Matte Blue Pearl Vinyl Wrap

[bogart]

I had some free time today, so I decided to start wrapping. I'm going to post pictures throughout the process and sort of do a DIY / Lessons Learned for anyone else that wants to do this.

I started with the side-skirts, because they are really easy to remove, and it's a heck of a lot easier to wrap around edges and move the piece around to make it easier to work on. The door sills were not as easy to remove as everyone in the DIYs made it out to be. I ended up breaking the clips, but the little white pieces still fit back in allowing me to snap the sill back down once I was done. The other plugs under the sill were very easy, and then the screws on the bottom were a piece of cake. I had both skirts off in 20 minutes or so.

Once the skirts were off, it's important to clean, and clean well. I washed them with water and a little bit of dish soap. Then I used Dupli-Color wax and grease remover, wiped it dry, and then cleaned it with 91% rubbing alcohol. Holy cow, the alcohol evaporates fast!!! This is great, because it leaves you with a perfectly dry piece in a short period of time. I did one last wipe with a clean, dry cloth and they were ready to go.

I measured the side skirts, adding an additional 6 inches to the measurements and then un-rolled the vinyl to cut. Cuts don't have to be exact, a lot of excess material is cut off as the piece is wrapped. Mask one side to the side skirt to prevent it from blowing away, and then peel back about six inches on the other end and move the backing to start laying down the vinyl. Lay the vinyl down little by little. It doesn't stick very hard until it's pressed, so it's fairly easy to manipulate. Keep working the material all the way across the side skirt, and don't worry about the edges yet. After the vinyl is formed to the skirt all the way across, then start working the edges and more complex curves little by little. I mostly used my fingers on the side-skirts to press the material down, and switched back and forth to the felt-tipped squeegee. Once the skirt was completely wrapped and all excess material was cut away, I lightly heated the entire skirt with the heat gun to get good adhesion.

One thing I learned was that the vinyl can be stretched very easily and pretty far when heated. Be careful not to over heat.

It takes a lot of patience and time, and the more you work the material, the more you learn how it works and better techniques.

Time for side skirts: 3.5 hours

Tools:
- 5ft x 100ft of vinyl
- Amount used for each skirt: 16" x 82"
- Exacto knife
- Avery Felt-tipped squeegee
- Soap and water
- Dupli-color wax and grease remover
- 91% rubbing alcohol
- Brand new microfiber cloths
- Containers to put the cleaners in and soak the microfiber cloths
- Heat gun
- Masking tape
- iPhone w/ Pandora
- A lot of patience and then some more
- Tools to remove side skirts

[Sylon]

Looks good so far! How do you feel about driving around with a multi-colored car? lol



On your passenger side, what are the lines that extend from the inside of the door sill to the bottom of the car on the sideskirt? Is that just dirt or a flaw in the vinyl?

[bogart]

Originally Posted by Sylon

Looks good so far! How do you feel about driving around with a multi-colored car? lol



On your passenger side, what are the lines that extend from the inside of the door sill to the bottom of the car on the sideskirt? Is that just dirt or a flaw in the vinyl?

Haha... well, it was part carbon fiber and part space gray for a while, so I'm kind of used to it. Plus, it's funny to see people's puzzled looks, trying to figure out why parts of the car are blue.

It's the sun beams coming through a wooden fence.

[NC135]

Looking good man, very nice job so far.

[Gdubz]

So jealous, I want to do this to my car. Looks amazing so far!

[Golden3ye]

SIIIIIICK

do you have any wrapping experience or are you just jumping in, if so you are a brave man

[Greenkirby21]

looks great, although if it took you that long just for the door sills i wonder how long for the entire car xD. But looks fantastic congrrats!

[bogart]

Originally Posted by Golden3ye

SIIIIIICK

do you have any wrapping experience or are you just jumping in, if so you are a brave man

I wrapped my interior pieces. Kind of learning as I go. I've watched a lot of youtube videos and read articles/forums.

Originally Posted by Greenkirby21

looks great, although if it took you that long just for the door sills i wonder how long for the entire car xD. But looks fantastic congrrats!

Actually, the sills are a lot more intricate than many other parts of the car. The time also included set-up, removal, cleaning, wrapping, reinstallation, clean-up, and photos. So, not too bad.

[Zoraster]

Great job. I'll be following your progress closely as I intend to do this to my 3er soon. Bored of black!

[AW128i]

Subscribed!

I've always had it in the back of my mind that I'd wrap a car one day, so can't wait to see the finished product. Question for those with experience, what kind of care is needed post-wrap? Do you still need to wash/wax the car, just wash it? Is it similar to the factory "frozen" paint finishes?

[RaihaX]

That looks really good.

[bogart]

Originally Posted by AW128i

Subscribed!

I've always had it in the back of my mind that I'd wrap a car one day, so can't wait to see the finished product. Question for those with experience, what kind of care is needed post-wrap? Do you still need to wash/wax the car, just wash it? Is it similar to the factory "frozen" paint finishes?

Matte wrap: Wash
Gloss wrap: Wash and can wax as well, can treat pretty much the same as normal paint

[AW128i]

Originally Posted by bogart

Matte wrap: Wash
Gloss wrap: Wash and can wax as well, can treat pretty much the same as normal paint

Thanks for the info! What about removing bugs, road tar, etc. from a matte wrap; can you use normal cleaning methods (e.g., clay bar, bug/tar remover, etc.) to deal with these types of problems?

[bogart]

Originally Posted by AW128i

Thanks for the info! What about removing bugs, road tar, etc. from a matte wrap; can you use normal cleaning methods (e.g., clay bar, bug/tar remover, etc.) to deal with these types of problems?

Not sure about clay barring matte wrap, but you can definitely use any type of cleaner to get bugs and tar off. The nice thing about matte wrap is it's not as fussy as frozen paint aka matte paint. It can still be scratched, so you have to be careful of that, but if a panel does get scratched or damaged, the nice thing is that it's easy to re-do.

[bogart]

I think I will do the roof next. Stay tuned

[Mr Kleen]

I saw a frozen blue 550i Touring at the DTM Presentation 2012 event over the weekend.
It looked good, this is going to look better.

[BFD99]

Awesome! I'm subscribing to this. Good work so far sir!

[HebbNH]

Can't wait to see the finished product!

[ChrisCuts]

love the matte-blue!

[MGallop]

looks superb

[chrisN]

uh oh...about to orgasm in excitement. ps cool weight lifting shoes.

[Killswitch]

cant wait to see the whole car done.