MOD 4: Vinyl wrapping all of the Exterior grey trim
I went back and forth about plastidipping vs vinyl wrapping the fender flares, front and rear bumper. I posted online and got some feedback from people who said that vinyl would last longer than plastidip on the fenders and bumpers. I'm in Canada so there is no really cheap way to get plastidip other then $20/spray can at crappy tire. Based on my rear bumper it seemed to get dirty really quickly so I decided that I would give vinyl a go instead.
This has been a Mod in preparation for months. I've been collecting samples from all the various vinyl vendors for months. I was going to use black or carbon fiber for the exterior. It came down to 3M Nidoc, 3M 1080 and Vvivid vinyl Satin Matte Stealth Jet Black.
I ultimately decided to be cheap for my first vinyl wrap attempt and not go with carbon fiber. I found all three to be pretty easy to apply and of similar quality, I ended up going with Vvivid Vinyl, it had the same feel as the 3m at a lot lower price (1/3 the cost) I got 5x25ft roll for $150 Cdn which is like $115 USD. I think they are a newer start up, so far the reviews on Amazon I have read were positive and I figured for the lower initial price I would give it a shot after all I have no experience with vinyl or wraps at all and if it turns out horrible I only wasted $150 + many frustrating hours of my life vs $400 on 3m; it was my practice.
I also got a can of the 3m Vinyl Adhesive primer, a 2 speed heat gun from harbor freight, felt tipped plastic vinyl applicator, utility knife and a role of knife tape. When I ordered the vinyl it was supposed to come with a starter kit that had the applicator, knife tape, knife and primer sticks but it didn't. I got that rectified and shipped but it took over a week to straighten out and I was running out of time so I started the wrapping with only the 3m primer, vinyl in hand, heat gun, an old credit card and my fingers or remove all the air bubbles.
Well it turns out I decided to vinyl wrap all of the hard pieces with curves and cut outs!!!
The first night I took the driver side fender off and into the dining room table, well I learnt the hard way that you need a way to hold the part your wrapping solid and stop it from moving. I didn't have enough hands to hold the part, hold the heat gun and stretch the vinyl and squeegee the air out at the same time. I ended up giving up thinking what did I get myself into. The next day I regrouped and read online that it's easier if the parts are left of the truck. I tried the other fender and it was a lot easier when the part is held stationary. I managed to wrap the passenger side fender flare with only a heat gun, my fingers and a lot of patience. Taking the fenders on and off is pretty simple, I did it for the 37" tires and if you have the right body trim removal tools they come off in seconds. One of the most messy and time consuming parts was getting the parts CLEAN. And I mean squeaky clean. Each piece getting wrapped got the same treatment.
1-Full strength industrial degreaser was scrubbed on with a plastic potato scrubber brush. Then rinsed off and repeated.
2-Same degreaser with a kitchen sink sponge, 2x
3-High ratio of water/Dawn dish soap with a separate kitchen sink sponge, 2x
4-Rub the parts with Rubbing alcohol to clean any soap residue.
This regiment happened for every part of the truck that the vinyl could be touching during the install phase, including the rest of the truck fenders especially the back sides that the edges will be sticking to.
When it came to cleaning the trucks painted parts; instead of using the rubbing alcohol to remove any soap residue I used the Mcquiars' Clay Bar kit to get it squeaky clean and wax free. Once everything was clean I would cut a piece of vinyl that had 6" extra of all sides and drape it on to the truck. Eventually I could get it all on with no bubbles.
The trick I learnt was to not heat it too much and stretch it right away, try and get as much of it on the flat surfaces properly without stretching and then only heat it and stretch it when it comes to corners and edges because you can stretch it enough to remove all wrinkles and still look perfect.
Then I wrapped all of the vinyl around to the back edges where they would be snug up against the truck and then heated the vinyl using a heat gun and temperature gun to set the vinyl in key areas for good.
The cleaning takes as long as doing the vinyl wrap if you want it to last!
The skid plate was the easiest part because it was heavy and relatively flat enough that I did it on my work bench.
The front bumper was probably the hardest part. I ended up tearing it down to the single piece and degreasing it and cleaning it. I didn't want to pry off the bumperettes as I have read that they won't go back on as snug as they came off. If you're going to take the bumper off I would suggest just taking everything off, everything is just bolted on the back and easily reachable once the bumper is off the truck. The tear down took 20 mins. The degreasing took about 2 hours for all the parts. I had to wrap the bumper twice as I learnt the hard way not to put the primer on the visible side of the bumper because once the vinyl makes contact it's instantly 5x as strong a bond as just the vinyl on metal and a combination of exhaustion/too much heat/stretching/increased adhesion resulting it me putting my finger through one of the visible edges.
The second time around I used rubbing alcohol to remove some of the primer and it went much better and quicker. I also experienced removing the vinyl the first time around and found out that if you don't use heat to warm the vinyl and make it pliable you will end up pulling small strips and take forever like trying to start a roll of packing tape that has taped itself down. Once I started using heat I could tug most of it off pretty easily. It was a lot easier and quicker to remove then the plastidip was.
I will include some pics of the bumper dismantled so you can see what it looks like underneath all clean. I also wrapped the bumperettes separately and they came out great. Everything went back together and back onto the truck.
The rear fenders were the same as the front fenders just a little longer.
You can take the entire rear bumper off without removing the heavy and bulky hitch/receiver. There are 3 bolts that run diagonally on either side of the hitch. Once these 6 bolts are out you have to lift up on the bumper in the middle as there are plastic tabs in the bumper that sit in slots in the hitch that prevent you from just pulling outboard (mine broke when i was pulling it off, no big deal). (don't forget to disconnect the license plate lights by prying the lights out of the plastic body and turning them to separate the light socket from the housing.
Once you pull the bumper off, it separates into 3 pieces, A center plastic part and the two metal ends which are held on with two plastic pins and plastic clips molded into the center plastic bumper part.
I'm glad I took the rear bumper apart because the inside of the metal bumpers were worse than the outside portions that I fixed last spring. They were rusting away like crazy!!! Make sure you undercoat or protect these if you don't want to replace your bumpers in 5 years! Because I'm sure the Raptor shade of grey powdered coating bumper pieces will be pricey!
I will use the rust kill primer on the bare metal and then follow that up with truck bed liner and then undercoat when I re undercoat the entire truck pre snow fall.
Once you finish wrapping those 2 pieces they snap right into the main plastic bumper piece and bolt right back onto the truck the same way they came off.
