How to cut out vinyl film on tight window molding

Whenever we do wrapping, there are times we have to cut out excess films. Today we will be looking at the part around tight window molding and showing you the best way to cut the extra material away from it.

There are some window moldings that are kind of loose, so it is not hard to do the cutting. But certain ones that are very tight to the body, which makes it difficult not just to do the cutting without damaging the rubber, but also getting the material in tight, as well as deep enough to cover the vehicle or the color of the vehicle without overstretching it.

Thus, before we do anything, there is a trick here that will help a lot, which is you can test the rubber first to get a feel for it and check whether it is a little loose or very tight to the body. Once you feel it, we will be moving on the two different cases. The first one will be the case where most people are tempted to do – but usually not end up well, which we will show you why, and then you will be able to understand why we have the second method, which we recommend.

Tempting But Do Not Do

For most people, it is very tempting to bridge the material over the gaps and run a finger to set it up, and this is so far so good. Also, as there is a tiny little gap, some would take a heat gun or torch to warm it up before jamming the material into the base. However, although it looks like a small gap, you dramatically overstretch the film by doing this.

For now, everything looks fine. But when it comes to long term durability but also making a good cut, you will find it hard to get nice even tension there right to the rubber. So after you make the cutting, as you go back to squeegee the film down, you might notice the material will be going to shrink as it was overstretched. You would then see the original color of the car as the film jumps back a little bit.

This shrinkage will make the quality of your wrapping go down. And the worse thing is that when water gets in there because the material is not tight enough to the molding, it will peel, and getting even worse over time.

Right Way to Do

So what is the proper way of doing it? It needs the same setup as before actually, but instead of heating the material and jamming it in, do your cutting now.

Make your blade sharp enough by clicking it, and do the cutting with a short and shallow one – Remember though, do not put any extra pressure on your knife, just let the blade do the cutting for you. Keep the tip of the blade from touching the body of the car or the rubber by angling it out and lining in the chrome molding right there while cutting. This would give you enough material to tuck into the base of the rubber later.

When it comes to the corner, swing your knife around and pull it a little bit more shallow. Let the blade run parallel to the side here. Bear in mind to keep the depth from cutting the car during the whole process, and of course, from cutting the chrome as well.

Once you finish this cutting, everything becomes easy, because there will be not much tension or pressure in hand anymore since you made this giant relief cut. The cut does not need to be made perfectly straight because the material will be getting cut to the base of the rubber after this.

And now come back with your squeegee – but remember always start with the corner. Run the film through from here, so you do not get any kind of bunch. For some tight molding, the material will go right to the edge here and get tucked. But there are some like this one on the top, which is too tight for material to get tucked under the rubber. And this is when you need to make the most of the hard part of your squeegee – but not pressing too hard, though. Otherwise, you might split the film.

After doing this, use a micro squeegee to help, which is a little sharper and finer than the regular one. It will help you set the material right to the tight molding.