DIY truck wrap with matte black vinyl

[menerso]

here is a pic of the rear bumper finished.

You can pop the top plastic piece with a little brute force. There is a plastic pop rivet towards the center that you need to pop too. It is not replaceable. I need to go get a replacement.



Now I am going to try to figure out how to remove the plastic cap from the side mirrors... I tried wrapping it when it is on the truck and it doesn't work too well.

For all you desert racers... that orange thing in the background is a SNOW BLOWER.

 

[menerso]

Another update....

I finished the passenger side rear fender and flare on Friday and the side doors on Saturday. Below are some pictures. This time my wife helped me out by holding the wrap and applying heat when needed. It made it go much quicker and look better. Although I would catch her using some of the vinyl scraps as a skin exfoliator. She would wrap her legs and peel it off... with all her dead skin. All I could think of was the pictures and stories of some of your wives helping with your projects, running with you in the desert and mud... some how I don't think my wife would be doing that.

Anyway, the rear fender and flare went really easy. Not as much curves as the front. Removal of the rear taillight and marker light is easy. Removal the flare was easy (used the body toolkit mentioned earlier) No broken snaps. I popped the bed top cap up about an inch to lay the wrap under. It took a couple of hours.




Next was the two passenger side doors and molding. To do this, I removed the side mirror, both door handles and the 6.2L badge. I cut a 9 foot by 5 foot piece of vinyl. It gave me around a foot of extra. I used the cutting tape for the first time around the door seams. It worked sweet. You need to be careful of the edges... if you pull too hard the string will cut the corner too sharply. Just be aware of this and it is not a problem

This was by far the most time consuming. Lots of edges. Lots of curves. Lots of areas that needed to be shoved under moldings. It took 6-7 hours total. I lost about 5 pounds of sweat too. So much sweat was coming out of me that my head band filled up twice.

The worst area was on the back of the cab that curves around in behind the bed. I think the only way someone can do this is by removing the bed. It is just impossible to get your hands back there to pull the wrap around. I did NOT remove the bed and I am thinking will be putting a patch in there. You can see in a picture below. After I took this picture, I did cut out all the wrinkles so it looks really good now... just needs the patch to not see the gloss black.








I am going to update the first post with lengths of wrap I used for each section too.

I just need to finish the drivers side, rear quarter, doors and molding and roof.

 

[NickPic83]

Great job. Its looking awesome

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[menerso]

A couple of things I noticed too last weekend. I got a couple of places that "pulled up" on the front facia. I think I know why too. After you finish wrapping the area, you NEED to go over the area with the heat gun to "SET" the film... especially in the corners and valleys. I didn't do that on the front facia. The other option that I may do, since this area was a high stretch place to get around the curves, is to use the 3M primer to hold the vinyl down. I am debating ripping it all off and re-applying or just pealing back and the using the primer to hold it down. Either way, it is still pretty good that this is the only area popping up.







Thanks everyone for the well wishes on the looks. It makes it easier to keep going.

 

[cbs001]

Very nice job. I have had my truck wrapped since Feb. I have had areas peal and pull up over the past two months which I attribute to the ambient temperature alone.

One way you may want to consider to wrap your side mirrors is to buy the chrome ford covers and wrap them.

 

[menerso]

One way you may want to consider to wrap your side mirrors is to buy the chrome ford covers and wrap them.

I did wrap the mirror caps... I must have forgot to mention it. I ended up taking the mirrors apart to get the caps off. Here is how to do it, a thread from BigJ. http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f11/how-install-side-view-mirror-led-blinkers-rear-facing-puddle-lights-6658/

I did think about wrapping the mirror plastic, but since there is enough of that black plastic accents on the truck (SVT side vent, door handles, antenna, etc) it didn't look out of place .

Good thought though for others that may want to do this.

 

[_Rudy_]

nice work man!

 

[NY SCREW]

wow man im impressed looks really good great job man

 

[menerso]

One way you may want to consider to wrap your side mirrors is to buy the chrome ford covers and wrap them.

Here is what cbs001 was talking about... Sorry, stole this from your gallery. It looks pretty cool

 

[dataustin]

Menerso, the question is "would you do it again?".