Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

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Taipan
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Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Taipan »

Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping? I see some interesting matt/reflective/garish colours on bikes lately which are clearly wraps. Just wondering how hard is wrapping?
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Skub
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Skub »

Uh oh. :shock:
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MrLongbeard
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by MrLongbeard »

Like wresting an octopus who has a switch blade taped to each tentacle.
Unless it's perfectly flat, or a very gentle curve it's a complete ball ache to get it wrinkle and bubble free, but then I am a cack handed lump hammer kinda guy.

For a bike I'd sooner go with a proper plastidip type of kit https://www.dipyourcar.com/
It's always in the back of my mind if I ever find a cheap set of tins & tank for the Harley I'll be playing.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Yorick »

Another one who's taking his top tart title very seriously :)
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Le_Fromage_Grande »

MrLongbeard wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:21 pm Like wresting an octopus who has a switch blade taped to each tentacle.
Unless it's perfectly flat, or a very gentle curve it's a complete ball ache to get it wrinkle and bubble free, .
The above is true, imagine putting on fairing stickers that cover the whole fairing, but are made for a different bike.
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Taipan
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Taipan »

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:34 pm
MrLongbeard wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:21 pm Like wresting an octopus who has a switch blade taped to each tentacle.
Unless it's perfectly flat, or a very gentle curve it's a complete ball ache to get it wrinkle and bubble free, .
The above is true, imagine putting on fairing stickers that cover the whole fairing, but are made for a different bike.
:lol:
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Druid
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Druid »

I did the bonnet of our Merc Vito. Twice.

I watched some YouTube videos, it looked pretty straightforward. It wasn't

I wouldn't even try to wrap anything like a petrol tank
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Yorick »

This wallpaper will suit sir :)
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Hairybiker84 »

After spending lots of time in my youth re-applying courier company stickers to the sides of vans we'd repaired, I'll pass thanks!
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Bigyin »

E-Man formerly of Visordown does vinyl wrapping and i know he was dabbling in plastidip as well. He normally does big jobs on things like horse transporters and the like.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Scotsrich »

Another thing to add to the long list of ‘it looks easy but isn’t’
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by KungFooBob »

I did a section of the RS tank...

Image

That was the third attempt and it was nowhere near perfect.

The surface you're doing it on has to be perfect, no decals, no scratches or lumps or they'll show through the wrap.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Taipan »

The bike in question was a mk2 Tmax with what looked like quite flat panels.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by lostboy »

I helped wrap a yacht once. One of our sponsors wanted to vinyl wrap it for an event so I went along to the graphics guys that were doing it to see how it all worked. Even the more forgiving (but very sizeable) curves on that made it a fucking nightmare - and that was with the graphics having been plotted so that they worked when streched out over the 3d surface.

Good luck!
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Screwdriver »

I have had a go with some random bike parts. Horrible, horrible job.

There's virtually nothing on a bike that has nice big gentle curves. There are perforations and obstacles everywhere and hardly any bike parts have a "return" you can fold the excess to.

Nightmare. Forgetaboutit.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by Mussels »

Rattlecan it is then.
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Re: Anyone ever done any vinyl wrapping?

Post by The Spin Doctor »

I put my LPs back in the sleeves, if that counts.
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