Vinyl Wraps Wet Method

[149motorsports]

I just bought a 6ft bed for my truck. I wanted to wrap the sides. I tried one side and got a lot of wrinkles in it(first time wrapper). I'm only one man so it was a trail and error. What's everyone's thought if you soaked it with application fluid (which would help me out a lot in moving it). Using oracal 970ra.

Looking for some tips/advice from the pros.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

You have to use heat to shrink it to fit. I don't think you'd ever be able to wet apply it.

 

[149motorsports]

Yea I used heat to conform but it was a pain as it stuck to the body and I kept pulling it off to apply. one man job sucks lol

 

[Redbrn3588]

No wet apply with wrap material.

 

[White Haus]

You don't ever want to apply wrap (or any air-egress) film wet.

You just need some practice, and lots of it. Successfully wrapping vehicles isn't something that can by achieved by buying wrap film and throwing it on a vehicle, which from the sounds of it you've learned already.

Watch some videos on youtube, cut yourself some small sheets and focus on the most challenging areas of the vehicle until you get more comfortable.

It might also be worth experimenting with other brands of wrap film as they will all behave differently. I find Oracal's materials to be more on the aggressive side - you may find Avery SW 900 line to be more beginner/user friendly. Just make sure you post heat lots as it has a lower initial tack than other brands.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out. Lots of very skilled wrappers here that probably have better advice than I do.

 

[frankzilla]

Best advice is to practice a lot. Just buy a roll of cheaper Chinese generic material and then practice. Do not leave the material installed for long as the adhesive separates and has a higher tendency to leave a ton of residue or be worse to remove than anything.

When you've been able to wrap mutiple challenges around your truck to get the hang of it, then go buy more of the Oracal/3M/Avery stuff and do it again. It's like riding a bike, or more accurately, learning to drive a manual transmission, you sorta have to know what youre looking at and how to deal with it naturally vs following a black and white list of instructions. You can study and watch all you want, but it can only help so much.

Another tip is just shadow someone that knows what they are doing and follow along for a while.

 

[bcxprint420]

you dont soak anythjng in application fluid ever and never wrap anythjng w air egress wet. You may just be best contacting a local shop and let them do it if ur nkt planning on wrapling for a living. Its not going to save u doing it urself and most likely will cost more if u have to keep using new film. And ive wrapped solo since day 1 its a notch above wrapping with help but its farffom impossible but you will need more than what u can learn on you tube to be honest. Id plan on contacting a local shop near you. Support local business in your area.

 

[signheremd]

As everyone has said, never apply air egress wet - because it traps the liquid which later pools in areas and becomes a problem. Upgrade your skills - take a wrap class. The basics of wrapping a bed would be to do long horizontal strokes, skip over valleys and then use some heat to get the vinyl to fill in - remember the air needs somewhere to go so leave an exit point and move the air that way, pull the vinyl taut as you go, squeegee slowly, keep the leading edge of the squeegee on an angle to the direction you are moving so you can pull/slice the air out. Wrinkles happen more often when squeegee down using chopping motions instead of slicing motions. The vinyl can be popped back up and heated to shrink back into shape - wrinkles can usually be fixed unless you hard press adhesive to adhesive. Most of us that come from basic sign making squeegee too fast when we first try to wrap - slow it down, take your time. Hope that helps

 

[Lindsey]

No...do not use any application liquids with films that have "RA rapid air" or "Air Egress" or "Comply Technology". Dry application only.

 

[McDonald Signs]

You can pop the wrap vinyl up off the truck and heat the wrinkles with a heat gun until the film goes back to its original shape and usually the wrinkles will go away and you can lay the film down and try again