Blog post #5

For the wrap material I went back and forth for a while between the different brands and companies. I think everyone knows 3M is the best (at a lot of things), but the cost is also higher.  I found a number of cool wrap designs and the best ones were on 3M material.  I was tempted by the cheap wraps on EBAY and could have gotten the material for about $120 or so but I'm super glad I spent the $ on some quality stuff.  After a few hours of research, I bought a roll of 60" x 25 feet from a company called vinyl sickness and found a 15% off coupon before placing the order which brought the total cost to about $370  (usd). This worked out well for me since my top is 30" and I was able to cut the width in half for each side. I have never wrapped a vehicle before.  I have however applied vinyl stickers and had some experience with the material. An associate of mine who runs a sign business gave me a felt pad for applicating wrap and I can tell you with certainty that if you do not have one of these, you have no chance of applying the material without massive wrinkles.  Since I didn't have a helper but also didn't want a bunch of seams, I decided to apply the wrap in three 5' sections on each side starting from the top.  I unwrapped a few inches of the backing after I was satisfied the top was affixed straight. I worked from the middle both out and down with the felt pad while pulling the bottom of the sheet at the same time.  Since I did this on a ladder I definitely worked some muscle groups that were previously ignored.  The process overall took a couple of days, and luckily the weather was nice at about 60 degrees F. I noticed that when it got a few degrees warmer closer to 70, the vinyl stretched a little too easy and when it was closer to 50 it was much harder to pull the vinyl to avoid wrinkles.  I firmly believe that 60 is the perfect temperature for this job.  I used a heat gun at the low setting to work out a few spots but it wasn't needed for most of the job. Since the top is flat it was easier to do these areas than the hood. I did section the hood and struggled bit in some areas. Once the wrap was done I applied 2" butyl tape with aluminum backing to the top seams of the roof and doubled up on the areas with the rivets. By doing the sealing in a couple stages (before and after wrap)  I am confident that there will never be leaks.