Vinyl Wrap and Paint Protection Investigation

[zKars]

When I had my 73 painted, WAY back in 2008 (9?), I decided to get the front facing surfaces "3M"'ed with that clear bra stuff. Found a good little local shop with a guy and his wife starting out, and they did a great job. Across the hood up to the hump, front edge of the head light scoops, on each headlight and behind each wheel to catch gravel spray. Cost me ~$400 bucks. I keep it waxed and it still looks good (ie I pretty much forget it exists) to this day.

I had it applied to a new Nissan Altima right after by the dealship and that was more like $800. Ouch.

I has intrigued me for a couple years on and off and I decided to go buy some of this stuff and see just how hard it is to apply. My application idea is actually to apply it below the master brake cylinder and over the frame rail down to bottom of the rail below the firewall to protect against brake fluid damage. Why is the topic for whole nother thread. Let's just say I'm getting good at applying white paint....

So there are two kinds of film. Solid color/pattern "vehicle wrap" vinyl and clear paint protection vinyl. The "Wrap your Ride" vinyl is thinner and more conformative, the clear paint protection stuff is thicker. 

So after some experimenting, I found that this stuff is not simple to install, but it's well within the skills I know most of you/us have. Find the local vinyl wholesaler and go buy some scraps, a few simple tools, some squeegee bottles and go after it.

I've done a few parts of the white 71 that's on its way to finding a new owner.  I hope. A great first project was cutting out two 6.5 inch circles of the clear and sticking it on the headlights. Easy peasy. They are not flat and need a little sqeeqee action and heat to make them disappear. Putting the piece on the frame rail was easy, its flat, just a bend over the edge. Now the chunk under the brake master is very very NOT FLAT, and it took some trial and error to learn how to do that with fancy heat and squeegee action, but I got it.

I'd show pictures of it, but frankly you can't see it!

There is another option. Spray-on clear paint protection from 3M. I bought a couple of cans of it about 5 years ago when it first came out (rather then the "dip" crap, although I'm sure it's gotten better). I applied it to the underside of the front valence, which was off along with the fender, It's drying tonight, after a second attempt. I think it will look great given what I've seen so far. Clearly it's a shorter term solution, its rated for a 2 year life.

Stuff is cool, after the first attempt met with a couple of "issues" during application (I won't go into the nitty gritty details,  cough cough...), I let it dry for all of about 3 hours, and most of it peeled right off like it was the clear vinyl stuff. Trick is to apply it thick enough so the resulting film is strong enough to withstand peeling later.

The vinyl wrap and paint protection films are the best option for time, function and appearance. Watch a couple YouTube video's from the manufacturers to get the general methods, and give it a shot. You can buy pre cut paint protection kits from ebay for most modern cars and the simple tools to apply it, Then its just spray, position, squeegee, heat, pray, curse, lift, spray, stretch, sqeeqee, repeat, heat, done!

Best thing is, if you screw up, peel it off, no harm done. 

 

[zKars]

Oh yeah! I also peeled the aged, dirty, marked up, scratched protective films off my iphone and ipad screens that I spent WAY too much to get in the first place, and stuck on a nice chunk of this nice clear film. Spent about 30 cents and got nice fresh thick film. Looking through it right now while typing this.  

I can now safely duct tape my IPad to the front of car and do the Go-Pro thing and never worry about rock chips again.

[dmorales-bello]

I've been thinking of different applications of the clear protective film myself and was just yesterday thinking of appllying it over my perfect NOS fuse box cover to protect it from scuffs. If and when you have to take it off, do you think it will lift the white lettering on the fuse box cover?

Another great place to use that film is on the battery tray and the area below it although the latter would be quite a challenge due to space restrictions.

[zKars]

49 minutes ago, dmoralesbello said:

I've been thinking of different applications of the clear protective film myself and was just yesterday thinking of appllying it over my perfect NOS fuse box cover to protect it from scuffs. If and when you have to take it off, do you think it will lift the white lettering on the fuse box cover?

Another great place to use that film is on the battery tray and the area below it although the latter would be quite a challenge due to space restrictions.

I love the fuse box cover protection idea, but I'm quite sure it would remove the lettering if peeled off. Depends on if the heat you need to melt the glue gets high enough to affect the lettering paint. It looks so clear I'd doubt you'd ever want to remove it. Just keep it waxed! 

I also love the battery tray area protection idea, definitely challenging to do using the film, but a breeze using the spray on stuff.

[dmorales-bello]

I'm not familiar with the spray, can you post a pic of the can?

[zKars]

Dis is da stuff

:http://www.autozone.com/landing/page.jsp?name=3m-paint-defender-spray-film

[dmorales-bello]

Thanks, will start to experiment with it.

[Namerow]

Hard to keep up with all the new chemicals and materials that are appearing on the market!  These strippable films make me wonder whether spray-on-paint jobs (i.e. traditional exterior finish coats @ $5K to $15K final cost) will disappear.

[Outdoor_funguy]

I got my car covered with Vinyl Wrap from www.gatorwraps.com . They have a lot of wraps, 3M Vinyl Wraps or Avery Denison Vinyl Wraps. You might want to visit the website tho, you can request for a quote plus they have a lot of vinyl wraps with lots of colors to choose from.