Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap.

Harlaquin

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Where to begin? So I decided I want to get some wrap done on my car but I was not going to pay high prices for it as I am cheap. Heck I can do it myself, lets get this party started. So off I go to my first Vinyl shop.

Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_115751


Nice people, friendly but they only sell sign Vinyl in store and have to order car vinyl... eh ok on to the next place. They suggest I go to see this guy
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_121419


Nope, he will do car vinyl but is more of a sign shop plus he didn't have any Carbon Vinyl in stock for me to buy. ok again nice guy super friendly just not what I was needing...so on to my third place.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_123436

Auto Armor ok this guy does cars and cars only.. lets take a peek. I pull in and its just a metal building. I open the door to walk in and whoaaa look at that .
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_124613

Man that is a one shiny car. It has expel ppf and ceramic on it. The owner is in and he stops what he is doing to talk to me. I explain I want to try it myself first (as he is booked out through the middle of may) and he sells me some carbon wrap that matches the Rs carbon aero bits. Shows me how to do it, gives me tips, the whole nine yards. Super nice guy. awesome so now I have wrap and im good to go. But first a few stops. Then Ill finish the DIY wrap story. First discount tire to fix my wobble I now have since Honda "FIXED" my front tire.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_145402

They did true balance and road force balance for free and now R drives like silky smooth.
Then I stopped by a K tune dealer just to chat and see options.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_135415


Then one last thing I want a custom plate. Guess what was available in NC? I was Surprised. So ordered my new plate. Yeah im gonna paint the R red.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. Screenshot_1

OK so all chores finished time to wrap. First let me compare what I got today and what came from Amazon. Got some Vvivid true R carbon from Amazon.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190405_084303
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190405_084327

The vvivid is shiny more like a real carbon look. The stuff i got from the wrap guy matches the cars Carbon dead on. so for my hood and mirrors I'm gonna use the guys wrap and for wing I'm gonna use the vvivid. Oh yeah IM wraping my mirror covers , my hood scoop and the black middle part of wing.

So lets do this. Get instructions off the net on how to take off covers. And get to work.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_173902

OK ready to go. Easy its just 3 little clips and you slide it off... Son of a bitch... an hour later...
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190401_183850

Finally, three easy clips my ass... and anyway so lets wrap this..
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_113952

So far so good....
Oh no the corners...
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_131920

Ill spare you the gory details but.. after an hour of screwing with it and watching 45 videos and... well yeah I didn't do so good. Those corners with patterned Vinyl are hard as you cant really stretch it with out screwing up the pattern. So I gave up, looks good on car but ill get back to that in a sec...
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_162802

ok so lets try the scoop. Its flat..hahahahah right..
so I remove it
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_131842

Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_132046

Ill spare you the photographic details but lets say it wasn't pretty with cutting for that opening.. but here it is.. looks impressive.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_142925

And on car
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_143136

Now the oh so sexy shot. Yes I did put extra shine on my car LOL.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_161737


Unfortunately when you look up close... I think this is why people are only doing the indention of the scoop and not the whole scoop because lining up that cut to match the top and bottom of the opening is a bitch and about impossible. For a non pro anyway.
Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_162922

Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_162929

Honda Civic 10th gen Episode 3: Another day in the life of an R owner. DIY Vinyl Wrap. 20190402_162933

All I can say is more power to the Vinyl guys. I tried and tried and man I just could not get it right. Plain wrap is easier but this pattern wrap.. if ya make it fit, the pattern distorts, if you try to keep pattern then it wont fit corners right. Either way I gave up Im gonna leave it on till I can get appointment just to see how it holds up. I'm gonna let the pros redo it and finish the other mirror and wing.


IM a fairly good DIY person but this wrap kicked my butt. But oh well I tried. 35 bucks in wrap and a few hours of my day to find out. No big deal and I have about 6 x 12 feet of wrap ill just take for the pro to use.

Anyway thanks again for looking at my adventures.

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sean465

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Yeah well played for trying....I'd leave it on. Yeah it's not perfect but no one will notice and u can whip it off whenever
 

bobafettm

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I totally feel you through this whole process! I did my own front end 3M clear bra... Jesus it was a nightmare and it doesn’t look pro at all... BUT it’s protected the heck out of my front end for 20k miles for about $200 ;)

Good job bud!
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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I totally feel you through this whole process! I did my own front end 3M clear bra... Jesus it was a nightmare and it doesn’t look pro at all... BUT it’s protected the heck out of my front end for 20k miles for about $200 ;)

Good job bud!
Yes, im a big DIY person but with wrap...leave it to the pros...it sucks.
 


driv300mph

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Can you find out the brand that he uses that matches the OEM fake CF?
 
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Harlaquin

Harlaquin

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Can you find out the brand that he uses that matches the OEM fake CF?
It was unbranded. The supplier that supplies most wraps to shops also has their own brand. Its that "house brand" but ill ask when i see him next and post back here. Might be awhile though.
 

Lazylahma

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I tried my hand wrapping my emblems and although it ended up being a bit easier then I thought with the small pieces the edges were a pain in the ass, didn’t come out perfect but looks good enough, I’ve had it on for about a year and it has held up the same since day one.

Haven’t tried any actual body pieces but am considering trying some Ppf on the front end
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