prodigy803

Ok so my interior panels look like crap since my friend was lazy as hell when he painted my car and didn't prep it correctly. I was looking into the different options to fix it up a bit either paint it, replace it, or wrap it. I saw DIYs on painting interior pieces but I wanted to do something different. My friend recommended wrapping all the plastic with vinyl. Now there's mixed emotions about this because some people say it'll be tacky but others say it might look good. I haven't been able to find any pics of others doing it to their car. Would it look good? I did already invest about 100 dollars in vinyl already. If anyone has done it, would it be durable? The only thing I'm scared of obviously is my car looking like **** after the project.

The plan if I go through with it is removing all the panels, dash, trim then cleaning them off with hot water and soap then drying it off with a dry cloth. Then clean it with some heavy duty degreaser and let it sit for about 15 minutes then dry it off with a dry cloth. Then apply fabric adhesive to the pieces then lay down the vinyl and use a roll or the molding tool they use for body work so I can apply the vinyl evenly and removing air pockets. I heard it also helps it to go along with the grooves.

So is doing the majority of the interior in vinyl a little overkill? In my head it looks pretty sick but if anyone has any pics of what it looks like please post it. I don't want to commit to it if it'll look like crap!

MindBomber

I've seen the dash of a 5 series done with 3m carbon fiber vinyl, it looks pretty good, but overtime I'd be concerned with wear as it would likely fade pretty quickly. For that reason, if I were to do it, I would not include the fabric adhesive step; that way if it starts to fade or gets scratches in it I would be easy to remove.

prodigy803

How do I apply it without adhesive? The only concern would be peeling or coming off of the edges.

MindBomber

Well, if it's peel and stick vinyl you don't need adhesive.

If its not, then you have no choice but to use some sort of glue.

prodigy803

No it's not a peel and stick, I picked up 15 yards of black vinyl earlier today. I honestly didn't even look deep into vinyl because my friend just told me to get it from there. Does vinyl get messed up easy? I mean my dash is already vinyl and it doesn't look too weathered. Then again the vinyl I got isn't very thick if that matters.

AlexFromCali

There might be a undercover so it doesn't get contaminated. If/not use a blow drier or a heat gun (heat sink for electronic or whatever you call it). Basically blow it on hot, and basically it expands the vinyl wrap. At this point you smooth it out with fingers and any tools.

Say for the shifter panel trim, you have to wrap the V shape ring, start at the point of the V or U, make sure that is smooth, and lifted part wont stay. And basically you work your way down the edges of the shape, and basically the under part which is hidden and usually clips in somewhere or whatever, you want to make sure it gets as tight and smooth as possible before you cut. If you cut the vinyl and any edges are lifted or bubbly it will slowly lose its strength. There's plenty of videos of people vinyl wrapping all plastics in their interior.