I thought that the rear infill panel wrap was a success, so decided to crack on with the much larger and CONSIDERABLY more complicated rear faring.
I planned to keep the original black and silver paintwork, and just cover the horrible Red which is really showing the bikes age. So I gave the black a few goings over with T-cut to smooth it out. I did this before the wrap purely so I wouldn't get T-cut on the vinyl afterwards. I have no idea how the vinyl will react to the abrasive nature of Turtlewax's wonder liquid. Better safe than sorry.
After that I gave the whole panel a good clean with warm soapy water and then a wipe over with Isopropyl alcohol to get the best adhesion possible from the vinyl. I envisaged this job being a real pain in the @rse, so I don't want to have to do it again for a while!
Heres the panel before. Looking haggard and tired.
[smg id=1267]
And then began the wrestling match. Think of when you try to stick a pice of sellotape onto something in a straight line, then when you get close the static SUCKS the tape onto that something, in the wrong place! Or worse it sticks to itself! Well it's like that, except the sheet for the rear fairing was about half a meter square! Luckily this stuff is pretty resilient. you can unstick it, apply and reapply it many, many times. And if it stretches or creases, a little heat with the hairdryer and it returns to its original flat and smooth state. Very clever.
After much swearing, stretching, heating, unsticking, more swearing and re-sticking I reached this state. Already feeling pretty smug about how well I'd done.
[smg id=1268]
Now to trim it back. 2 things are vital for this stage.
Number 1 is an incredibly sharp knife. The vinyl is really resilient, but it WILL tear. and when it starts, it unravels like a Tory/Lib-dem alliance. So your knife need to cut like, well, like a sharp knife through warm vinyl.
Number 2 is 'Knifeless Finishing Tape'. The brand I have is called Wrapcut. It's a really thin sticky tape that has a filament in it. You can see it in the pic above under the vinyl, along where the black originally met the red. You apply the tape first, then apply the vinyl and after that, by pulling the filament away from the panel, it trims the vinyl to EXACTLY where the tape was. Then you strip out the excess tape and smooth down.
And this is what you get...
[smg id=1269]
Cool huh?!
And on the bike...
[smg id=1270]
Tune in next time for the Front Mudguard. Bit apprehensive about that one. It's just one BIG curve!
I planned to keep the original black and silver paintwork, and just cover the horrible Red which is really showing the bikes age. So I gave the black a few goings over with T-cut to smooth it out. I did this before the wrap purely so I wouldn't get T-cut on the vinyl afterwards. I have no idea how the vinyl will react to the abrasive nature of Turtlewax's wonder liquid. Better safe than sorry.
After that I gave the whole panel a good clean with warm soapy water and then a wipe over with Isopropyl alcohol to get the best adhesion possible from the vinyl. I envisaged this job being a real pain in the @rse, so I don't want to have to do it again for a while!
Heres the panel before. Looking haggard and tired.
[smg id=1267]
And then began the wrestling match. Think of when you try to stick a pice of sellotape onto something in a straight line, then when you get close the static SUCKS the tape onto that something, in the wrong place! Or worse it sticks to itself! Well it's like that, except the sheet for the rear fairing was about half a meter square! Luckily this stuff is pretty resilient. you can unstick it, apply and reapply it many, many times. And if it stretches or creases, a little heat with the hairdryer and it returns to its original flat and smooth state. Very clever.
After much swearing, stretching, heating, unsticking, more swearing and re-sticking I reached this state. Already feeling pretty smug about how well I'd done.
[smg id=1268]
Now to trim it back. 2 things are vital for this stage.
Number 1 is an incredibly sharp knife. The vinyl is really resilient, but it WILL tear. and when it starts, it unravels like a Tory/Lib-dem alliance. So your knife need to cut like, well, like a sharp knife through warm vinyl.
Number 2 is 'Knifeless Finishing Tape'. The brand I have is called Wrapcut. It's a really thin sticky tape that has a filament in it. You can see it in the pic above under the vinyl, along where the black originally met the red. You apply the tape first, then apply the vinyl and after that, by pulling the filament away from the panel, it trims the vinyl to EXACTLY where the tape was. Then you strip out the excess tape and smooth down.
And this is what you get...
[smg id=1269]
Cool huh?!
And on the bike...
[smg id=1270]
Tune in next time for the Front Mudguard. Bit apprehensive about that one. It's just one BIG curve!
WATCH THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdQM825SMs