Thinking of a stick-on paint job.

[DarC]

Not velcro, but vinyl. My paint is decent 3 year old paint with plenty of little scratches, etc. Nothing horrible but I was thinking of a repaint.

Then I moved into an apartment this month without a garage (waiting on one to open up). At this point and I have decided to look into a full vinyl wrap job. I like this idea because:

-I can pic whatever color/texture/design I want
-Easy application
-I can tear it off if it makes me puke
-Should be relatively cheap
-Less down time- I can wrap parts one at a time. The tank I can save for last.

Mainly I am looking for those who may have done this or have experience. I figure I could tackle this myself but some coaching would be nice.

I did think of DiNoc carbon fiber but that is too much $$ for what I want to do and may be over the top. Tri will also have to cook up a new back of decals if I do this as well

[Ninja Assassin]

I gotta be honest, i've never once considered it, but now that you mention it, it sounds like a helluvan idea.

[DarC]

If I can find a good place to get vinyl I think I am going to go ahead and start with the rear seat cowl and tail fairings.

Now just need to decide on a color...any color.

Anyone know where I can find matte vinyl? I think a matte red/white scheme might look cool. Matte orange, who knows, anything neato.

[azimmer11]

i am going to do this with matte black vinyl this winter

[Live2ride]

I just finished my vinyl job about a week ago and I have to say that it is a lot more work than I thought it would be. I used oracal 651 vinyl which is definitely on the cheap side compared to others. I bought a 50" X 10 yard roll for about $60 shipped in solid white. I managed to complete my entire vinyl job with only about 2-3 yards of it. If you do it yourself; don't expect to have it come out perfect. Mine has tons of imperfections but from 3ft away or more you can barely see most of them. It takes a lot of patience but I was very pleased with my outcome. I still may redo some peices to fix some things but it came out pretty darn tootin good .

[DarC]

I'll have to post back later...can't see your pic at work .

I have wrapped smaller things so I know that the best remedy is patience, soapy water, patience, heat gun, patience, and felt with a little patience.

$60 isn't that bad, I would assume just the right amount of 3M stuff shouldn't be much more.

[Crriiissss]

I'm planning to do the same when I find the time, just a couple of stripes here and there, something like this:

[Ninja Assassin]

Bikes looks sharp in the picture man.

[DarC]

I have the stuff to paint the bike problem is that I gave up my garage thus I don't have a place to paint. It will be had enough taking off the plastic parts to wrap as the "living code" in my complex is very strict about working on vehicles outside...I don't have a way to bring it inside either. I have confidence that I can do the wrapping myself as I have wrapped with DiNoc before with great results so we shall see how this goes!

I am going to try to find the website I used before and I will buy some vinyl tonight. Still contemplating colors....

I am also attempting to figure out how much will be needed to just wrap the entire bike, I don't want to buy too much if I don't have to.

[5evenz]

I have been wanting to do this since i got my bike, just to hide some scuffs on the fairing. but i have no idea where to pick the vinyl wrap. ??? I work a lot with stencils so im good with an exacto and boy do i have some sweet ideas.

[Kurgan]

Originally Posted by DarC

If I can find a good place to get vinyl I think I am going to go ahead and start with the rear seat cowl and tail fairings.

Now just need to decide on a color...any color.

Anyone know where I can find matte vinyl? I think a matte red/white scheme might look cool. Matte orange, who knows, anything neato.

Best place to check is your local sign shops that do vinyl signs, ask them where they get their vinyl from.

Also start checking Art supply stores, and places that specialize in window tinting and body wraps for cars.

Make up some kind of story for the car wrap places, say you've got just a small piece of touchup to do and where you might find the vinyl you need, ask them to look at their catalogs under the guise of finding the right color, then snag the phone number of their vinyl distributor from the catalog.

[greatwhiteninja]

Plasti dip would work good as long as its not on a area were yourin direct contact with much. It comes in a few different colors also, not just black. Just a thought tho :-)

[Twisthem488]

How well does the vinyl hide scratches and cracks? Ive been contemplating wrapping my 2009 ninja that I purchased with some battle wounds, but wasn't sure if would need to still bondo, sand, and paint before wrapping.

[DarC]

The 3M stuff does a much better job of hiding imperfections than a typical decal thickness vinyl. I have the matte black decals and can see one spot on my rear plastics through the vinyl but it isn't too bad.

A simple smoothing out of the defect would probably be all that is needed really.

[gt_turbo]

cool idea. let us know how it turns out for you.

[leed]

I went this route as well.



What you are looking to do shouldn't be too bad. I had a lot of trouble with mine, making the stencils fit the curves and maintain a straight line.

[kaiserz]

Where'd you guys get your vinyl?

[Francis]

I'm not familiar with this.

What is this 'vinyl paint thingy a bob' ?

You.. 'glue' it like sticker?

[nickjpass]

Originally Posted by leed

I went this route as well.
What you are looking to do shouldn't be too bad. I had a lot of trouble with mine, making the stencils fit the curves and maintain a straight line.

What camera did you use?

[leed]

Originally Posted by Francis

I'm not familiar with this.

What is this 'vinyl paint thingy a bob' ?

You.. 'glue' it like sticker?

Think of it like a giant sticker. Except it has some give to it (it can stretch). You can buy them in bulk rolls and cut them yourself.

Originally Posted by nickjpass

What camera did you use?

D90, I don't use it enough though


As for where to buy it, I found a local store (www.tapeworks.com) for what I was looking for, otherwise eBay has lots, and elsewhere online. Just search bulk vinyl.

[nickjpass]

Originally Posted by leed

D90, I don't use it enough though

It's such beautiful quality!!

[rusninja]

matte black

[Francis]

Originally Posted by leed

Think of it like a giant sticker. Except it has some give to it (it can stretch). You can buy them in bulk rolls and cut them yourself.



D90, I don't use it enough though


As for where to buy it, I found a local store (www.tapeworks.com) for what I was looking for, otherwise eBay has lots, and elsewhere online. Just search bulk vinyl.

Oh, nice. If I remove it, would it leave any 'marks' or would it be back to 'original'?

[caps]

Originally Posted by Francis

Oh, nice. If I remove it, would it leave any 'marks' or would it be back to 'original'?

depends on the quality

[leed]

Originally Posted by Francis

Oh, nice. If I remove it, would it leave any 'marks' or would it be back to 'original'?

Originally Posted by caps

depends on the quality

+1

For the most part.. It should come off without any issue. It may leave behind some adhesive right at the edges, as that is where it will likely slide back if it shrinks at all (from stretching without heat). This is the wonder of Vinyl over regular stickers.

[Lil_Green_Demon]

I've been thinking about doing an entire vinyl wrap on my bike as well. How long of a process do you guys think this is?
Also, did you need any special tools to smooth out the vinyl onto the bike or were your hands good enough?

[leed]

Originally Posted by Lil_Green_Demon

I've been thinking about doing an entire vinyl wrap on my bike as well. How long of a process do you guys think this is?
Also, did you need any special tools to smooth out the vinyl onto the bike or were your hands good enough?

If you can, get a heat gun, or a good hair dryer. It would make the curves go by much much easier. As for how long, I did mine in a weekend, but you can tell if you look close. I would expect to spend some time on it, but I'm also not the best at it!

If you do a dry apply, heat is a huge plus, as I mentioned. Some people do a wet apply, which won't really work unless everything is precut and perfect. The most tasking thing for me was cutting it just right.

[Live2ride]

Originally Posted by Lil_Green_Demon

I've been thinking about doing an entire vinyl wrap on my bike as well. How long of a process do you guys think this is?
Also, did you need any special tools to smooth out the vinyl onto the bike or were your hands good enough?

I'm considering re-doing mine. It's starting to show a lot of big imperfections now but I guess that's what I get for my first time . I used an old I.D. card to smooth it all out but that definitely didn't seem like the best thing to use. I couldn't find an easily available squeegee (until after I finished) and I feel like it would have turned out much better if I had. As for time; I did my whole vinyl job in about a week or two working on it anywhere from 1-5 hours a day. I may wait until winter hits and redo each piece that needs fixing so that it's ready by next season. The amount of time it takes really depends on what vinyl design your making and how much time you can commit to it daily.

As far as tools for applying, a squeegee is a must imo and I used a hair dryer that worked well. I highly doubt you can get a good finish with only your hands; especially if there are sharp, 90 degree angles with small crevices.

[Lil_Green_Demon]

Sh*t... Sounds like it'd be extremely time consuming. I'm a patient person but I suck at doing automotive-like things, such as working on a bike. Just ask any of the members on here who've met me in person!

[leed]

Naah, this isn't so much mechanical aptitude as much as patience, creativity, and being nimble. The only thing mechanical about it is taking the darn fairings off to begin with!

[Liquidtoon]

I would suggest, from personal exp, you spend the little extra on tools....

squeegee type thing: cut it if needed. cutting it into a 1/4 piece and a 3/4 piece makes it easy and have 2 sizes.

hair dryer is not that great, use a heat gun the higher temp makes the vinyl softer and more workable, eliminating the bubbles much better.

for the couple small bubble take a exacto blade or needle and poke a hole, use heat after poked and let the air out to push down. If your careful the hole is not visible at all even up close.

the better the vinyl the easier it will be to work with. good vinyls can handle higher heat thus becoming more ply-able. There is a learning curve for handling corners and seams but patience will get you a long ways. A pro could probably wrap the entire bike in about 4 hours if it was disassembled.


just my two cents.