Vinyl Wrap

[Sith Lord]

I see BamBam has done a good job with some Carbon Fibre wrap on various components of his bike:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-mods/36231-playing-carbon-fiber-vinyl.html

But has anyone gone a bit further and covered the body/paint work of their bike? I see sites like Vinyl Power Sports Wraps for Sports Machines - The Coolest Custom Wraps on the Planet! have some pretty cool looking wraps available and they seem resonably easy to install. (although not entirely sure on how covering the tank would go...)Quite a bit cheaper than a full on paint job and it can be removed when you've had enough.

Any thoughts?

 

[1.8tbora]

I wrap all vehicles known to man for a living but never wrapped a bike, was thinking about wrapping my bike in white with a pearl laminate. Still thinking though, when you do it all day you never want to do it when you get home unless you making some side cash:rockon:

 

[DownrangeFuture]

If it's done right it looks okay. You can tell it's vinyl most of the time though. High quality stuff looks better, and I've seen guys clear coat it and it looks a little better. But I wonder how long before it spiderwebs.

The upside is it's probably only a tenth of the cost of a custom paint job to match it and you have to be pretty close to really tell the difference.

 

[1.8tbora]

OThese days most vinyls last 5 to 7 years with proper cleaning and waxing "spray wax" . 3m cv3 with a 8519 laminate last about 7 years with proper care. If you clear coat viynl it makes a bitch to remove in the future.

 

[Sith Lord]

Thanks Bora. Being a 'professional' in the trade, do you think covering a tank would be do-able? Being an almost round object, I can;t see how it would be done, unless it was done in 2 or 3 pieces. I guess this could be overcome by selecting a vinyl pattern that would hide the seams - not a solid colour.

The site I mentioned has lots of cool patterens, but doesn't actually say what brand/make vinyl it is, apart from saying "some film manufactures are: Oracal, 3M, Avery, LG, Arlon". They also say that "The vinyl itself is 2.75 mil thick and the laminate is another 2 mil thick" and "Keep in mind our Body Skinz products all have a hard laminate that is applied over top of the wrapping film. This serves to protect the printed image from the effects of UV, scratches, fading and the elements". But they don't quote exactly how long they last...

I'm really keen in giving this a try, just to give my bike a different look - and I can't afford $2000 for a new paint job....

 

[Wolfman]

I experimented a bit with "Carbon fibre" wrapping....it looks ok, but in the end, it doesnt hold a candle to the real thing....and people spot that it's fake carbon fibre pretty much immediately, and generally look down upon it...

Hence the reason i stopped doing it...

But the other sort of wrapping, like the deigns on those bikes in the OP, they look cool, and i think it's a great option....i did it to my old Beetle once, white with silver stars....looked awesome, and it gained heaps of laugh's, which is what i was after.

:thumbup:

 

[1.8tbora]

I have been wrapping vehicles for almost 12 years now and I think the fz tank could be easily done in one piece. But saying that the hard part would be a consistent side to side pattern and keeping it consistent while heating it and stretching it. I'm with you Wolfman on the carbon fiber vinyl wrapping, but 3M's product looks so close to the real thing that I would use it anyday. It even has the texture of carbon fiber that you can feel, I bet if you clear coat it you would never notice the difference between real or fake. In the vinyl industry 3M has the closest look to the real thing of carbon fiber, and I have seen them all. I have used all brands of materials out there and in my opinion 3m is the best for ease of use, conformabilty, durability, and warranty.

 

[tjr66]

Thanks Bora. Being a 'professional' in the trade, do you think covering a tank would be do-able? Being an almost round object, I can;t see how it would be done, unless it was done in 2 or 3 pieces. I guess this could be overcome by selecting a vinyl pattern that would hide the seams - not a solid colour.

The site I mentioned has lots of cool patterens, but doesn't actually say what brand/make vinyl it is, apart from saying "some film manufactures are: Oracal, 3M, Avery, LG, Arlon". They also say that "The vinyl itself is 2.75 mil thick and the laminate is another 2 mil thick" and "Keep in mind our Body Skinz products all have a hard laminate that is applied over top of the wrapping film. This serves to protect the printed image from the effects of UV, scratches, fading and the elements". But they don't quote exactly how long they last...

I'm really keen in giving this a try, just to give my bike a different look - and I can't afford $2000 for a new paint job....

New to forum, ride something else, but read vinyl wrap items, thise in aus, have a look at bikeskinz.com in US, they have videos about howto do tanks, then those who can wrap willhave a little more info.

cheers

 

[faseljd]

I did the vinyl wrap on my previous bike. It was a 3M matte green vinyl. It is a bit tricky to do since I had no experience in it, but it turned out pretty cool.