Vinyl wrap

DesertKZ said:
I've always used water, even with 3m stuff. Hmm... don't know why they'd say that. Those window tint installation kits they sell at autozone or o'reilly's work good for applying vinyl.

I work in the sign/vehicle graphics industry and vinyl wrap all the time. 3M makes many types of vinyl for specific applications. It sounds like the 3M vinyl you are talking about is their wrapping cast 1080 film. This stuff is made for wrapping cars (we buy it in 60" rolls). Some vinyls you can wet mount with a soapy water solution (1tbl spoon Sunlight dish soap, 1tbl spoon isopropyl alcohol, 1 gallon water), others are designed for only dry applications. The dry only ones have air release channels (3M calls this Comply) in the adhesive to minimize air bubbles (if you do get bubbles with this stuff, most if not all can be pushed out without pin holes). The 1080 wrapping cast has Comply and should not be applied wet (if applied wet, the wet solution will be stuck in the air release channels). The 1080 wrapping cast also has what 3M calls "Controltac" which are pressure sensitive micro beads in the adhesive (the vinyl doesn't really stick hard until you squeegee it on).

If you do try to vinyl your tank, the easiest stuff to use will be the 3M 1080 wrapping cast, but, wrapping a tank without seamming it is tricky to do. For this application, you should also use 3M tape primer on the edges of the tank (where the vinyl will end) to get extra adhesion. You will need a heat gun for stetching and shrinking the vinyl. Also, you will be better off staying away from the brushed and carbon fiber look vinyl for a seamless tank application. These are harder to apply on contoured surfaces because you can easily get a waver in the lines (a waver in the lines will have the illusion of a dent).

I hope it turns out great. I wish I was there to give you a hand, it's alot of fun.
 
I wish you were here to lend a hand too! I can't complain about the quality of the vinyl. Mine was a case of a good quality product with bad quality installation. I was actually still impressed with how forgiving the stuff was in spite of me. But I think sometimes vinyl gets knocked more than it should. The bad thing about it is that the stuff can get expensive to waste, so most people just never get good with it. I think I paid like 20 bucks for the piece just large enough to do my tank, with no margin for error. Id like to give it another shot some other time tho.
 
Slantyface said:
Here's a picture of the one piece I managed to not screw up. I don't know how else to say it other than that this stuff really mimics metal in a convincing way. At least to the mostly untrained eye...or at least my eyes...

Your panel looks great, very nice choice of colour and texture. I used that same vinyl on the upper half of our company's HHR (everything above the bodyline above the door handles [including the hood and roof]). The rest of the car was wrapped with a couple of other vinyl colours (White Aluminum Metallic and Black Metallic). You are right, it does mimic metal in a convincing way. Their carbon fiber vinyl also looks really convincing too. Don't feel too bad about about your tank application not working out. Wrapping a tank without having seams is a very tricky application (it's easier to do an entire car [including roof, bumpers, mirrors, and handles] than it is to do a seamless tank application). Again, your vinyl application on that panel looks great.
 
Well this is the progress so far on my sl350 went with plasti dip instead of vinyl wrap and slapped some graphics on it. Plasti dip is pretty sweet like how you can peal it off if you dont like or mess up. I call the bike a 72 HRC sl350 repsol
 

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finished up this morning may add some more decals down the road turned out pretty good i think.
 

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Im really diggin' the wood grain. From what I understand on this build he sprayed a basecoat of metallic burnt orange and dipped over that, and then cleared over the hydro? That's how its got such a nice finish. Beautiful if you ask me...
 
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