Progress on #782

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by KevinW

suggest: very roughly cut leaving plenty of extra 'overhang;
then try using your wife's hairdryer to preheat the material.
When its nice and warm, then lay it on the area with maximum curvature, and apply more heat - it will stretch. Easier with 1 or 2 extra pair of hands to hold in place. Once you have made it stretch a bit, remove, apply adhesive, apply more heat on non-sticky side, then place on point of maximum curvature. Then, using extra hands, pull gently whilst applying heat from hair dryer. You will almost certainly have to lift and re-0stick it in several places so avoid an instant contact adhesive - the spray on stuff is more forgiving. Once happy, leave for a few weeks. The spray on stuff will probably start to lift, but by then the vynil will have stretched to the desired shape, so impact/contact adhesive can be used. HTH.

That is pretty much what I have in mind. I've had good luck applying the adhesive to the entire piece of vinyl but only to the starting point on the base surface. Get it started and stretched out smooth and then apply some more contact cement to the base surface and smooth a little more vinyl down - keep working it down in incremental sections. The center section came out really well. There are a few rivets reflecting through it and some of the panel joints but the vinyl is down nice, tight and smooth. I'm using the high temperature vinyl top contact adhesive. It sets up like epoxy in a day or two.

On the wheel well bulges - like you suggested, I was going to coat just the center of the bulge first and get the vinyl positioned and smoothed out on it. It sounds like you are suggesting to apply the vinyl over the hump dry first and try to pre-stretch it with a hair dryer (or my heat gun). That sounds like a good idea to try. After the top of the buldge is adhered solidly I was then going to apply a little more contact cement and use a heat gun a little to help work the vinyl down to the start of the buldge and then more cement and work the sides out to the edge. I've found a stiff plastic bondo spreader and a wall paper seam roller to work pretty well for smoothing and getting the vinyl down tight.

My big headache is trying to cut a nice straight edge where the lap will be in the open in the center area. Box cutter, snap-off blades seem to dull pretty quick and I have to break off section after section trying to keep a sharp edge. I may give a single edge razor blade a try.

I may also try to work ERAChas' slip sheet approach into this also with some wax paper on the vinyl. It will be after the holidays before I can tackle the rest of it.

Thanks