Vinyl - how to & how not to!
 

ok this is my first attempt at vinyl and at a build thread so well ... it is what it is.
This for me was a fail with the vinyl although the process was fine!

I wanted to vinyl the whole bike in white and add custom black decals (can't afford a respray, vinyl is cheap) for me this didn't work because the repsol paint job is 3 different colours going over it in white shows three different shades through the finished product.

however this is my first attempt at vinyl and I've painted a lot before so i can tell you, if you have the patience then its a cheap alternative to painting! looks good when done well!

This pics will show you part the i did for the try out too see how hard it was.

The standard fairing piece orange and white with scratches.

If this was going to be a final vinyl this surface would have been prepared and filled so there was no lumps or anything so it would be a perfectly flat smooth surface. for this (being a trial run) there was no point.

so i cut out a bit of vinyl over sized for the fairing piece so it can wrap round the edges.

Then simple lay on panel (after cleaning/degreasing/panel prepping).

I've shown wrong bits i.e bubbles etc and I've shown good bits that i had figured out how to do it properly on.

I watched a fair few how to's on vinyl but some have it wrong!

Heating and stretching (gently) is defiantly the right way!!!
If you use a tool to push out the bubbles it does rip!

for me a finger or thumb to push down the vinyl once heated was fine, if u find a bubble lift off again and stretch in the right direction to get rid of it.

do not over heat (very easy to do) and do not stretch to much (also easy) but once u get the nack of it, its not bad.

only cover a bike that is one colour though over wise your have the problem i did, it will take someone with good eyes to see it but if you look at the top of the panel in the picture u can see there is two shades of white on the vinyl where it went over the white and the orange.

I didn't make a huge effort with this panel because when i realised it couldn't cover the different colours i gave up but you can see along one side i made sure it was perfect for this thread.

hope this interests someone have fun

K

Interesting write up never thought of doing something like that dropped 1300 on my paint job last winter

Yeah takes a bit of practice but the process is pretty easy once you have the hang of it and can look good if done well!

Nice write up.
I m doing my painting myself, equipment cost so far is 150euros
(inclusive pinstriping colors). But I am gonna use vinyl in some places. Looks cleaner for some parts! plus having big thoughts about covering all up in transparrent vinyl. Considering my painting choise repaint some scratches in future could be a head ace.

cheers!
 

well funny thing is, I was taken out by some idiot pulling out on me a few months back so now I had to buy new fairings anyway! glad you like it though!

well mine are umm... I dont even know how to describe their condition :D Duable? Have done many repairs on it. Will open up a thread about it some time. when its finished :D
Last owners have how to say "whored" my bike a lot. So I have lots of damage to repair. It rides but is not in its best shape- but will be a loooot better this yr :))

I worked for a while in a company that does advertisement taping stuff, signs and things like that and I can give you a few pointers about how they did it.

Now this instruction is written to be used for a straight surface, but is partly applicable on curved pieces too. For example, text stickers or decals are applied this way:


First off, naturally, the surface has to bee squeaky clean and free of static electricity so off with the flannel shirts, clean the surface with a suitable cleaner (they used either rubbing alcohol or some citric based cleaner on more sensitive surfaces)

Make sure your working environment is dust free, when you pull that vinyl from the backing paper it will literally draw every single bit of loose fluff and dust from a meter radius onto itself.

Get yourself a rubber splint and a piece of college cloth to cover the edge so you won`t nick the vinyl.

Get a spray bottle almost full of water. Add ONE OR TWO drops of dish washing liquid, NO MORE!

Lay your vinyl over the piece to be covered, if needed, attach with painters tape from a few spots: Divide the piece in two sections and tape the other one down.

Now, pull the non-taped part from the backing paper and lay it to the other side sticky side up. Cut the backing paper off from that side.

Spray the surface with the soapy water. Don`t drench it but make it moist.

Start applying the sticker to the surface with the splint using a tractor tire-type pattern working outwards from the center, at the same time pushing the moisture from under the sticker. Keep the not yet applied part of the revealed sticker up with your fingers, but make as little contact with the glue side as possible. Getting a drop of the soapy water onto your CLEAN fingertips help. This should prevent any bubbles from getting stuck under the sticker. When done, remove the tapes, pull the other part from the backing paper and repeat the procedure. If there is any bubbles left under the sticker, you should have a minute or so to try and push them out with the splint until the sticker adheres to the surface completely. Don`t push too hard or you`ll make a wrinkle. If you positively, absolutely HAVE to use a needle, make just a tiny prick onto the bubble and work the air out, but note that every hole is a possible entry place for crap to get under the sticker.

Hope this helps someone.

Mattson.. stupid question maybe again he he, but i readed from somewhere that the vinyl is also placed with heat gun? Or is that somekind of "Special Vinyl"? and how mutch do you have the "room" to strech?

That I cannot help you with. I know tanks and tricky parts are covered with a heat gun, and I also know overheating rapidly turns the vinyl to "snot" and overstretches it. I`ve never tried to do it, but I`d recommend doing a test with the material at hand before doing the part to be covered. I know it`s quite hard especially if your vinyl has any graphics cause they distort very easily from the stretch, but I also know it CAN be done cause the owner`s son had a streetfighter bike with a vinyl covered tank full of skull pics. I guess the main thing is to avoid overstretching cause it makes the vinyl to thin out and can make changes in the color.

So base is that with vinyl i can use 2 ways of placeing. Heatgun and your description.
Nice, Will try :) Both :)

Thanks for useful info:)