Hey everyone. I decided that I want to do a carbon fiber wrap on some of my interior pieces to go with my new VQCarbonCustoms steering wheel. I have the wrap. However, as I've never worked with it before, I wanted to see if anyone had tips for the project. I'm guessing that I will need to remove, and sand smooth any pieces that I want to wrap. I've found videos of people wrapping the exterior of the car. However, I couldn't find ones of people doing interior pieces. I know that I'll likely need a hairdryer or heat gun. Is it as simple as cut the vinyl to the right general shape and size. Remove backing. Place the vinyl on the piece to be wrapped, and use heat to make it lay down smooth. Then, wrap the edges under the piece. Did I miss anything? Does anyone have any pro tips that will make the job easier? Does anyone have a link to a video that shows wrapping interior pieces as I'm trying to do? I would greatly appreciate any advice that you guys can offer. Thanks!

 

Don't cut the piece to general shape and size before laying. You actually want to overshoot the needed size as it will let you pull and stretch the vinyl over the item in nicer smoother sheets, and you don't want the edges that you're grabbing and tugging at with your grubby fingers to be a part of the final product. You're basically giving yourself grab spots to the vinyl that you'll trim off after laying most of it down. The smoothness of the pieces you're wrapping is crucial, texture will show through. Maybe not so much since you're doing carbon fiber design with its own design that could hide some imperfections under it from the eye.
A hair dryer will do, and is the safer route. I use my heat gun on its lowest setting and it's easy to burn the vinyl since it only takes seconds. Get a good felt lined squeegee made for vinyl wrap.
Don't just lay the vinyl on as it is, you want to put it on with a little bit of stretch and tension to it. As you go over complex curves, heat can only take up so much of the slack material, so you need to already be stretched and that will give you more shrinkage to take in the excess. I made the mistake of laying out a piece without any stretch to it, and there was too much material on curves than heat could tighten. That's something the videos don't really emphasize.

 

Thanks for the tips! I knew I wanted the vinyl to be bigger than the workpiece. However, my vinyl role is much larger than my workpieces, so I figured I would want to cut the vinyl to be a more reasonable size. I do think I understand what you mean though about it not being too small. So to be clear, I'll want the vinyl sheet to be big enough that there is still some left over even after I've tucked the edges under? Should I trim that excess before or after tucking the edges under? I think the tip about stretching the vinyl will very very helpful thanks! I really appreciate the fast response.

 

I have nothing to offer but it sounds like a good learning project. Hope it works out.

 

pics of the steering wheel?

 

Steering wheel is matte black carbon fiber.

 

Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.