Handling Wrinkles with Vinyl Wrap Film on Roof

Roof wrapping is always one of the biggest parts when installing vinyl wrap film. And because the section is huge, the installer must follow the proper steps and work sequence during wrapping. Otherwise, if you missed out one step, the material starts bunching up, and you might have to take twice the time or even longer to handle the problems occurred out of the skipped step.

But is there a great way to deal with wrinkles and bunching on the roof if you did accidentally miss doing something? The answer is yes. But only if you know the importance of reading wrinkles and making adjustment according to your observation.

Here is an example:

If you are wrapping a roof that has several concave curves on the surface, and you have done all the right things you can think of when wrapping the roof with your vinyl wrap film:

You have pre-cut the part for the antenna, and you have secured the material on the body of the car, then you also remember clearly that you should form the film around the antenna before everything, and secure the material by starting with the front of the hood, creating a permanent hinge, then work towards the antenna,

BUT you did not create glass with the back of the panel when you set up the permanent hinge, so the material is loose. This leads to the material bunching and wrinkling as you pull the film back up from the other side of the roof because there is a lot of excess material on the backside of the permanent hinge now. And it makes your application become very difficult as the film feeding towards the middle, where there are several mild concave curves.

When this case happens, the worst you have to do is picking up the entire panel and do all over again. But here is a way for you to handle without paying this cost, also in a way that the film would be safe without being overstretched:

Pick the material back up to the permanent hinge, make good use of the recessed areas on the roof: bridge the film on the top section between the recessed areas. Instead of working into the recessed area, bridge the film on the other side of a recessed area. Now all the wrinkles are feeding into the above recessed-area.

Work slowly, take a good read of the wrinkles and their shapes. There might be lots of wrinkles but they are usually not sharp. So you can squeegee in the middle, bridge the gap between two sides of the recessed area.

The wrinkles will probably not be gone all the way by now, but because they are not steep, you can heat it up a little bit with a heat gun to relax the film, then use your finger to squeegee on the steep side of the recessed area (make sure you have your application glove on though).

Feed the film into this side first, and use your finger to flatten out the material in the middle next – if you deal with the flat section first, the tension will be shifted to the corners.

You might come across one or two wrinkles that are particularly sharper than the others, then you would need to use the hard part of your squeegee to squeegee them down instead of your finger.

This also means reading the material is not just something you do before handling the vinyl wrap film, but a must that you would need constantly and all the way throughout the install because this will help you figure out the best adjustment.

Be aware that you are not pulling the film all the way or giving it too much heat when handling in this condition because either of it is going to distort the film and affect its durability.

The trick is to constantly read the material, make your decision according to the appearance of the wrinkles – this might involve a combination of different techniques including squeegee strokes and triangles, and be patient as well as work incrementally. Only by doing these, you will be able to make everything up, getting the film back to its best performance with the least time.