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Dear USCutter forums, Way too recently, I heard about vinyl car wraps for the first time. I'm not sure how I missed out for such a long time; but better late than never I guess. Anyhow, when I first found out about the idea of wrapping a car (or parts of a car) I was obsessed with the idea and knew that I had to try it myself. Being the cheap person that I am, I went and found the cheapest carbon fiber wrap material on eBay that I could. I knew that this was probably a foolish decision, but I decided to try it anyway. I also decided to wrap the side-view mirrors of my car before anything else. I knew this was also probably a foolish decision; but my logic was that if I could figure out how to wrap the mirrors, I should be able to wrap basically any other piece of the car. So here I am, a few weeks later. I've wrapped each mirror a few times and don't quite have the hang of it yet. I'm convinced it's not a material issue, but rather user error. I'll explain why in a second; but let be first show you what I'm trying to wrap. This is a side view mirror on a '97 Taurus, and it's turned out to be even harder than I though it was going to be. Below are a couple pictures of the mirror itself: I know the mirror is already (partially) wrapped in those photos; but now you know what I'm dealing with. A borderline nightmarish amount of curves. Here's the problem though: I know what you're supposed to do is pre-stretch the material, then shrink it back down to fit the mirror. I'm running into some issues with this. First, it doesn't shrink back enough, even if I stretch it lots initially (like 2x the original size, which would be considered "overstretching.") Also, as I try to shrink it; the vinyl start to crease in multiple places and starts to look like this: Although it can crease far worse than what is pictured above. Also, the reason I know that it's not a material issue, is because I recently ordered some 3M stuff thinking that it would solve all the world's problems. It didn't. It certainly did work slightly better than the eBay stuff, but I still ended up running into the same issues. If I try to stretch the vinyl around the curves while it's on the mirror, I just end up overstretching it. I've even stretched it so far sometimes that it's even ripped, but it still wasn't enough to get it around the curves. So basically, I'm having trouble getting the vinyl around the curves of the mirror. Pre-stretching isn't working, and stretching it around the curves isn't working either. What should I try? I feel like I'm missing something. If you guys have any ideas on how to wrap this particular mirror, they would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I just need to wrap it in multiple parts, but I'm not a huge fan of doing that if I can avoid it. Thanks again!

So i wanted to post several more pictures, but my files are too big so please check out our facebook page to see the rest of this wrap. A big thank you to primal decals for the template. https://www.facebook.com/designasignpagosa/

I have a client who would like me to apply white vinyl over his work van windows. Each window has 4 rivets that I am to cut around. Someone has done this before with his van. I have never attempted a wrap before. I am wondering, how should I apply this?? Should I use application fluid? Will the rivets make it harder in orderuse a wet application? Should I just use heat and dry apply? I need some help. I want this to turn out nice. Thank you

Had to show this off, we're pretty proud of this work. They liked the small trailer we wrapped for them so much that we ended wrapping their 30' trailer as well. we didn't have a space inside big enough for it so we had to use the body shop's garage that painted it for us, only his shop is forty miles away, and we have been having quite the winter. Oh yea, and we had two weeks to complete it. Took us the first week just to strip and clean the old graphics! Just click the link to our facebook and scroll down, the big trailer is the first one, and then you'll see the small trailer. https://www.facebook.com/designasignpagosa/

Anyone have experience with the cheap, made in China wrapping vinyl? Is it comparable to any of the low end vinyl here in the USA? I'm looking to offer small rolls and sheets of printed vinyl to my local crafters and cricuteers. It doesn't have to be professional level vinyl, just something decent. Does it work well for cut vinyl designs on flat surfaces also?

wheel accents wrapped with orange oralite the circuit board is black reflective (white reflective at night) almost invisible in daytime.

Wrap hood with HX2000 and headlights with Hexis Transparent dark gray

here's our latest wrap install, we didn't get to print this one since we just got our printer today but soon we'll be printing and installing!!!

I found these video tips about doing wraps on Arlon's website. I found them interesting. http://www.wrapitright.com/video_gallery.html Jay

I have a job to put graphics on 3 Astro vans. Here is a sketch I made based on the clients ideas. There will be more added such as a phone number and a URL. On the back of the van will be a list of what they do (home theater/automation). I have not done a job this size but my idea is to cut the large logo in 4 peices in each color. Each Green outline shows each a section of vinyl. The design will fit within 24" rolls. I have a few ideas... #1 - Cut the larger black (solid not outlines) shapes and apply them wet, then apply the red shapes on top wet. #2 - Cut the red shapes and apply them wet. Then apply the black outlines, cut in parts with transfer tape, dry or wet. #4 - Cut the large black shapes then the red shapes. Weed both colors then use transfer tape on the red and apply to the black when still on the backer. Apply this two-color graphic to the van wet. #5 - Better ideas? Any thoughts? There are pro's and con's to each but I have never done a large install like this in two colors. The only critical allignment is where the two peices come together, or rather 4 if you count each color on the left side of the large logo. The other sections of the logo are seperate so the allignment will not be as critical. The vinyl is Oracal 751 on 24" rolls. The template for the van if anyone wants to know came from BadWraps.com and allows you to slide your graphics underneith the highlights and shadows of the van and already has a mask cut in the layered Photoshop .TIF file to make desinging easy. The cutter is a USCutter SC 50". I will make the sections of the vinyl designs in Illustrator before sending to SignCut Pro. thanks -david