DIY Color change using 3M Car wrapping Viny;

[little foot]

Kinda reminds me of the scene in gumball ralley II where the Lambo with the hotties get their white car hosed off and it is a red car. Good Job !!

[showkey]

Originally Posted by Purcell69

And to the OP, what a great idea! I wonder how well it would work over a plastic tank, ie would it bubble up like grapics do, or could it be used to affix graphics without bubbling. Hmmm...

-Joe

I would guess plastic tank would be a problem....same as the graphic.....unless this 3M material can vent or breath....they do talk about it's ability to release air bubbles?????

[Purcell69]

Originally Posted by showkey

I would guess plastic tank would be a problem....same as the graphic.....unless this 3M material can vent or breath....they do talk about it's ability to release air bubbles?????

That was the comment that got me to wondering. Even if the shrink wrap wouldn't keep an added decal from bubbling, if the wrap itself doesn't bubble, custom dyed graphics could be incorporated into the wrap.



-Joe

[SiouxsieCat]

Originally Posted by little foot

Kinda reminds me of the scene in gumball ralley II where the Lambo with the hotties get their white car hosed off and it is a red car. Good Job !!

I remember that! Except I think it was Cannon Ball Run 2 (Susan Anton and Catherine Bach were the babes )
Classic.

[squish]

Originally Posted by showkey

I would guess plastic tank would be a problem....same as the graphic.....unless this 3M material can vent or breath....they do talk about it's ability to release air bubbles?????

Scotchcal, the product being talked about will bubble if it's used on a plastic tank that's gas permeable.

The way the stuff releases air is through air channels in the adhesive, that way bubbles are easy to push out to an edge.
IIRC the 3M stuff is marketed under the name "comply" Avery also makes a similar product, but in my experience it doesn't last as long or is as easy to apply as the 3M stuff.

Someone else asked about a helmet. It would be a challenge to get the wrap all the way around the helmet.
But you could easily do strips or sections.

For the OP, that's a good looking job. I bet it took some time.

[Purcell69]

Well that's too bad that the wrap will still bubble when applied over top of a tank like Clarke, IMS, and the like. Still, props to the OP. The thought of wrapping a bike never crossed my mind. I would imagine the technique could be effectively used on other plastic parts such as fenders to protect them from sun fade however. Could be handy in the case of my 1985 Honda XL350R with the one year only plastics that nobody reproduces.

-Joe

[nwdub]

most helmet graphics are vinyl not painted now. my hjc came from the factory like that

[TorontoDude]

i contacted 3M and found a dealer here in Toronto

stuff works out to $35.44/CDN for a 60 wide x 1 yard long piece

[willys]

That is a good price IMHO....not that I know much about it but it sure sounds good, if you were to experiment on a helmet. That size should be big enough for sure!
Now if I could only get it in neon yellow.....hi-viz.....I'd be in heaven! Well almost, I would have to make sure I could figure out how to get it on a full face helmet.

I also went onto 3M's site and started looking around.....they have some of that stupidly bright white fabric tape if you were so inclined to get it sewed into or onto your jacket. It has me thinking even with the Hi-viz yellow I will buy next....couldn't hurt to add some well placed stripes for night riding. I don't ride that much at night any more but did last night, Out in the country this time of year...it gets awfull dark and as I am at the moment in all black.....it gives them cages nothing to look at!

So, next season.....you'll need sun glasses to look my direction if I can get it done!

[squish]

Originally Posted by nwdub

most helmet graphics are vinyl not painted now. my hjc came from the factory like that

A lot of the mid to higher end graphics are waterslide decals, not unlike what we used to put on model kits when we were kids.
The material is quite a bit thinner then the vehicle wrap vinyl and with the water it's much easier to apply. it's also designed to wrap around the helmet.

[jules083]

Originally Posted by usafstud

How about wrapping cracked fairings? Will it look bad and obvious?

I'm wondering the same thing. My girlfriend's 250 Ninja has some rash and some small cracks. We're wonding if we can somehow glue the cracks, fill in the scratches with some sort of body filler, then wrap it.

Even if it's not perfect it would still look better than it does now, so I don't have too much to lose. The bike was dropped in a parking lot a few times by the PO, then the girlfriend lost the front end going about 30 or so in july.

The poor bike has been through hell, it makes me sad seeing it. Parking lot dropped at least twice, then shoved in the back corner of a garage for 10 years. When I bought it the tank was full of rust, carbs were gummed up, etc, and it had 263 miles on it. Now it's sitting in the garage rashed up from her wreck and only has about 700 miles on it.

[D.T.]

This is some cool stuff! Watch that dude re do his mini cooper.




Just gotta see ifn' I can find it locally...

[def]

Gee whiz.........I kinda liked the original blue color....

I think your bike turned out great

It will probably be a while before I have the money to do even this as I'm expecting a daughter in August, but I've wanted to do something with the looks of my bike for quite some time now. I was thinking of re-painting the stock parts with either a tan or olive drab scheme and a white star on the tank or maybe going with a WWII airplane theme. Either way, paint would be rather expensive. This may just be the answer I'm looking for.

Do you think it would work over the tank and fenders on a V-Star like mine? Here's a pic of my bike:



Thanks again for posting this

[MiteyF]

I redid the (yellow) DRZ with some scraps from work. $free.99

Plus some sharpie... she's about 75% done right now