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Nice Job!

Did you use a heat gun at all? a heat gun will usually help get rid of any wrinkles and bubbles in the finish.

Josh wrote:Nice Job!

Did you use a heat gun at all? a heat gun will usually help get rid of any wrinkles and bubbles in the finish.

yeah you need a bit of heat to conform the vinyl to curves and stuff. The cheap vinyl I'm using right now is not very conformable so it only works well on the larger mostly flat surfaces like the doors and fenders. From the videos I've watched the 3M vinyl requires less heat to shape and can go around much more dramatic corners.

I'm also going to pick up some of the Oracal 970RA cast vinyl (same manufacturer of the cheap stuff I got but high tech like 3M) because I figured out today that after screwing up several panels and starting over I don't have enough to finish. Now I'll be able to compare the 3M and it's competition and give you all a full report.

DeadMaker wrote:Man you have made a fantastic job so far..It looks like it's painted with black primer.Try to paint the bumper primer.You might have better results..

I tried several different "satin" and "flat" black paints and a few primers and this one was the closest. The vinyl isn't flat black it's matte black so it's actually really hard to match.

Lol now you can't call it the purple beast!

Mooneggs wrote:not bad! maybe I can do it myself!

My recommendation is to not bother with trying to use the cheap stuff. Yes it's very inexpensive but it's very hard to work with and nearly impossible to prevent bubbles.

I can get the Oracal 970RA for $25/yd and it takes about 15-16yds to do the whole car. So it's cheaper than the 3M and the woman I spoke with said it's very high quality and easy to work with.

I could have done the whole car for $420ish with a lot less hassle. As it is I'm going to be over $300 trying to do it cheap and I've pulled out a lot of hair.

Please don't hurt me for telling you this when it is too late. Have you seen plasti dipped cars? The same stuff you put on your plier handles comes in a spray can and it creates a great satin paint job.

http://carfanatix.posterous.com/paintin ... -plastidip

I am going to plasti-dip my car soon-ish

If your bored Google "plasti dip car" and you will have 17 hours of viewing excitement. I called them and they are not sure the long term effects of their coating in an automotive finish application. I will try it and let everyone know.

That's interesting. The black on that Audi looks more flat than matte to me. I like it but I prefer my choice for looks. I just wish it was easier.

I could definitely see doing that to a set of rims though.

http://imageshack.us/m/20/7753/24059517 ... 991502.jpg

Ya the Audi does look flat in that pic. This Bimmer is more like what it actually looks like.

I smoked a set of tail lights I had laying around with the Nightshades VHT paint. Looks pretty good although I cracked both lenses removing them. I'll try again with another pair.

I'm waiting for more vinyl to arrive. I don't want to post any more pictures until it's done.

This motivates me that I can do anything with my car's shell in it's current condition.

It's a shame how cancerous rust is to our cars up north.

I just got out of a pull a part in atlanta, and there was a 92 GS black. It was purchased in ATL, and it died in ATL (original paperwork still in the glove compartment)
You wouldn't believe how pristine everything was as far as rust was concerned. Even the suspension parts were clean.

Wow... Black... No more raspberry... i think i might cry.

Don't cry De...the Raspberry may be back someday. I just couldn't afford to do it properly right now.

Just another question about your Brakes.

You'd only need the hubs for the front from a 323 v6 ?
Could I use other parts from a 323 v6 as well ? For example; rear brakes?

I'm not sure how the rear brakes on that car differ so I can't say for sure. The word around town is that the rear hubs do swap straight accross to the MX-3. If the hubs fit our spindles, there's a good chance that the spindles will swap right in as well. You may or may not need the spindles to use their brakes.

I do know that you can use the 323F/Lantis hubs front and rear to do the 5 lug conversion.

So the bodywork epic is coming to an end and it's not all good.

To recap...
- I started with a large amount of good quality, but inexpensive vinyl which is not meant for car wrapping, but has been used successfully by others on the webernet. It worked well enough on the flatter panels but was impossible to work with on the bumpers.

- I acquired about 80 sqft of 3M Scotchprint vinyl which IS made specifically for wrapping cars and tried that on the bumpers. After 4 hours I determined that I am not skilled enough to apply it with any decent looking results.

So last weekend I peeled it off the rear bumper again, sanded the parts of the car that were not yet covered in vinyl and spray painted with Krylon Fusion satin black. This weekend I will be removing the vinyl from most of the restof the car and painting it all so that it will all be the same shade of black.

Epic vinyl fail.

Sad.

I read a sweet quote on someone's facebook wall the other day.



(let me know if you want me to take off the IMG brackets so its not in your worklog so obviously...


So maybe vinyl isn't your thing. Oh well. The work on your car is still awesome.