Vinyl wrap or plasti-dip?
 

Planning to have my Miata vinyl wrapped, but kicking around the idea of saving some money by dipping the car myself. I've dipped plenty of wheels & small parts, but never a whole car. However, I do not want a matte finish.

Should I just stick to the vinyl wrap plan?

Bonus if you can recommend a reputable vinyl wrap shop in the Chester County, PA area.

I dipped a hardtop before. Giant pain in the butt, came out like garbage, and I'll never do it again. So yeah...

Done many wheels and small items before, all were easy and came out perfect.

They have a spray application version that yields much better results... just one option....https://www.dipyourcar.com/

I personally would rather do a budget respray (NAPA can match most automakers color codes, and you can have 2K clear coat for 15 bucks a can) for the amount of effort I'd be putting in, but to each their own.

I used the DYC spray gun and the gallon jugs to dip my race car in 2015. The dip is still on the car and still looks decent. I wouldn't do it on something I wanted to look great and or have good reliability. Super easy to spray and if you do it correctly it's really easy to remove.

If you don't want a matte finish stay away from DIP, you should get enough of the wrap to try the trunk or a fender your self. Huge cost savings to do it yourself, just takes time. I've got less than 450$ in materials to wrap my Miata including the hardtop.

Make sure to look up how to do the wrap correctly, there is a VAST difference in how most "professional shops" wrap cars, and the correct process for 10 year longevity.

If you've ever tried to remove plastidip vs vinyl wrap, you'll find your answer quickly. Such a PITA to remove dip. Same with cheap vinyl. Find a shop that uses quality vinyl. Looks better and lasts.

Another vote for staying away from dip on large areas, I did my hardtop, and after a couple years it wore through and then there was no pealing it off. It ended up taking hours of scrubbing with some orange remover stuff.

Mineral spirits to soften it up and a pressure washer to strip it off. 50/50 chance of hurting the base paint. Vinyl is the same chance of pulling up paint, really wouldn't go either route on paint you want to save.

Paint is not that expensive and even a beginner can typically get a result that looks much better than dip.

Care to elaborate? I'm planning to keep this car long term. Reason for wrap is I simply want the car orange. Paint is fine.

I really like the 3M Fiery Orange vinyl. What vinyl brands should one stay away from?

We mainly use 3M 1080. Avery makes a good vinyl as well - SW 900 I think. Avery adhesive is a little less aggressive. Stay away from anything else. Search Youtube for Justin Pate and get a lot of great tips on install.

1080 and SW 900 are air-release vinyls ... they have channels in the adhesive that allows the air bubbles to get out easier ... and the adhesive is re-positionable (until you squeegee it down). Makes it a lot easier to work with.

Clean clean clean ... then clean again. Make sure to get under fender lips, inside door edges etc .. We use denatured alcohol or MEK. :)

Some of the colored vinyls are position dependent .... so you need to make sure all panels are applied the same direction from the roll.

Wrap tip of your squeegee with felt.

Tools - squeegee, magnets to hold/position vinyl, slitter ( to easily cut the backer), gloves and a blade ... except for the blade as we prefer the plastic housing blades so they don't scratch paint ... this looks okay - http://a.co/7KNM952

Snap off for new blade after every cut.

You can use a propane torch for heat but it's not as controlled as a decent heat gun.

Don't stretch vinyl too far as color will fade and adhesive will not hold well.

Knifeless tape is handy too - http://a.co/3RGX5oG

We use primer on edges but it makes it harder to reposition the vinyl - not as easy for a beginner. You could skip it but make sure edges are super clean.


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I'm trying to figure out what to do for a new racecar build right now too. I'm sold on vinyl as far as ease of install and good exterior appearance, but I'm still unsure what to do about the door jambs, fender flanges in the engine bay, trunk surround (under the lid, outside of the gasket) and other small highly-curved areas like that.

I currently have a silver NB chassis with flat black painted (previous owner...) interior and trunk, green hood with singular vents, and a green decklid with APR wing already mounted. I want to just wrap the whole exterior, but I'm not sure how to keep it from looking shitty with one exterior color, one interior color, and then factory silver paint in the door jambs and other transitions between exterior and interior.

As someone who's thinking about wrapping his track car, thanks for the tips. Does the car need to have a top coat of paint or would a sealer primer be an acceptable base?

You can wrap all those areas ... and since they aren't really showing and racecar, you don't have to worry as much about making them perfect. Wrap them first, stopping about a 16th from the outside edges. Then do the outside panels and wrap over that seam.

The preferred way to handle all those curved areas is to wrap the vinyl into them .. but since racecar .... you can wrap over them and use heat to conform the vinyl into the recesses .... make sense?

Or find a rattle can color that matches the vinyl as close as possible and paint.

Primer should be fine ... but it won't stick to Bondo.

I had a lot of bubbles crop up the first time I pulled the car into the sun after wrapping a primer'd hood. I started popping them with a needle since the vinyl was already sealed and gave up half way through the hood.....the next day all the bubbles we're gone and they never returned. It was odd, I only assume the rough texture of primer allowed air to remain after squeegeeing it down and the hot sun expanded that air. I'm guessing it all worked it's self out via the channels.