Well after all the talk, I've finally started to wrap my car yesterday. Just about 80% done, Took about 8 hours(including all the consumption of beer & procrastination) to knock out everything except the front & rear bumper.
here are a few pics










Feel free to give me your honest opinion, good or bad. I'll be posting more soon !

Looks excellent! But how does it look up-close along the seams/edges? If you don't mind sharing.

bartZ32tt wrote:Looks excellent! But how does it look up-close along the seams/edges? If you don't mind sharing.

Of course I don't mind! I'll take some when I get off work today at 6. There are probable 2 minor imperfections on the car thus far( two small creases) But I only had to pay for the material($600) & give my friend a case of beer and a pack of cigarettes to teach me how to wrap it, since that's the next trade i'm looking into perfecting. All the edges are all tucked properly & it's seamless.
Considering at his shop most wraps cost about $2000-$3000 to have it done, so i'll take two little imperfections to save about $2400

+1 for seam pics. It looks great!

I'll be interested to hear how long it lasts looking any good...the idiot adult child business owner next door to us has wrapped all of his "toys" with matte black wrap, and all have what I consider eyesore blemishes all over the place from what looked pretty solid a few months back.
LOTS of loose spots at the seams and cut-ins such as side markers, bumpers, grille edges, etc...

Interesting, I'll definitely be watching this thread as I was thinking about doing the same thing.

Except I was thinking about blue chrome... bling bling...

Also, what size roll did you end up buying, and is that what you buy if you had to do it again?

Ehh I think thats to much honestly hah.^

Yeah, I'm also not a fan of the "Bling Bling" Too much going on there. But If it turns out to be good and last awhile then you got a fantastic deal on a wrap!

lol... yeah... probably too much.

But at the same time, I don't understand the matte finishes people are putting on cars. I always thought a car looked best when it was shinning... the matte just reminds me of a primered car running around. No offense OP.

But the blue chrome may be a bit too much shine.

Maybe Blue Pearl Gloss...

uummm pics of it finished yet?

looks good. some close up pics would be nice, i dont know much about vinyl wrapping but it looks good to me from here.

whats the prep work like to the paint to get it stick? im sure PC would be the best for wheels but if you could wrap wheels with it, it seems like a cheep fix it it gets messed up . compared to lets say PCing. i also hear of plastidip for wheels but im not trying to thread jack

continue on......

DCaff300ZX wrote:I'll be interested to hear how long it lasts looking any good...the idiot adult child business owner next door to us has wrapped all of his "toys" with matte black wrap, and all have what I consider eyesore blemishes all over the place from what looked pretty solid a few months back.
LOTS of loose spots at the seams and cut-ins such as side markers, bumpers, grille edges, etc...

I should be able to get a good year or 2 out of this wrap.. I only had my buddy do the parts that I showed on the first post & I had to finish the rest by myself since he's out of town & I couldn't stand looking at my unfinished car. lol I finished it last night & have it sitting in my garage over night since it's been pissing down rain these past few days ( which is really bad for the wrap). My friend who helped me out said not to wash it for a week cause water can get into some areas & cause it to peel up (Not likely but better to have the vinyl fully sealed just to be safe). So the same day of the photo on my first post it rained all that night & caused some minor problems but nothing too bad. But,besides that only have one pretty obvious 'seam'
on my rear driver side bumper. Right around that curve was a bish to wrap by my self, but hell I only paid $600 for this & have plenty of scrap to re-do it when I get the chance. Besides that one seam, the bottom of the rear bumper right behind the mud flaps didn't stick well( ran out of primer ), so I had to tuck it back behind the mudflaps & just tighten them up to hold the vinyl in place. So, with the rear bumper i'm probable looking at about 6 months until that will probable be a problem which is fine with me lol. But my side markers,grille & every thing else is perfect.

But yeah If your neighbor is wrapping them correctly & depending on the quality of vinyl, then his wraps could last up to 5 years. & if he's doing it himself he's saving a helluva money since all he is doing is paying for material.


ALSO REMEMBER, Wrap jobs are only as good as the paint!! If your paint is peeling in some areas (Like my paint job) then it's going to show underneath the vynil. So his car could be wrapped perfectly, but a lot of those blemishes could be from his original paint thats under the wrap.

nexus08 wrote:Interesting, I'll definitely be watching this thread as I was thinking about doing the same thing.

Except I was thinking about blue chrome... bling bling...

Also, what size roll did you end up buying, and is that what you buy if you had to do it again?

Chrome vinyls are amazing! But, cost a lot of coin! Especially if you get it done at a shop.

z32loverboy wrote:Yeah, I'm also not a fan of the "Bling Bling" Too much going on there. But If it turns out to be good and last awhile then you got a fantastic deal on a wrap!

Yeah it looks A LOT better than my original paint so regardless so i'm extremely satisfied. All my neighbors who have seen it were mind blown & I told them this isn't really a good job since it's my first wrap with some help on half of it, & since the original paint had a lot of spots peeling & stuff. But, it made the car look 100x better. & it's going to last me a good 1-3 years. There are a few parts like my driver door that i'm going to re-do but i'm not complaing due to the amount of scrap I have left over & plus it's more learning for me.

nexus08 wrote:lol... yeah... probably too much.

But at the same time, I don't understand the matte finishes people are putting on cars. I always thought a car looked best when it was shinning... the matte just reminds me of a primered car running around. No offense OP.

But the blue chrome may be a bit too much shine.

I agree with most matte finishes, but once the 'Metallic' is combined it's puts a whole new meaning to Matte IMO. This color Matte Blue Metallic, shines in the sun,rain, & night. It's incredible & I absolutely love it.

Rager wrote:uummm pics of it finished yet?

looks good. some close up pics would be nice, i dont know much about vinyl wrapping but it looks good to me from here.

whats the prep work like to the paint to get it stick? im sure PC would be the best for wheels but if you could wrap wheels with it, it seems like a cheep fix it it gets messed up . compared to lets say PCing. i also hear of plastidip for wheels but im not trying to thread jack

continue on......

Not many, I have a few from my phone, but i'll be pulling my camera out after work & taking some real photos.
Prep work is just cleaning the car first, soap/water, or just through a car wash, then a good wipe down with alcohol & paper towels/lint less rags. And for the plastic parts you want to wrap (front lips,bumpers,ect) you would need to apply primer along the edges after prepping w/ alcohol.

Yeah PC would be best for wheels, but for all of my trimming,rubber gaskets & weathering strips I think i'm going to plastidip them black. Because the paint on my trimming is peeling & looks terrible .

Here are a few close ups that I shot on my phone before it was finsihed.







& here are the only ones that I have of it finished for now :/ I'll post more with my DSLR after work today if it's not raining.

Looks alot better now, any plans to finish the lower lip? Without it done it makes it look like it's ripped off imo.

Here is the car finally done.

I wasn't expecting this, but I really like the way it looks. Clean around the seems.

I like it, looks good!

Zleepin wrote:Here are a few close ups that I shot on my phone before it was finsihed.

Looks very nice!!!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard would you say it was to get such good results?

ChaseOfSpadeZ wrote:I wasn't expecting this, but I really like the way it looks. Clean around the seems.

Thanks!

z32loverboy wrote:I like it, looks good!

Thanks man!

nexus08 wrote:

Zleepin wrote:Here are a few close ups that I shot on my phone before it was finsihed.

Looks very nice!!!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard would you say it was to get such good results?

For the hood,nose panel,t-tops & other small flat surfaces on the z32 I would say it was a 5 on difficulty (10 being the hardest).
As for the rear bumper I would give it a 9/10. I feel a lot more comfortable now than I did before doing it, So i feel that once I buy my new rear bumper I'll be able to get it down perfectly without any problems. So overall this car to wrap would be a 6or7/10

One photo of the rear that I forgot to include earlier.

Wow! I wasn't expecting this result. Very smooth and appealing. I have a vinyl 3m sticker on my car for over a year and it is very durable. It was very easy to take off and it didn't leave any residue. This is one good alternative that instead of wrapping your car all over it, putting a character onto it is something good to consider.

I made new approach of putting a 3M sticker here.

what's the coin on that blue-chrome including install? That is just sick!

I think it looks great, I original was looking at doing chrome but thought if you body isnt perfect then you will see dents and dings to no end plus its a little loud for a 300. I have been looking at the brushed steel by 3M BR201, but began thinking that might be a pain because you have to keep all the brushed lines in the same direction, which means i would probably have to by more material. @Zleepin do you know how many ft you used?

Coin for blue chrome is $2000 for material. Labor depending on shop could be from 1500-3500

300zxstanced - 5ftx55ft Should do you right, with just enough scrape for any redo's .

im actually the process to remove and rewrap my car now that i know how to properly wrap. Ill post pictures later been very busy with work.

Turned out great! I've been interested in doing a wrap myself as well. At least until I can figure out what I want to do for paint. How hard was it to do the bumpers... More specifically the top corners of them? Looks like they would be the biggest pain in the a**.

Rear bumper corner was a pain.. it was really hard for me do my first time to do I even had to patch that area. But that's another reason why I'm Rewrapping my car, so I can fix all the flaw in it since Im more comfortable now.

All of the flat surfaces are fairly easy to install, just need to make sure all the trimming is clean. All my advice for bumpers would be make sure you give yourself extra to work with.

Sounds good man... I may make an attempt in the next month or so.

Oh and that chrome blue GTR is near my area. He shows up at a weekly event often. I think he is affiliated or owns a tuning shop.

Wow...That looks so good.

DiesILL wrote:Sounds good man... I may make an attempt in the next month or so.

Oh and that chrome blue GTR is near my area. He shows up at a weekly event often. I think he is affiliated or owns a tuning shop.

I would ask him next time you see him where he got it done at, and from there ask that shop questions about pricing, material and maybe even some tips if you wan to do it yourself.. Also check out Metrorestyling.com they have a bunch of instruction write ups and even a few videos.


Also here is what she looked like with a new set a wheels..







My car is not this blue anymore, im actually in the process of sanding it down and priming. And instead of painting it im just going to wrap it to avoid the expense of paint.

I just ordered my wrap I know the bumpers and hood are gonna be a pain in the a** any tips before I start ?