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Vinyl wrapped dash completed

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  UncleGuy 
#1 · (Edited)
The tan interior comes with plastic molded dash pieces that are a swirly black pattern. I really wanted a burl wood look that comes with the light frost interior color but not have the gloss finish. The solution was to wrap these pieces with vinyl. I ordered a 24" x 36" roll of Burlwood (Honey) from Rvinyl. They have every color/pattern you could think of from leather to machine turn finish stainless steel.

http://www.rvinyl.com/vinyl-wrap.html

I've never worked with vinyl before but it turned out fantastic. At first it was agonizing thinking it would never work but I kept at it and never had to redo a piece. Cut an over sized piece that will leave a couple inches overlap. Clean the trim piece, they sell spray bottles of cleaning and application fluid, basically alcohol and soap solutions. Then spray the application fluid, this helps to reduce air bubbles and wrinkles. Gently lay the vinyl on the piece and start applying pressure left to right, it will stick a little bit at this point. Use a hair dryer at medium setting and heat it up one section at a time for a few seconds. The vinyl will melt if you use high setting for more than a few of seconds. Quickly smooth it out over the edges/curves with your fingers and plastic squeegee, for tight corners and edges I heat it up and pull/stretch it. Do this over and over one section at a time until it's prefect. Once fitted, trim off all the excess and heat and smooth the whole surface again with hard pressure. It's a difficult process for these compound curves but doable if you have patience and semi-skilled hands. I'd suggest watching watching the videos on Rvinyl site and youtube vinyl wrapping vids if you've never done it before.

The dash pieces you can remove as they are held in with snap clips but the door pieces do not remove.
 

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#4 ·
Great job vertrkr! How'd you do the doors if they don't come off?
 
#5 ·
Vertrkt - it looks awesome. It looks particularly good in the last, day light image you posted.

I like the choice of design. I too an curious how you did the door pieces.

This isn't one I need to do, since we have the light frost interior, but its a great upgrade for anyone wanting a wood look.
 
#7 · (Edited)
For the door pieces you just have to do them in place. Once you heat up the vinyl the plastic squeegee can push the vinyl into the crevices pretty well so you don't see the edges. You need to be careful with the x-acto knife when trimming leaving about 1/32" of overlap to be tucked in.

It took me about 30 minutes per piece. I kept drinking a few beers when starting and had to stop after completing one piece as I was afraid I'd screw up the next one. There's a lesson in there somewhere for me. Other projects and life got in the way of this one so it took me a little while to finish.
 
#8 ·
For the door pieces you just have to do them in place. Once you heat up the vinyl the plastic squeegee can push the vinyl into the crevices pretty well so you don't see the edges. You need to be careful with the x-acto knife when trimming leaving about 1/32" of overlap to be tucked in. It took me about 30 minutes per piece. I kept drinking a few beers when starting and had to stop after completing one piece as I was afraid I'd screw up the next one. There's a lesson in there somewhere for me. Other projects and life got in the way of this one so it took me a little while to finish.
Wonder if you use some kind of lacquer or a clear wrap if it would give the wood depth like you'd expect. Perhaps trying it first on a board to see the effect.
 
#12 · (Edited)
I work for a large custom sign company that does a fair amount of vinyl application every week. A few things to keep in mind...
a) The professional application fluid is not mandatory. Just use a few drops (maybe half a cap full) of Joy dish washing soap in a bottle of water.
b) Do NOT clean the surface with Windex. Do NOT use Windex as a substitute for the soap application fluid. It damages the vinyl.
c) 3M Di-NOC is some very cool stuff! Made in Japan and they've got tons of finishes -- and especially realistic "wood-looking" vinyls with not much gloss. If nobody told you it was vinyl, you might never know. Expensive. And a little hard to find. They do, however, discontinue finishes every year, so be aware it may not be available three years from now.
d) There are also Felt Squeegees available, if you want to further protect the finish on the vinyl. The semi-hard vinyl squeegees work just fine, but applicators like to wrap the edges in flat cotton or microfiber cloth to keep from scratching delicate finishes.

Finally, this is off this subject a bit, but if some of you decide to add gold-leaf-type lettering or stripes to the exterior -- do NOT use any vinyl other than a product called "Sign Gold" or "Real Gold".
http://www.beacongraphics.com/supplies/signgold/signgold.html
http://www.realgoldinc.com/index.php?sign

Applies like vinyl, but is real gold and holds up to the punishments of outdoor environments. Great Florentine Swirl patterns, etc. All metalized vinyls will fade rather quickly outdoors -- except these type of products. Especially silver and gold. Just be sure the product you buy is rated for outdoors, with a guarantee. Note that the Silver products listed at Beacon carry NO OUTDOOR WARRANTY.
 
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