Carbon film is absolutely a great film to put on. Some people wrap it on the hood or mirrors for extra, some even wrap the whole car with it. Although it can be difficult to install if you don’t know the tricks, here we are going to give you some hints for that –so you can sit back, relax and just read it through…
As what we talked about in the past two articles in terms of the properties of certain films, only when you know the characteristics of you film, can you handle it in a better way. Certainly this works the same way for carbon film, especially because it is tricky to apply.
There are a few reasons for that. First at all, it is because carbon film is directional, so the pattern should always line up. It actually feels like you are playing a puzzle while applying it to the surface. Say if you wrap the bumper first, make sure the film lines up with the piece on your fender.
Secondly, carbon film is not like glossy or matte film, which the manufacturers usually put a lamination that built into the surface just to avoid scratches (or even if it really happened, with the lamination on, the film can self heal when you go over with a heat gun).
Thus, because carbon film does not have that on, it is super sensitive to scratches. That is why it is always good to use a soft squeegee when applying, especially when it comes to corners and curves. If you used a hard and stiff squeegee, it could very possibly damage the wrap.
Another thing about carbon film is… because it is a textured film which has a multi-layered surface, there are different degrees of thickness. It means it can tear much more easily than a matte or glossy film, especially when the installing field or the car is cold. So remember to be careful when you need to stretch or pull it back up when applying, or you could end up spliting it up.
Keep in mind to keep your wrap as flat to the applying surface as possible when you need to squeegee, because lower angle on the film makes the lower chance of leaving a squeegeeing mark. And again, pay more attention when you wrap the corners and curves, especially the recessed areas. Carbon films are generally thick, so if you made one wrong step on this, you could probably destroy the whole thing.
