Sorry for the delay, as I intended to write up an explanation for the black wrap on the tailgate this afternoon, but it looks like I ran out of time to do it today. I will try to put it together tomorrow night.
GREAT writeup. Thanks a ton. I'm going to give this a shot this upcoming weekend.
Great write up, thanks for all the effort in putting that together, I just ordered the materials! Iām gonna try it for myself.Applying the rear hatch wrap underneath the āspoilerā is very easy. Here are the steps I took and lessons learned.
- If you order the 1 foot strip like I did, cut about a third off and use that part for the application. I started out trying to apply using the entire foot, but it becomes hard to manage and it wants to roll up on itself.
- Make sure the length you cut off will fit by holding it up to the car and folding it over. If you cut it too short, you have the other half you can use.
- Clean the surface of the hatch where you plan to apply the wrap. Search the internet for the best way to do this, but I used glass cleaner and then a wax stripper. Anyway, you want the surface to be as clean as possible with no waxy residue.
- Peal the back off and align one side at the ridge on the spoiler (the side the company you purchased it from cut, not the side you cut). I used the middle ridge, Mark used the lower one. Either way looks similar. My instructions will assume you did what I did.
- After aligning one side, align it to the middle and then the other side. You can pull it off and straighten it, but the more you do that it will reduce how reliably it adheres and it may stretch. So take it slow and be careful. Mine looks pretty straight, especially from a few feet away, but you can see it is slightly wavy. That is because of repositioning and stretching of the vinyl.
- Once you have the top aligned you can start folding it over and pulling it down. I used a heat gun to warm the vinyl some to make it easier to lie flat and stretch into the curves. A hair dryer would probably work better because it is not as hot as a heat gun.
- As you are folding it over, make sure you donāt have any folds or bubbles. I had to pull it back frequently to get it flat. Even with that I still got some wrinkles. They are hard to see because the vinyl is black and in a shadow, but you can definitely see the wrinkles. I bet Markās is not wrinkled.
- Once you get it flat and covering the area fully, it is time to cut. I did something really stupid at this point, that I am sure an expert would not do. I thought my knife was aligned in the gap between the taillight and hatch, but it was not. So I put scratches along each tail light. So stupid. Luckily it is hard to see, but I know they are there and it sucks. Be very careful with the cutting step.
- Cut the ends so they fold over into the side of the hatch. Cut along the lights and ridge so the vinyl folds into the creases.
- I used the ends of the remaining vinyl to extend the vinyl beyond the hatch and over the tail lights. I had the edges angle down until they ended at the lights. Without these pieces the hatch shading just ends at the end of the hatch and doesnāt look right.
If you screw any of this up, you can start over with the other half of the vinyl. I recommend watching YouTube videos of how to apply vinyl before doing this. It isn't hard, but you have to go slow and be very careful.
Here are some pictures to show what I did and how I screwed up, so you hopefully wonāt make my mistakes.
This picture shows the edge of the wrap over the tail light. You can see the transition is obvious, but only if you are close to the car. Anyway, the left side was much better, and you cannot see how the wrap blends into the tail light. If you are very careful, and cut slowly, you can get a better result. But even if it looks like this, it is fine. IMO!
This picture shows how the wrap comes to the end of the hatch. Note you can see a little waviness in the edge along the spoiler. It is hard to avoid when positioning the wrap, and the more you move it, the more it stretches. That is when you get waviness. It isnāt very noticeable, so just be careful and it will be fine. My wife hates it when I say āit is fineā. To her, it is not. (This is unrelated to the wrap, just off on a tangent. Sorry.)
And now for my screw ups. The scratches are really painful to look at. I wish I could do it again and fix it, but the damage is done. It is possible with a little heat from the heat gun, and maybe a little rubbing, I can make the scratches less obvious. But I can feel them so they are not that shallow. And in reality, you cannot see them when standing 3 feet back from the car, so really I should just relax and let it go. Let it go.
The wrinkles are definitely noticeable, but like the scratches are hard to see when standing 3 feet behind the car. So in reality, donāt worry about them. Just do what you can to work them out. The heat gun helps smooth them, and the heat gun helps when folding over the wrap between the hatch and tail light. Heat it, and it shrinks a little and adheres better. Donāt heat it too much or it will shrivel up. Bad news.
The bottom line: this is just vinyl. If you make a mistake, it can be fixed. Unless you cut your car, and then it cannot. So donāt cut your car!
That was a bit nerve wracking. Iāve never done something like this before and am a bit of a perfectionist. Plus, having a knife so near the paint on my MME ā¦ well, definitely time for a beer.
Interesting.That was a bit nerve wracking. Iāve never done something like this before and am a bit of a perfectionist. Plus, having a knife so near the paint on my MME ā¦ well, definitely time for a beer.
Iām quite pleased with the results. I appreciate your write up and tips. They definitely helped.
LOL
Looks good Ron. I bet it was nerve wracking and why I chose to have my detailer apply the wrap. Not sure if you saw my post in December about this wrap but I also tinted the upper section of my taillights. I think it just adds more to that "Spoiler Shading" look that Mike calls it. #55That was a bit nerve wracking. Iāve never done something like this before and am a bit of a perfectionist. Plus, having a knife so near the paint on my MME ā¦ well, definitely time for a beer.
Iām quite pleased with the results. I appreciate your write up and tips. They definitely helped.
Your post along with Mikeās inspired me to do this. While nerve wracking, I really wanted to give this a shot myself. I do enjoy learning new skills. As for the shading on the lights, that is the next thing Iām going to look into. Iām going to use some of the spare vinyl to cover the lights just to see what it will look like. That will provide me the go/no-go based on how I like it.
Looks great! Good work! Any wrinkles? Hopefully no cuts.That was a bit nerve wracking. Iāve never done something like this before and am a bit of a perfectionist. Plus, having a knife so near the paint on my MME ā¦ well, definitely time for a beer.
Iām quite pleased with the results. I appreciate your write up and tips. They definitely helped.
Only one small area has a wrinkle or two. Like you mentioned in your post, you only notice it when you are up close; at 3 ft it is invisible.
I had mine done by my detail guy. He cut around it and up very close you can see there are small wrinkles but it is very slight. You have to get within a couple of inches to see it.Any suggestions on how you guys cut/planned/dealt with this when you did it? I did not see this referenced.
