DIY Carbon Fiber Vinyl wrap for interior trim with pics and video!!!

[DownShft4TheWin]

Hey everyone! So i just posted this thread with pictures of my interior trim mod that i did using 3M di-noc carbon fiber vinyl wrap. You can see the final results here: http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=66482
I was pretty bored today so i decided to do a DIY on one of the last remaining pieces that I had to wrap to show how the process works. The piece I'm wrapping here is the driver's door trim which is especially difficult because of all the curves and angles.
Before you start, you'll need some tools: Heat gun, razor blade, wedge, and scisors.

The first thing that you want to do is to cut a piece of the vinyl out to a rough shape that mimics the piece you are wrapping

The next thing you are going to want to do is to remove half of the backing. This is where a lot of people mess up....by doing this, you allow yourself more manuverability by working with half of the wrap at a time.

Next you want to wrap the flat surfaces first by pulling the material over the piece. You don't want to pull to tight as you'll stretch the material and deform it.

There will be some air bubbles at first but don't worry because for now you're just trying to get the general shape down.


Once you have the first half of the vinyl laid out, you can tackle the air bubbles by simply pulling the material up and out. (there's a video at the end of this DIY that shows this process in more detail)


Next you want to remove the second half of the backing from the vinyl and pull it over the rest of the piece. When you do this, you reall wanna make sure that you leave enough room on the material so that it covers the whole piece that you are wrapping plus a little more to allow for stretching the material.


Next you want to start stretching the material to go over the bends. This is a slow an tedious process because you have to stretch a bit at a time. If you're not careful you'll rip the material. The way I do is to stretch it by hand at room temp first.



Notice that once again, that I was left with creases.....don't worry about it, it will come out. Now that I had the majority of the material laid out onto the piece i was wraping, I went back to the first half of the wrapping process to tighten everything down. What I did was folded the edges over and hit it with a heat gun to make sure that it stays. ***Make sure that you have no air bubbles before you do this***



Finally, you have the corner piece. It's not as hard as it looks to do. What you need to do is heat it up with the heat gun to soften the material. You can tell that it's ready to be stretched because the material will all of sudden become loose. Once it gets to that point, quickly take the heat gun away, and pull the material over and around the back while pushing out any air bubbles at the same time. (this technique is also covered in the video at the end of this DIY)




Now that i finished wrapping with the first section of the piece, i went back to the second half. to get around some of the major bends, you are going to have to cut some material away so that you can stretch it with out deforming it.


Once you've done that, you can begin to stretch the material by hand over the corners. The material won't cover it completely, but with a little convincing from the heat gun, you'll be good.



Next you want to heat the edge up with the heat gun and pull the rest of it over. Once again you'll have some stretch marks, but don't worry....you'll just have to go back to heat and stretch.






Repeat the process of heating and stretching around the other corners:






Now that you have all that done, simply wrap the rest of the edges around the back of the piece. Here's a few videos of the process: (click the thumbs to link to the videos...if it doesn't work follow the links below)


http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/v...-25-57_781.mp4
http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/v...6-27-49_75.mp4
The last few steps include trimming all the excess material away from the backside of the piece you wrapped. You will also want to make sure that you cut away any vinyl that is over the retainer clips.






And this is the final result!!!!!

[thisaznboi88]

^ A+!!! are you planing to do the roof anytime soon?

[DownShft4TheWin]

Thanks! No actually....don't really like the way it looks out side of the car....i did end up doing my alarm remote though

[tommypenguin]

How much wrap was required for you to get this job done? 12"X64" or were you able to do it with a 12X48? Also can you post a link to where you bought the film? Lastly it looks like the trim pieces that came off the door were screwed in from the back, did you have to remove the door panel to remove the door trim? Or were you able to just pry that piece off with a trim removal tool? Thanks for posting this up.

[DownShft4TheWin]

Originally Posted by tommypenguin

How much wrap was required for you to get this job done? 12"X64" or were you able to do it with a 12X48? Also can you post a link to where you bought the film? Lastly it looks like the trim pieces that came off the door were screwed in from the back, did you have to remove the door panel to remove the door trim? Or were you able to just pry that piece off with a trim removal tool? Thanks for posting this up.

No problem I actually purchased the material from a local graphics shop. I used about 5" by 4" total for everything using good measurements. O and btw...good piece of advice to make sure everyhting looks good, make sure you lay out all the pieces first so that the pattern is all going the same way Think i spent $45 on materials. And yes you have to take the door pannels off....once you do there are 4 screws that hold the trim piece in. Hope this helps!

[Andylam122]

post a picture up of your end result!!

[DownShft4TheWin]

http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=66482 here's the thread

[Mr.B]

good job! looks great

[DownShft4TheWin]

Hey guys...so there were some questions about the location of the screws that hold door trim pieces on to the door pannels...made a quick video so that you can see where they are .....click the picture to link to the video.

http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/v...-32-19_628.mp4

[GenXer]

I'd like to add my experiences...

After installing I found out that in certain spots the stuff will initally conform to the surface but after a few days a big wrinkle will creep out. This seems to happen on inside corners where you have to stetch it quite a bit. Here's a few things I learned from using the vinyl:

1. I try to fold over a liberal amount (while not interfering with clips and other things). Cut big and trim down to fit. Don't forget the extra length it takes to go all the way around the part that shows!

2. On trouble spots, I coat a small strip on the backside of some pieces and the vinyl itself with contact cement. After letting it set for the prescribed time, I then reheat the vinyl and press it in place, holding the trouble spot in place by hand until it cools. So far so good.

(There IS an adhesion promoter which you can buy from the seller which may be the right thing to use, but I did not try it. I also want the process to be somewhat reversible so I opted out of coating every surface with anything. Only coating the backside of panels in key spots gives me a better chance of removing the vinyl later and does not mar the surfaces that show)

3. Check and recheck beforehand what is going to show and what is not going to show on a panel after installation and work that to your advantage.

4. Don't try to make this stuff do miracles. On some panels you are just going to have to cut to an edge instead of molding it. On my window switch panels I had to carefully trim the vinyl around the little pockets where the switches reside. It looks fine. Had I tried to mold it down into the cavities, it would look like crap. Parts with gentle curves are easy. Deep pocketed parts are going to be a pain.

5. Check the direction of the pattern and have a plan. I used about a 45 degree angle and kept it consistent on adjoining pieces. On my steering wheel where it has a left and right piece to laminate, I opted to lay the pattern on the pieces in a mirrored fashion to each other, instead of in the same direction. I like that better. Try laying some scrap pieces in place and visualizing the result.

[HFP]

I decided to cover my trim with matte blue metallic vinyl. I have a black on black 08 coupe. My secret to a successful installation is patience. :-) I just started so I basically just have the passenger door done. I will post more pics as I progress if anyone is interested.

I thought about carbon fiber, but I am getting a little tired of seeing it everywhere.