How hard is vinylling!!
Wont rushing doing that again!

[Edited on 28/5/12 by maccmike]

what were you vinyling and did
you use water?

it was a rear spoiler andend plates. Plates were easy but spoiler was hard. No I didnt use water, I assume that makes it easier?

soapy water sure does (only a tiny amount of soap) i can guarantee it!
had a job today, sticking 2 x 1 metre long stickers on a flat surface, and 3 smaller ones, sort of tabloid newspaper size. had to do that twice (so 10 stickers in all)

first 5, i screwed up, all wrinkled, full of bubbles, thought i'd just throw in the towel and tell them to get someone else to do the 2nd lot, remembered the thing about soapy water, and the 2nd lot went on perfectly!

use a spray bottle to get a fine mist of water on, then lay you vinyl on, use a cloth and or old credit card to squeeze out air bubbles and more importantly the water, once thats out, thats when its properly stuck down. made the job a LOT easier

Agreed. It is much harder than it looks.

Yes, always wet the surface with soapy water from plant sprayer first. There is speial (expensive) soap for the job but I'm told "Johnsons Baby shampoo" is the next best thing by a local sign man.

I'd disagree with that, I found soapy water far more difficult than dry. Mind you, I was working with complex curves and needed the vinyl to actually stick firm whilst I heated and pulled it to fit the curves.

I can imagine it making stickers easier (apart from anything it allows them to be slid into the right place), but for full panel coverage I'd go for dry every time.

The absolutely most important thing is the quality of the vinyl. Cheap vinyl is really difficult to work with, whereas the proper stuff is so much easier.

I strongly suggest to anybody that attempts vinyl wrapping to spend 20mins on youtube first looking through various tutorials.

I did a couple of little things and had trouble. 6 months later I did the above before vinyling my side panels. Since then I have done loads of things that are complex. It is stressful but with practice its a lot of fun. A second set of hands is always good aswell.

The key is both water (I dont use soap) and a hair dryer (heat gun gives out too much heat). I dont use a scrapper.

Good quality vinyl is amazing at how much it can stretch. Dont worry about the water not allowing it to stick, water gets bubbles and creases out, almost impossibly when the back is still sticky.

See also thread here

Cheers

Fred W B