Tried some 3M 1080 vinyl

[crash93ssei]

I have a 2003 Bonneville SSEi and it has the same boring dash as all the other 2000+ Bonnevilles except the 2004 and 2005 GXP. The GXP had a carbon fiber look to the dash vents which really sticks out and looks very sporty and just overall different and not so plain / boring, but are hard to come buy and I don't want to pay for them.

I ran across this thread from sullysdetailing http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...3-amg-superior-auto-design-south-florida.html and ordered some 3M 1080 black carbon fiber vinyl to cover the vents in my car.



Before

After

 

[swanicyouth]

That looks awesome. I have some external trim pieces I want to do in matte black, the door guards/strips that run down the side of the truck. The paint on them now is messed up from some tar remover I used on them. Your work came out great. Was it hard to work with? How do you prep the surface? Where do you get the wrap from?

 

[david79z28]

Wow that came out great!!!

I same questions as swanicyouth

 

[crash93ssei]

I got the wrap on amazon.com, picked up a 1'x5' roll. The specific company it came from was Auto Vinyl Solutions, they were great to work with. Easy to order, and very fast shipping. When I checked the order it said it should be here around Monday, but it came in Friday instead, I was very impressed!

The vinyl is actually very easy to work with, but it has to be warmed up to do so. When it is room temperature it would be impossible to wrap anything like this. I used a blowdryer and was happy with it, but then yesterday I took a little bit to work and covered the back cover of my cell phone (Droid Bionic) and used a heat gun... while a blow dryer works ok, a heat gun is absolutely the way to go, I am going to pick one up from Lowe's today


As for surface prep, I just made sure it was clean to begin with, washed my hands to make sure they were very clean then wiped the parts down with rubbing alcohol to ensure there is no oils or dirt on them. I have a complete writeup of how I did it with pics that I can post if anyone is interested.

 

[Mobile detail]

I got the wrap on amazon.com, picked up a 1'x5' roll. The specific company it came from was Auto Vinyl Solutions, they were great to work with. Easy to order, and very fast shipping. When I checked the order it said it should be here around Monday, but it came in Friday instead, I was very impressed!

The vinyl is actually very easy to work with, but it has to be warmed up to do so. When it is room temperature it would be impossible to wrap anything like this. I used a blowdryer and was happy with it, but then yesterday I took a little bit to work and covered the back cover of my cell phone (Droid Bionic) and used a heat gun... while a blow dryer works ok, a heat gun is absolutely the way to go, I am going to pick one up from Lowe's today


As for surface prep, I just made sure it was clean to begin with, washed my hands to make sure they were very clean then wiped the parts down with rubbing alcohol to ensure there is no oils or dirt on them. I have a complete writeup of how I did it with pics that I can post if anyone is interested.

Id like to read your write up. I wouldn't mind doing my Samsung skyrocket SII. I think that would look pretty sick. So how do you cut out a templet for doing the vents/trim? do you just line it up and start cutting or do you heat it up let it adhere and then cut whree you need to?

 

[BobbyG]

Well don't that beat all, carbon fiber in an afternoon....rops:

 

[alko]

Man that looks great! You did an awesome job with the application. Looks professionally done.

 

[BWG707]

I would be very interested in seeing your write up. I'm thinking about doing my A pillars. I went to a car graphics shop and their prices to do just 2 small A pillars was ridiculous.

 

[crash93ssei]

Ok, I copied this directly from the forum I wrote it up for, so it is somewhat Bonneville specific, but the basic outline of it should work for other vehicles, trim parts, and vinyls. Please keep in mind that I am not an expert with this, nor am I claiming to be. This is the method I used after doing some research on it and watching some youtube videos, there may be better ways out there. I did find that using a real heat gun definitely works much better then a blow dryer, keep that in mind. Also, the more you have to stretch the vinyl, the harder it is. These were quite simple, however the door handle bezel I just got done doing was very difficult for me and took over an hour and two tries and it is still not 100% perfect.

Part 1
This write up is specifically for wrapping the 2000+ dash vents using 3M 1080 carbon fiber vinyl, but other interior parts on all years as well as different vinyl materials will also be a very similar process.



I ordered a 1'x5' roll of the vinyl from amazon.com for about $21 shipped and I still have a TON of it left, more then enough to do several sets of vents.


Remove the trim bezel from your vent housing, it just pops off. Clean it thoroughly with rubbing alcohol to remove any oils and dirt that may be on it to ensure a good hold for the vinyl.

Lay the bezel on the wrap and cut out a section slightly larger then the overall size of the part you are working on.

Peel the backing off the vinyl and lay the vinyl sticky side up on a flat surface, then lay the part down as centered as possible on the vinyl

Pick the part with the vinyl attached, careful to not touch the sticky area as much as possible. If it is relatively flat you can just slowly work around the outside edges to get the basic area laid out, if it is not very flat use a blow dryer to add a little heat and make it smooth over the outer surface.

I set the blow dryer on high heat, low fan speed on it's side on the edge of the counter to leave both of my hands free to work. Start with the outside edge, pull and stretch the vinyl over the edges, curves are the hardest part as the vinyl will want to wrinkle when going around them, just keep heat on it and pull it tight enough to remove the wrinkles then press and hold the vinyl to the surface until it cools and holds, usually a couple seconds.

Continue your way around the outside and you end up with this.

At this point you can cut little slits inside the area to be drawn into the vent area

Heat it up again and begin to work it down.

When you get to the bottom of the vent area, cut off all but about 1/8" and cut little slits in that all the way to the edge of the vent so you can heat it and bend them over the edge on the back side.

 

[crash93ssei]

Part 2


Start on the other side repeating the process, I found that more slits makes it easier to stretch.

Cut a few slits in the vent adjust section, one right down the middle and two on either side by the curved edge to make it fold into the inside easy.

Heat and wrap that around to the inside.

You now have a finished vent bezel.