Hi All,
I\'m currently in the process of applying full car graphics to my FD, (see graphics idea thread http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16215&highlight=graphics+idea)
and I thought you might all like to go see the work as it moves along, with the aid of pretty pictures.
Ok first stage is the clean the damn thing, its been in Re:worx garage collecting dust for 6 weeks, so here it is cleaned with just water, no shampoo cos they have wax and polish additives in which affect the adhesion of the vinyl.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/Dan003.jpg)
Thats my brother just cleaning off an old sticker.
So, chuck the first bit of vinyl on, this is dark metallic grey with little shiny flecks in it, I will be covering the whole front half of the car with this.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/Dan007.jpg)
it is laid down wet so all the creases can easily be pulled out.
Then just trim the edges, and - voila!
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/Dan008.jpg)
I ran out of vinyl last night, so more to come next week :)
Cool, will be keeping an eye on this thread :)
How she running now dandan
VERY VERY SLOWLY.
i\'m driving her with special silky kid gloves I got off ebay, cos i cant afford to make her go pop again!
plus it is raining today which is a good reason for a feathery right foot!
Fingers crossed ill run her in this next week or so, and get tuning done next week, then its foot to the floor!!
Nice one :) How long do you reckon your graphics project will take?
I saw the photoshop you did and it looked really good, looking forward to seeing the finished article. I might be calling on your services one day, your threads have got me interested in vinyls :), thinking of maybe somekind of two-tone design
Top man, areas of vinyl like that can be a nightmare to get rid of all the air bubbles!
Perhaps when I do my next design you could help me cut and apply it?
Where you gonna stick the budget van rentals sign then eh! ;) (Don\'t say up my a55) lol :rollin
It\'s nice to be needed! :)
Scuttle,
I\'m hoping to have it sorted by Broadlands, (week on monday) I cant do anymore until monday as i had to order more vinyl for the base layer.
I could help you with designing some graphics but I can\'t do any time intensive work for free im afraid, rough designs are no problem though.
Ben,
I\'d be happy to help you out, would be a pleasure to work on your car!
more updates coming monday night with luck....
Didnt mean for free matey :) wouldnt mind an mrc discount tho ;) Figure you\'d be best place to get vinyls from considering your choice of car :cool
Quote from: Initial-DWhere you gonna stick the budget van rentals sign then eh! ;) (Don\'t say up my a55) lol :rollin
Just noticed that comment you cheeky bugger, I\'m going to insert it fat end first now. :reallymad ;)
Lol!! I thought you hadn\'t noticed, thats gonna hurt!
Look forward to seeing more pics of your progress. What do you find is best for smoothing out the bubbles etc.. I use a spatula type thing or is there somthing better?
Bubbles. Nightmare.
Best thing is if the vinyl is laid on wet, use a soft plastic edge, spatula will do it, and push them out to the edge.
If the vinyl is dry you need to get a very very sharp knife and make a pinprick hole in the edge of the bubble and then push the air out with your fingernail.
Sometimes they just don\'t go.
Best bet is not to get them in the first place! ;)
Sounds just like how I do it, just wondered if there was an \'easy\' way!
Liked the ideas you had on you last thread, so looking forward to see how it all gonna work out too. Keep us up to date on this, with lots of pictures ha ha :)
Adam
Got some more vinyl in yesterday, so I got cracking with the hardest part of the wrap, which is the front bumper. I decided to do it in two halves to make it a little easier, an overlap down the centre will look better than loads of overlaps at random places.
Here is the first bit of vinyl laid on, this is done dry as it needs to be heated round all the curves, and if it was wet it would just keep coming unstuck on the tight curves:
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper2.jpg)
Then trim it nice and neat:
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper3.jpg)
Here is my vice-versa front bumper!! :)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper4.jpg)
slap the other side on (after a cuppa):
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper5.jpg)
trim and voila! Also covered the headlights before this shot.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper6.jpg)
Just the wings to do now then...
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/bumper8.jpg)
More to come tonight...
I take it you\'re using proper \'wrap\' vinyl.
Any idea of the material cost, I\'m guessing a few hundred quid.
And time, good jod its a lbour of love.
John
John,
Luckily i\'m getting an amazing deal on the full colour bits, so far my materials look like coming around the £200 mark, probably more by the end.
Yes it is high quality wrap vinyl, only the best for my little baby!
I\'ve put in about 6 hours so far, not including lots and lots of design time, if I was selling this to a customer I think it would come close to the same price as a basic respray!! This is the wild end of the scale though, just to show what can be done.
fair play thats 1 cool way of changing the colour of ur car :cool
dandan - I hope you remembered what I said about the laquer on the nose not being as good as on the metal paintwork.
John
Cool stuff keep up the good work! Looking forward to seeing the rest of you design going on.
Looks top notch so far mate. looking forward to seeing the next bits going on and then the final results :)
Adam
Wings are on, removed the indicators for application, but aside from that these panels were relatively easy to apply.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/frontwing1.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/frontwing2.jpg)
So I now have a metallic grey front end:
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/frontwing3.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/frontwing4.jpg)
Question, do i do the splitter to finish off the front end?
looks awesome mate, I am following this one with interest.
How much skill is involved in applying the vynil, I fancy having a go myself, as mine is due for a respray soon, and looks like I could get a better finish using this method, especially if I am going to put some graphics on it.
I presume you can get just about any colour under the sun.
Thanks Pete.
Yes this method could be used to completely change the colour of a car, but it will never be quite as good a finish as a real paintjob to be honest.
You could probably do it yourself, but would need at least twice as much vinyl as you think because you\'ll do a huge amount of trial and error. Still a big saving over a sprayjob, but it does have drawbacks.
Got some more progress for you all, I have finished the fade from grey at the front to black at the back with descending thickness stripes:
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00045.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00046.jpg)
And this afternoon i got all of the full colour sections on, with the help of my brother.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00047.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00048.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00049.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00050.jpg)
just got to put the Ghost decals on, and a few finishing touches, then it should be ready for Broadlands tomorrow!
Very nice mate... all the effort has paid off!! Certianly goign to stand out with that lol!!
looks ok..not too keen on the grey though..should of kept it black. i like the stripes on the doors
BIGGER rims would really makeit look the part........ very nice
Very nice, looks better in the flesh than it did with your drawings.
Will be nice to see the pics when it is finally finished :yes
what spoiler do u have?
the rims r nice but i think u need different 1s to go with what uv done
Dammit you are right i DO need bigger rims!! anyone feeling generous?
Asp, I have a nameless Carbon spoiler that might be a \'gt\' wing possibly? i don\'t know
got a few more pics but i will put them up when i get to my work computer tomorrow. i need more of these bank holiday weekends! :):)
How will it stand up to stone chips, parking dings etc???
The rear wing looks like a GP Sports wing from their Chokets range. Here\'s a link:
http://www.gpsports.co.jp/
Quote from: JakeThe rear wing looks like a GP Sports wing from their Chokets range. Here\'s a link:
http://www.gpsports.co.jp/
cheers :D
Steve, as far as parking dings go, it does not add anything to the strength of the body so a dent will still occur with enough force, but the vinyl will obviously take the scratch instead of the paintwork, and i know which one i would rather replace!
Stonechips and stuff will be slightly more damaging to the vinyl as it is essentially soft plastic and not hard, baked paint, but again it is more easily replaced and a hell of a lot cheaper. for example i could re-apply my bonnet vinyl with an EXACT colour match guaranteed for less than £50. thats a cheap re-spray!
Finished for now, I still have my doubts about the front and rear, they are missing something, but I\'ll figure it out eventually. Quite pleased overall though, it picks up a few looks!
If anyone wants anything like this doing to their car, from mild to wild, even just a few teeny decals, let me know and i\'ll see what i can do for you. danverge@hotmail.com.
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/broadlandsmyrex.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00052.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00053.jpg)
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a399/dandantrash/DSC00054.jpg)
looks truly awesome, a brilliant job. I will have to get designing one for myself. Being Welsh, dragons is the obvious choice, but wanting to be differant, I am thinking along the lines of a red kite, as they fly over here all the time. Just got to come up with a good design now.
Know what you mean about the front and rear, but still looks good though.
Thats ace dan!!!!
Sod airbrushing/expensive painjobs.......vynal wrapping is where its at....if you get bored, you can peel it all off and start again!
Awesome.
Dan!!
Are they new rims? can`t say I rember them.
chris
Cool! Must say I\'m really impressed with the finish, makes me consider doing something a little more extravigant with mine now! what the finish like on the printed dragoin sections, do you have a close up of how its printed?
Thanks everyone, i like it too!!
Ben, I will take a super high res shot of the full colour printed sections for you, it is done at 720dpi on the printer from a file of over 200mb in size, so it\'s pretty clean!
CJR, they aren\'t new rims, just the same old same old, but some people have mentioned that it looks like it needs bigger ones now! argh more money! :D:D
Oh and Dan, you are exactly right, i can\'t see it staying on for more than six months, i\'ll get restless and try something else for sure!