to retaining its memory of its relaxed state

what you should do is once formed to the substrate is heat any areas that have been stretched or extended to between 80 and 90 degrees c

this process is called post heating and will re set the materials memory to its new form

this should be done accurately with a laser thermometer

atb

Paul

Thanks very much for the advice.

Funnily enough, I came across your website whilst googling vinyl wraps

I've got a laser thermometer; what sort of temperature should I heat the vinyl to whilst applying it initially? I assume 80/90 degrees C is just for the sort heating phase?

Do you use 3M vinyl for your work?

Thanks again!

Edited by Toilet Duck on Sunday 30th December 10:16

[Toilet Duck]

burrelly7 said:

Fair play, you got some nice looking work going on there.

Please understand, I was only trying to help and for what I've done it's worked. However, to do the jobs you are completing must have learned you a thing or too :-)

Hello mate,

You've been a big help :-)

It's good to get a few different opinions. I'm "only" doing a couple of panels so hopefully it will be relatively simple (famous last words!). However, If the pro's are offering advice on here then I will take all that they give

Cheers

[Toilet Duck]

pro paul said:

its no trouble at all fella its only areas that have been stretched that need post heating to reset the memory - gentle heat is all you need for install

we tend to use Hexis vinyl as the 3m pallet is extremely limited since they dropped the 85 series

atb

Paul

Thanks for that. I was going to ask "how stretchy is Hexis vinyl," but I found the following youtube clip which answers that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iID-x0cJvOg

Why do they apply heat to "flatten" out the vinyl after moulding it into a shape? They seem to apply heat to enable the vinyl to wrap around the persons fist/arm, and then reapply heat to remove the shape its formed and return the vinyl back to a flat sheet. Its as if heat both stretches and shrinks the vinyl?

Thanks again