Common mistakes for vinyl film wrapping

Learning to wrap with a vinyl wrap film can be easy with the well-developed internet nowadays. But it is challenging to truly master wrapping. It is usually just a few seconds away from ruining your wrap job if you did not approach properly. And it costs a lot if you need to start all over again.

People tend to talk more about how to create a perfect finish but less about what to pay attention to throughout the way. But how can you achieve an ideal outcome if you do not know to avoid problems? Here are some common mistakes that wrappers might make during vinyl film wrapping:

Bubbles

A bubble can occur even if you have done all the proper steps depending on different factors. When it happens, some installers, especially beginners, tend to take the entire piece of vinyl wrap film off and apply it again.

This will reduce the adhesive strength, affecting the performance of the material. The right solution is to use the help of your squeegee and heat gun. And you can check out our previous articles and learn to deal with different type of bubbles and wrinkles accordingly.

Uneven Tension

There are double-compound panels on a vehicle in some cases. Some wrappers tend to start from top to bottom or left to right when they wrap. But by doing this, nearly all the tension will build up on one side, while the other side is almost tension-free.

The right approach is to start from the center. You can break the area into four equal sections. And you work towards different sections from the center. The tension can be evened out in this way.

Corners

Many installers will wrap corners first when they do the job. They work towards the corners. The fact is that a vinyl wrap film tends to gather on the corners. The tension is easy to build up there, too. Thus, it leaves numerous potential problems.

What you should do is to change your squeegee stroke sideways. Squeegee on the ends of the corners, shifting the material out, so less extra film would remain to gather on the corners.

Climate Control

Some might think the temperature will not matter that much to vinyl wrapping. Or some people know that a freezing environment is not good for wrapping and think the higher the temperature, the better.

In fact, the material is easy to tear when wrapping on a cold day. On the other hand, the adhesive will float if you wrap in somewhere the temperature constantly rises.

The ideal way is to keep control of your working space. Make it between 10 and 32 Celsius. This is the best room temperature for most materials.

Improper Use of Heat Gun

Those who know temperature matters tend to worry when they use a heat gun, thinking they might overheat the material. Thus, there is usually not enough heat applied to the film.

The correct thing to do is keep your heat gun around 30 centimeters away, wave it around, and watch the vinyl closely. You can tell if the material is softened enough by observing. If not, you keep heating until it is relaxed.

Cutting just to sizes

Vinyl wrap film varies. Some cost more than others. So wrappers who try to save as much material as possible tend to cut the vinyl into just enough sizes before application.

But when it comes to wrapping, there might not be enough material to cover the whole area depending on different factors. The safest way is to leave enough extra films on each dimension of the pieces if you have to cut them before wrapping.

First, bear the easy-making mistakes in mind, then learn the art of wrapping. This will keep you closer to success. Learn more wrap tips at teckwrap.com