Red and White Pin Stripes, and Spoiler Shading on my GT

[mkhuffman]

Any suggestions on how you guys cut/planned/dealt with this when you did it? I did not see this referenced.

I wrapped the vinyl over the camera, pressed it hard as I could down into the crevices, and then cut carefully and as closely as I could to the camera lens. You want extra vinyl you can push down into the crevice around the camera, so cut on the lens side of the crevice. But don't scratch the lens!

 

[PalsyWalsy]

I wrapped the vinyl over the camera, pressed it hard as I could down into the crevices, and then cut carefully and as closely as I could to the camera lens. You want extra vinyl you can push down into the crevice around the camera, so cut on the lens side of the crevice. But don't scratch the lens!

Yeaaahhh, soooo, that is why I asked. Always looking for best practice and learn from those that did it already. That was on my mind.

 

[Freeman]

Any suggestions on how you guys cut/planned/dealt with this when you did it? I did not see this referenced.

This part stressed me out a bit. I kind of forgot about the camera after I had finished getting the vinyl placed / adhered. I had already trimmed the edges when I tackled the camera area. I felt around for the tiny gap between the camera housing and the body. Then I carefully cut using an X-acto blade around the area. Well, actually I started to do this, but then kind of tore the vinyl in a circle and miraculously this mostly worked.

In the pic you can see the bottom section still shows a bit of white on the inside. This is where I did the cut. The rest is part of the tear. This is totally invisible from a foot or two away.

If I was to do this again (and I totally would), I would use a chair. I spend hours working on this and squatted most of the time. My legs hurt for at least a weak after (yes, that intentionally misspelled).

 

[DarkMatter89]

Applying the rear hatch wrap underneath the “spoiler” is very easy. Here are the steps I took and lessons learned.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. As you are folding it over, make sure you don’t 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 Mark’s is not wrinkled.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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 doesn’t 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 won’t 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 isn’t very noticeable, so just be careful and it will be fine. My wife hates it when I say “it is fine”. 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, don’t 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. Don’t 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 don’t cut your car!

Do you have a link for the black vinyl?

 

[mkhuffman]

Do you have a link for the black vinyl?

Yep:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152457074501

I ordered 5x2.

 

[DarkMatter89]

Yep:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/152457074501

I ordered 5x2.

Thanks

 

[Warren Peace]

Thanks @mkhuffman for the write up and pictures. Funnily enough I'm in a very similar boat. I'm heavily leaning towards the racing strips but my wife is very much not a fan lolol. So I'm trying to decide on another type of accent that that would still look unique but haven't settled on anything yet. Appreciate the pics!

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I love how creative people are getting. So nice to see how everyone is expressing themselves. Gonna be a bit before my GT is complete enough to show off. Please share what you end up choosing @Warren Peace

 

[PalsyWalsy]

I stole your idea and added it to my DMG GT, but just between the wheel wells. I felt the car needed something being so dark, as I wanted a line between the black and gray to help differentiate, and your awesome idea brought in the calipers. Of course I de-badged and tinted the taillights too.

I put them on while my wife was away for a few hours and she did not notice for three days. She then mentioned she did not recall it having red there and how much she likes it (I did not tell her I did it, so she thinks it came that way).

 

[mkhuffman]

I put them on while my wife was away for a few hours and she did not notice for three days. She then mentioned she did not recall it having red there and how much she likes it (I did not tell her I did it, so she thinks it came that way).

That sounds just like my wife! Except she was home when I did it so she knows the truth.

 

[mkhuffman]

Mike, I agree having a white car like yours, you don't really need to tint the upper part of the taillights like I did but I don't think it would look bad at all. You might want to just put some black vinyl on the upper part temporary to see what you think. I mainly did it so it would look different than all the other Mach-E's out there. Some tint the entire taillight but tinting just half gives it a completely different look.

Mark, I have been imagining (using your pictures to help) what that will look like on my car and I think I will probably do it the same way you did. It might be a while before I try, but it should be easier than the other things I did. I agree it does look even more distinctive that way.

 

[PalsyWalsy]

That sounds just like my wife! Except she was home when I did it so she knows the truth.

I am now waiting for us to be driving, and when she sees another one without the stripe, to ask about it. I am sure I will make up something ridiculous to see how long I can keep it going.

 

[FarSide]

For many months I thought I would put stripes on the hood like others have done. I was really thinking of a subtle color, like a light grey on the Star White paint. But When I got the car, I just thought it looked so good without the stripes. (Also, my wife didn't like the idea.) I started thinking something even more subtle than tonal stripes would be cool, and I really like the red brake calipers.

So I thought red would be really good along the bottom, as a divider between the black and the white. Another reason for that (besides complementing the calipers) is to emphasize the lines between the black and white.

I also really like the rear bumper fins, but they are hard to see - so I thought maybe white pin stripes would make them more noticeable. After I put them on I had a great idea to put them on the front, on the black part that goes into the air "ducts" on each side of the front bumper. Personally I think that looks better than the white pinstripes I put on the rear bumper.

I have a lot of white pin stripe tape on the roll, so where else could I put it? The rear view mirrors! And then a double line on the rear of the roof, along the crease already there.

But the rear hatch still needed something, like a black spoiler. But I thought putting black under the back side of the hatch ridge might look good enough that I would not need to put a spoiler on. While I think the aerodynamic impact would be minimal, I am reluctant to put on a spoiler in case it reduces the efficiency of the air flow.

So I put a strip of black 3M wrap under the ridge, and I think this looks the best of all the cosmetic mods I have done. And while it turns out Mark Boris also did this mod, I didn't know he did it until after I did mine. We had the same idea.

All in all, I am very happy with how it came out.

If you like anything I have done, copy away! Let me know if you have any questions about how I did it.

This really looks great and creative. I have never put a stripe on my car but I think I can maybe handle this task without completely screwing things up. Can you post a pic with the door open so that I can see exactly where the strip was applied? Thanks !

 

[mkhuffman]

This really looks great and creative. I have never put a stripe on my car but I think I can maybe handle this task without completely screwing things up. Can you post a pic with the door open so that I can see exactly where the strip was applied? Thanks !

Glad you like it! Here are the additional pictures you asked for:

 

[PalsyWalsy]

Glad you like it! Here are the additional pictures you asked for:

Wait, I just noticed, have you not de-badged yet? Any plans? Just seems like something you would do to keep your clean lines.