3M Carbon Fiber Vinyl Tutorial

[williamk10]

Wrapped my dash in 3M carbon fiber vinyl. The mateial is very forgiving. The adhesive backing can be applied and reapplied many times. The vinyl is stiff when cold but will limber like a peice of cloth when heated. Below are installation pics.



Measure a peice of vinyl about the size of the dash

Warm up with a heat gun

You can see how limber it gets once applied to the dash

Give yourself about a half inch of slack along the edges. You will need it to pull the vinyl around the edges

Should look something like this

Opening cut for air vent

Use your finger to pull, push and stretch along the edges. This is where the heat gun is needed to limber the vinyl

Closeup of the inside edge

Finished product

Thanks for viewing

[CrankyVersa]

Very nice work!!!

[xtwoonamatchx]

That looks REALLY good man, where could I pick some of that up? And how much did it run you?

[wassimeh]

nice ^_^ The final render looks sexy ... i'll do the same on my side.. I was looking for a better looking dash.. but I think your Idea is a lot better. keep comming u with new ideas

[williamk10]

Thanks guys. I actually bought it locally but that product is available on the internet. I bought mine for $12 per sq ft.

Here is a link to a site you can buy it at:

http://www.carbonfiberfilm.com/

Also, good video just to show you how forgiving this material is. It really is amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3mb85nxdY

I ended up doing the heating control panel too. This is how it all turned out...and if you are wondering, yes I did line the vinyl up to have it match. Pain in the butt that was



I have some left so I may do the left and right air vent panels as well. I'll have to figure out how the heck to remove them first.

[iluvmyVersa08]

That looks awesome !!!!

[mdamatas]

This is great! When I started reading the tutorial I was thinking on using this for the heating controls as well as I have a small scratch there...

But this is a great way to cover that and give a different look to it... Now I just have to see if they sell this vinyl here in Panama...

[JS Butterfly]

Wow that looks great!

[xtwoonamatchx]

What size did you order to be able to wrap all of that like you did?

[williamk10]

I bought 4 sq ft. I also did the side vents on both sides. I still have some to spare for small parts of the car. I could do the gas cap cover as well.

[xtwoonamatchx]

yeah, you have definately inspired me to want to do this... you said you have a little left, like enough to do the silver pieces where the window buttons are?

[williamk10]

I beleive so. It may be cutting it close so i'd order 5 Sq Ft if I were you. Might as well have more then not enough and have to order some more

[Jape]

Pretty badass. After seeing that website I'm feeling this urge to make everything covered in carbon fiber

[Codelicious]

I'm actually thinking about getting my car covered in stuff similar to this. It's just a Matte Black vinyl wrap. It's expensive, but it'll look oh so good!

[williamk10]

i'm not a big fan of wrapping the outside of the car. Why wrap over the beautiful paint? Although I do have enough to wrap the gas cap cover...

[Codelicious]

Unfortunetly my paint is far from beautiful now a days. I do way to much driving so I have scratches, haze, and chips. A nice wax would help though!