Wrapping my B6!

[jjvwg]

Hey guys, just wanted to share my latest project around these parts. Owned the car for 3.5 years and spent all of that time focused on suspension/engine components vs looks. Well, the time came to finally get her looking a little cleaner! I had always thought about a wrap/color change and was interested in a DIY. After meeting 4rings2turbos and seeing him wrapping his car in a campground at camp allroad it inspired me to finally give it a go. I decided to go with avery sw900 gloss dark grey (a fairly popular color these days).Its certainly not perfect for my first time doing it and ill have to go back and re-wrap the lower part of the hatch and the passenger rear door but for now im just trying to get the car fully covered. I only bought a 55' roll of vinyl and was 9' short of having enough so i need to order a little more to finish the two bumpers, which i might have a local guy wrap them for me. havent decided yet. I also picked up a set of hartmann peeler reps that ill be getting mounted at some point in the next few weeks. at this point all i have left to wrap are the side skirts and front and rear bumper. im going to pick up a set of black mirror caps also. just thought id post up some pics and share her makeover.

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

bad spot on the rear door, there is a similar spot on the hatch also.
Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Copen-cisco]

That looks really good for a first timer. Tell us more. Costs, time involved, prep?

[Kevinskir]

That looks really good for a first timer. Tell us more. Costs, time involved, prep?

seconded :)

[jjvwg]

That looks really good for a first timer. Tell us more. Costs, time involved, prep?

Thanks! I had wrapped interior trim bits before but this is a whole other ball game! so far ive spent right around $500 for the vinyl and tools. ill spend another $150 for the rest of the vinyl ill need and then im not sure how much it'll cost to have this local guy wrap my bumpers. its super time consuming. id say a body panel takes anywhere from 1.5-3 hours to complete depending on size, complexity, and how much work is involved with trimming the vinyl to final fit. on top of that is the prep involved to wrap the panel. front fenders require headlights, bumper and side markers to be pulled... roof needs rails and sharkfin pulled...etc. then you have to claybar and wipe down with some sort of cleaning solution to get contaminates off. Ive been using a 50/50 mix of water and denatured alcohol for final clean. so far i have probably close to 40 hours into it. another thing that took me a while to do was remove the old clear bra on the hood. two things that have been challenging for me have been dealing with protecting the finish of the vinyl and dealing with excess vinyl in certain locations. It seems that i cannot prevent scratching the vinyl, even doing a quick wipe down of it before install and using felt covered squegees. by excess vinyl i mean that depending on the shape of the piece you are wrapping or due to certain curves you wind up with more vinyl in a certain spot than you have body panel to apply it too. this is where i can spend a shit ton of time trying to get it to lay down and no matter how much i try/do i end up with some creases/ripples like the one picture above. as i said, its far from a professional wrap, but it looks better than plastidip and arguably the same if not better than 12 year old rock chipped paint.

[jjvwg]

as far as trimming the vinyl goes, one of the more time consuming parts of that around the weatherstripping on the hatch and roof by the front windshield. with the way the weatherstripping lays i had to use a small pic and a credit card to pull it away from the body panel little by little so that i could tuck the vinyl in between the two...a time consuming process.

[jjvwg]

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Spoorguy]

as far as trimming the vinyl goes, one of the more time consuming parts of that around the weatherstripping on the hatch and roof by the front windshield. with the way the weatherstripping lays i had to use a small pic and a credit card to pull it away from the body panel little by little so that i could tuck the vinyl in between the two...a time consuming process.

I'll second this with being the same issue I came across. Anything you can remove to ease the process, do so because it'll make things easier and cleaner down the long haul. While wrap is forgiving, if you do not clean and prep the surface well, you will see most of it through the vinyl so take note of that. For it being your first time, doing great man and I feel your pain with it being your first lol.

[jjvwg]

For it being your first time, doing great man and I feel your pain with it being your first lol.

haha, thanks man, this shit is no joke. i fully realize why a professional wrap job is $2-3k now. ive been pretty busy myself but spending most of my free time and most of the weekends in the garage working on this. I think my GF is over it at this point lol! luckily she's into cars also, a normal women would have probably had enough at this point! im looking forward to having it done and over with. i wouldnt completely write off doing it again, but it will be a long time before i take on another wrap job!

[Spoorguy]

Yeah same. Too bad we're not near eachother, we could've met up. Maybe even did a shoot

[jjvwg]

Yeah same. Too bad we're not near eachother, we could've met up. Maybe even did a shoot

Yea that would have been awesome!

[jjvwg]

quick update from this weekend. ended up getting more vinyl and decideed to have a go at the bumpers myself. rear bumper was a decent challenge and came out ok. front bumper was easier for sure and looks a lot better. also got my side skirts pulled off...why audi thought there needed to be so much hardware to keep these things attached is beyond me. I need to order new plastic clips for the underside attachment points as the hardware from my relak side skirts broke all of them. All thats left is to wrap and reintall the side skirts, reinstall the rear bumper trim (not sure what im going to do with it, it was plastidipped black), clear corner my head lights, deal with the mirrors (pick up some black mirror caps from a local possibly), new plastidip on the front grill surrounds, order up a new trunk emblem, and rewrap the sharkfin so i can get my trunk interior put back together.

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

wrapping the rear bumper... yes, i am using the girlfriends childhood dollhouse as a support haha
Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Spoorguy]

quick update from this weekend. ended up getting more vinyl and decideed to have a go at the bumpers myself. rear bumper was a decent challenge and came out ok. front bumper was easier for sure and looks a lot better. also got my side skirts pulled off...why audi thought there needed to be so much hardware to keep these things attached is beyond me. I need to order new plastic clips for the underside attachment points as the hardware from my relak side skirts broke all of them. All thats left is to wrap and reintall the side skirts, reinstall the rear bumper trim (not sure what im going to do with it, it was plastidipped black), clear corner my head lights, deal with the mirrors (pick up some black mirror caps from a local possibly), new plastidip on the front grill surrounds, order up a new trunk emblem, and rewrap the sharkfin so i can get my trunk interior put back together.

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

wrapping the rear bumper... yes, i am using the girlfriends childhood dollhouse as a support haha
Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

Haha nice ninjanuity with the doll house. Looks great! Thought about removing but don't have anything to really lay it on and keep it still. Your front bumper looks easier than mine, didn't realize how it's separated.

[Copen-cisco]

Wow. I'm really impressed. From "far" it looks really good - how about up close?

[Spoorguy]

Wow. I'm really impressed. From "far" it looks really good - how about up close?

The question him and I don't really want to answer lol

[jjvwg]

The question him and I don't really want to answer lol

haha!

Wow. I'm really impressed. From "far" it looks really good - how about up close?

ill take a close up the hard curves on the rear bumper with my SLR tonight. you can see a close up of a bad spot up above though. that bad spot and another like it will be panels that get rewrapped. honestly, i knew that this being my first time doing it, it wasnt gonna be a show car finish. while it eats away at my OCD inside, i didnt build this car to be a show car, so im gonna let it slide. im sure when people see it they'll probably think "jeez, i hope that guy didnt pay a ton of money to have this wrap done". im sure that people that see it and know that i did it myself and that it was my first time will think wow, not bad, your a brave man for trying!

[Spoorguy]

haha!



ill take a close up the hard curves on the rear bumper with my SLR tonight. you can see a close up of a bad spot up above though. that bad spot and another like it will be panels that get rewrapped. honestly, i knew that this being my first time doing it, it wasnt gonna be a show car finish. while it eats away at my OCD inside, i didnt build this car to be a show car, so im gonna let it slide. im sure when people see it they'll probably think "jeez, i hope that guy didnt pay a ton of money to have this wrap done". im sure that people that see it and know that i did it myself and that it was my first time will think wow, not bad, your a brave man for trying!

Man me and you think too much alike haha. I didn't build this as a show car either and I chose this color for the same reason as that. It definitely eats away at my OCD but it's our first time and well especially in my case, bought this car for $4500 and it had blemishes, it's 14 years old and well id rather dump real money in maintenance and upgrades.

[jjvwg]

Man me and you think too much alike haha. I didn't build this as a show car either and I chose this color for the same reason as that. It definitely eats away at my OCD but it's our first time and well especially in my case, bought this car for $4500 and it had blemishes, it's 14 years old and well id rather dump real money in maintenance and upgrades.

yea, the way i see it, its better than a shitty plastidip finish and it doesnt look any worse than my 12 year old paint did. i wanted to have fun with a color change and have wanted to experiment with vinyl more so i decided to go for it. and to answer your question from above, yes the b6 front bumper can be split from the lower valence, not on the rear bumper however. i wanna say that were it possible to split the rear bumper i would have gotten a slightly better finish being able to work less curve with a piece of vinyl.

[Spoorguy]

Ha funny thing is my rear splits yet it was still a pain in the A. I should've removed it completely and split it. Maybe if and when I redo it

[jjvwg]

you're lucky you have aluminum mirror caps! i tried to do one mirror messing around with some scrap and decided there is no way in hell ill be able to pull it off! might pick up some black mirror caps from a local but he wants $80 for them. need to redo my sharkfin antenna also so i can put my trunk interior back together.

[Spoorguy]

Why not ECS Carbon ones then? Mine as well if you'd be willing to spend 80 on black ones

[jjvwg]

Why not ECS Carbon ones then? Mine as well if you'd be willing to spend 80 on black ones

thats the thing, i really dont want to spend $80 on them. I seriously contemplated the ECS carbon ones but not sure if i wanna go that flashy. plus i just spent samn near $3k between wheels and the vinyl for my b6 and suspension for my b8 so i think ive spent my car parts budget for the year haha

[Spoorguy]

Haha true, maybe dip it black?! Idk haha hmm hopefully you find black caps for cheaper

[jjvwg]

yea i might just dip them temporarily until i can find a good deal on some.

[jjvwg]

heres the best close up i could get with the shitty lighting in my garage of the tough area on the rear bumper.

IMG_5288 by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Spoorguy]

Yup looks about right, same same

[jjvwg]

quick pic from last weekend. just waiting on some black mirror caps to be sent to me and i need to get some tires mounted to my new wheels. As far as the vinyl goes, i need to touch up a few spot and re-wrap the hatch and passenger rear door still.

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

[4rings2turbos]

I wish I could get everyone together and do a little wrap tutorial on some of the tougher spots. The rear bumper is certainly the most difficult piece, followed by the mirrors. Using a scratchless squeegee (especially gloss as it scratches pretty easily) is the easiest/best/fastest way to wrap all panels aside from the bumpers and mirrors where you need to use a little heat to manipulate the vinyl so it can go around extreme curves and not wrinkle into itself. But learning how to stretch the vinyl and not distort the color is the key.

It's a huge task to do it all yourself, great work! The cool thing is down the road you can buy more and more replace a panel here and there at your leisure and expect a perfect color match. Pretty cool!

[jjvwg]

I wish I could get everyone together and do a little wrap tutorial on some of the tougher spots. The rear bumper is certainly the most difficult piece, followed by the mirrors. Using a scratchless squeegee (especially gloss as it scratches pretty easily) is the easiest/best/fastest way to wrap all panels aside from the bumpers and mirrors where you need to use a little heat to manipulate the vinyl so it can go around extreme curves and not wrinkle into itself. But learning how to stretch the vinyl and not distort the color is the key.

It's a huge task to do it all yourself, great work! The cool thing is down the road you can buy more and more replace a panel here and there at your leisure and expect a perfect color match. Pretty cool!

i guess you'll have to put on a clinic at camp allroad haha! got my black mirror caps today and getting tires mounted tomorrow. should have some nice pics of the car up by the weekend.

[Spoorguy]

Haha so being inspired by your craziness, I decided to wrap my skirts outside. Fun times especially with the fear of wind and rain

[4rings2turbos]

Already looking SO good. Can't wait to see it all finished.

[AvantNoir]

Looks great! Love the color.

[jjvwg]

well i was gonna get my tires mounted today...

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Spoorguy]

well i was gonna get my tires mounted today...

Untitled by jjvwg, on Flickr

I only want snow when I snowboard or on Christmas lol. Have fun with that

[jjvwg]

two quickies in the neighborhood after getting my wheels on after work today.

IMG_5293 by jjvwg, on Flickr

IMG_5304 by jjvwg, on Flickr

[Spoorguy]

two quickies in the neighborhood after getting my wheels on after work today.

IMG_5293 by jjvwg, on Flickr

IMG_5304 by jjvwg, on Flickr

Man if you went and out yellow high beams, our cars would look very similar up front haha. Looks great!

[jjvwg]

Haha, I've thought about doing the yellow high beams. I wanna get rid of the Orange sidemarkers at some point also.

[lookaught]

I love it! Great job

I've wanted to do the same to my tired old car for two or three years... maybe this will be the motivation.

[Spoorguy]

We both did it! Just do it and commit, exactly what we did haha. I just bought it and at that point had no choice

[4point2]

looks awesome! I've been thinking about wrapping mine, but it's been a real struggle deciding on the whether to do a full colour change or to take the easy route and do a patch camo, kinda like the jon olsson RS6. With the quality of your results i may try the full wrap

[4rings2turbos]

Yissss! That looks so good!