DIY Vinyl Wrap

[MarvsAMartian]

I posted in another thread looking for recommendations on wrap shops but figured this should get its own since I decided to forego a professional install and give wrapping a shot on my own. Wanted to share updates and have a place for anyone looking to do the same to post any possible questions. This is my first time ever using a vinyl wrap (3M 2080 Series) and its honestly not as daunting as one would expect. It takes some getting used to for sure and some panels came out much better the more I go on.

I started a few days ago and have been slowly but surely chugging along, working on it in my free time. If there's any advice I can offer now its:
- make sure you have the right tools (heat gun, felt edge squeegee, a wrap glove is actually very handy, sharp blades, wrap magnets and I 100% recommend knifeless tape)
- surface prep is extremely important. I had a couple spots in the wheel well where the vinyl didn't want to bond because I missed a section. My process was hand wash, clay bar, quick detailer, then wiped with alcohol. (the dust in the pics is pollen that fell literally all day and covered the whole front end peeking out the garage)
- be patient. The vinyl is very forgiving so just hit it with heat and reset if you make a mistake, but also because it is possible to tear the wrap if you're moving a bit too fast.
- on that note make sure the temperature where you're working is relatively warm. The colder the worse off you'll be.
- having a buddy would help. If at the very least you have someone to chat with and have a beer. I am doing this solo and there are panels I kind of wish I had help.
- don't take shortcuts. I attempted to do the passenger rear door without taking the handle off and up close its a train wreck. It looks absolutely terrible and I'll definitely be redoing that panel one day. Definitely make sure you remove as much as you can i.e. lights, badges, handles, side mirrors, bumpers and even the bed.

That's all I can think of at the moment but hopefully it helps anyone out there determined enough to try it out for themselves. I debated doing a video as when I looked all over YouTube I couldn't find very many in depth tutorials for how to do our trucks. Most are by professional shops as well so they skip out on all the finer details which I'm happy to discuss with anyone who's interested. Feel free to ask as I know when I was debating even doing this I had a bunch of little questions I couldn't find answers to. I'm planning on leaving the roof untouched as its mostly glass anyways, and I may not have enough material to do the hood right now (only have a 5' x 75' roll)

Anyways that's it for now. I'll be sure to post progress pictures as I'm hoping to have the majority of this completed in the next 3-4 days (fingers crossed). I'm having my level finally installed tomorrow so might not have much to share for a couple days.

 

[ripvanhalen]

Looks good

 

[mikeru82]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[ayoslickxd]

so how much do you think we need

im thinking of buying xpel ppf and doing it my self
it sells 6 ft wide by 20 ft long

 

[Jdthompson79]

How hard were the rockers? I'm thinking of doing my bumpers and rocker panels black.

 

[MarvsAMartian]

so how much do you think we need

im thinking of buying xpel ppf and doing it my self
it sells 6 ft wide by 20 ft long

For a full wrap? Probably 90ft. If you're just doing the front end I'm sure you can get away with 20-30ft. I don't have experience with Expel and I know that's a wet install so not sure how that will differ really. Be cool to hear your thoughts because I was looking to have my rockers and entire front end done some day. If it's relatively similar to wrap I may opt to do it myself as well.

How hard were the rockers? I'm thinking of doing my bumpers and rocker panels black.

The rockers were pretty easy actually. Can do it all in one long strip. Just got to really clean the underside. I recommend getting knifeless tape to make sure your cuts are straight though. I messed up a few spots trying not to cut up my paint. You can even do it in a couple sections if you wanted. With knifeless tape the seams are barely visible. I didn't do the door jambs or door sill yet however so maybe that's why it was easy? I plan to do that separately.

Only real difficulty is how low it is. In hindsight I should've jacked up the whole side just for easier access. I'm short but even that was a little back breaking for me.

 

[Jdthompson79]

Are wrapping the bumpers also?

 

[Nova90]

Looks good so far. I would suspect that the front bumper will be really fun. You are probably saving a ton of $ though. I've heard some wraps get pretty expensive.

 

[Stoolie]

so how much do you think we need

im thinking of buying xpel ppf and doing it my self
it sells 6 ft wide by 20 ft long

You can buy pre cut expel and won’t need to guess


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[ayoslickxd]

You can buy pre cut expel and won’t need to guess


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really ? where i havent seen it gonna look now

 

[MarvsAMartian]

Are wrapping the bumpers also?

Haha no I'm leaving them untouched for the moment. That's going to be a ridiculous amount of work and I'm not looking forward to that at all

 

[z0n3]

Looking good. Didn't know that wrapping was simple. I thought the more difficult part would be getting the material to lay down correctly. Perhaps the most difficult part is pulling all of the fenders, trims, mirrors and badges off.

 

[Stoolie]

really ? where i havent seen it gonna look now

https://www.xpel.com/paint-protect...rs--AND--Light-Trucks/2021/Ram/1500/Lone-Star


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[MarvsAMartian]

Looking good. Didn't know that wrapping was simple. I thought the more difficult part would be getting the material to lay down correctly. Perhaps the most difficult part is pulling all of the fenders, trims, mirrors and badges off.

Yeah it's just tedious work man. The material itself isn't that hard to work with but some panels are definitely trickier to do in a single piece. Going from flat to a curved surface creates creases in the material that can be difficult to work out. But yes by far the most amount of work is pulling everything off. Honestly I looked forward to get to the actual wrapping

As an aside. That damn pollen that's been falling lately here is a problem. You wouldn't think it would be that bad but my god I got some crazy spots in the wrap that show some debris clearly got stuck behind the vinyl. If possible, do this in a clean garage with the doors closed! I had poop lighting so I kept the door open. Live and learn.

 

[MarvsAMartian]

Ok so took me a long time to get back to this. Weather has been rainy and just garbage so I didn't get around to finishing this up for a few days. It's great from 10 feet! But it's not pretty up close I'll upload a full 360 after I get a chance to wash this bad boy up!

 

[bud007]

you did a nice job Marvsamartian
i have been looking into having ppf installed on my front end , mainly the front bumper. i went to a local shop with good reviews and spoke to one of the guy about ppf , he said the labor involved is what drives the cost up and after researching and watching youtube videos i can understand that this work take time to do right but after looking at the truck he said that they could only do the mirrors , lights and hood ( said he could not do the bumper even after i showed him it was metal) and that would be $1800 + , so i passed on that .
i also checked the expel website listed earlier .... i have to say , personally i think those kits are way over priced , computer cut or not ... sorry , but give me a break , like my ppf worker stated earlier the material is fairly cheap , its the labor that costs ( i am sure you can attest to that Marvs ) . anyways i did find a ppf front end kit from a company called installproz that is much cheaper and exactly what i am looking for.
here is the link if anyone else interested https://installproz.com/product/sel...ut-for-any-truck-hood-fenders-mirrors-bumper/
i am hoping to order it in another few weeks .
thanks for all your updates on this topic Marvs and good job

 

[ayoslickxd]

you did a nice job Marvsamartian
i have been looking into having ppf installed on my front end , mainly the front bumper. i went to a local shop with good reviews and spoke to one of the guy about ppf , he said the labor involved is what drives the cost up and after researching and watching youtube videos i can understand that this work take time to do right but after looking at the truck he said that they could only do the mirrors , lights and hood ( said he could not do the bumper even after i showed him it was metal) and that would be $1800 + , so i passed on that .
i also checked the expel website listed earlier .... i have to say , personally i think those kits are way over priced , computer cut or not ... sorry , but give me a break , like my ppf worker stated earlier the material is fairly cheap , its the labor that costs ( i am sure you can attest to that Marvs ) . anyways i did find a ppf front end kit from a company called installproz that is much cheaper and exactly what i am looking for.
here is the link if anyone else interested https://installproz.com/product/sel...ut-for-any-truck-hood-fenders-mirrors-bumper/
i am hoping to order it in another few weeks .
thanks for all your updates on this topic Marvs and good job

ye only thing i like about the xpel ppf is that if scratched or damaged throw some heat and it comes right out

 

[MarvsAMartian]

you did a nice job Marvsamartian
i have been looking into having ppf installed on my front end , mainly the front bumper. i went to a local shop with good reviews and spoke to one of the guy about ppf , he said the labor involved is what drives the cost up and after researching and watching youtube videos i can understand that this work take time to do right but after looking at the truck he said that they could only do the mirrors , lights and hood ( said he could not do the bumper even after i showed him it was metal) and that would be $1800 + , so i passed on that .
i also checked the expel website listed earlier .... i have to say , personally i think those kits are way over priced , computer cut or not ... sorry , but give me a break , like my ppf worker stated earlier the material is fairly cheap , its the labor that costs ( i am sure you can attest to that Marvs ) . anyways i did find a ppf front end kit from a company called installproz that is much cheaper and exactly what i am looking for.
here is the link if anyone else interested https://installproz.com/product/sel...ut-for-any-truck-hood-fenders-mirrors-bumper/
i am hoping to order it in another few weeks .
thanks for all your updates on this topic Marvs and good job

Appreciate the compliment! The labor is definitely the main cost for work like this. In total, I've spent close to 40 non consecutive hours. A shop quoted me getting it all done and good to go in 2, maybe 3 days tops. That's a huge difference, but obviously its how they make money and they're professionals. It's interesting that the shop you got a quote from insisted they couldn't do the bumper as every single place I asked said no problem (vinyl and PPF). $1800 seems like a lot for just the hood, mirrors and lights to me. The material is relatively cheap. In comparison a 5'x75' roll of 3M vinyl for my truck would've been about $900+ CAD for the material but I was able to find it for $700 which, when you factor in the cheapest quote I got being $2600-700, that's $2000 for labor alone.

That's an awesome you found an alternative and I checked out the site. They even have laser cut ceramic tint kits which is what I've been looking to have installed next.

ye only thing i like about the xpel ppf is that if scratched or damaged throw some heat and it comes right out

If I'm not mistaken Xpel and all PPF acts similarly? I was told I could even get it as well as have my truck wrapped in vinyl which is awesome.

 

[MarvsAMartian]

Finally after all the hours of work spanning weeks, I gave her a quick wash and did some karate kid wax on magic. She's complete! Again, first time I've ever wrapped anything before let alone a truck, but if I can do it so can you. Below is the 360 view I mentioned getting around to. Feel free to ask any questions if you're on the fence about trying it out yourself or if you're in the same boat and currently doing your truck.

Below is the good.

 

[MarvsAMartian]

Below is the bad. Because its not perfect by any means ladies and gents.



From a distance not so bad right?



Here's an example of why a fresh, sharp blade (that I cut myself with many times) is important. When trying to cut around the RAM head and the handle the vinyl tore a bit instead of cut cleanly. Also, to the upper right of that, when the temps are cold, it tears so easily. I've cautioned that before but here's a clear example of why its not something you should over look.

Below are two examples of what can happen when you try to take a short cut. If at all possible, when trying to DIY, take off as much as you possibly can. I didn't take off the door handle and ended up bunching up material I just couldn't smooth out. And the second picture is in behind the bed. I ended up having to try to get the back of the cab in one piece, and then make it look seamless (which is almost impossible). Had I taken the extra time to just unbolt the bed and slide it back a bit I could've gotten more space to work it around that corner. The seams also pull away from each other if you stretch it a bit too much as well which you can see happens when its heated up sitting in the sun.



Also forgot to mention, but I still have about 8' of the roll left so it is plenty. I opted to skip the bumpers and the roof however, so take that into account if you're on the market for a roll. But that's all she wrote folks! This is the end of my vinyl journey for now (have plans to redo it again in the future). Thanks for following along!