Corners are always a tricky area to wrap with vinyl. And it can be double tough for corners on a roof. On such a big section like this, one wrong approach can lead to failure of a finish.

 

So here is a guideline for you to prevent unnecessary frustrations. This is particularly for vehicles with moldings on the two sides of their roof, and have kind of a groove on the back where you need to tuck the car wrap in.

 

Don’t go with the easy first

Some wrappers tend to apply the vinyl wrap film to the roof, cut on the side of the trunk and on the passenger sides to remove the excess material, and start tackling the sides around a corner first. For example, the trunk side and a passenger side.

 

So they squeegee the material on the two sides towards the corner first, as it is easy and tempting to do. But wrinkles will occur on the corner, and tension will build up there.

 

It is hard to fix if you start like this. Even if you manage to get rid of the wrinkles and flatten the vinyl film out somehow, the tension will remain. And it will affect the performance of the wrap. Sooner or later, the material will lift on the corner.

 

Start from the corner

You should focus on the corner from the first beginning rather than the sides around to get it right. Apply the vinyl wrap to the roof as usual, and cut away the excess material. Then, pick the film up on the corner, slightly pull it, and press it back down to the corner. Form it around at the same time.

 

As soon as you set the wrap like this, you can start from the front or the backside of the roof, hold the hard part of your squeegee, and run it towards the outside from the corner at a high angle, with your heat gun constantly applying light heat.

 

Once this is done, squeegee down the material to the bottom of the groove on the corner(make sure you hold your squeegee in the same way still). Then, repeat the same process on the other side around this corner.

 

When you approach this way with heat, the back or front side should have no wrinkle and tension on the corner by now. There might be tiny wrinkles on the passenger side. But because a soft molding will go back there and hide them, you can simply leave just enough material and cut away the excess. The tiny wrinkles will not affect the finish as a whole. Just make sure you get the two sides of the corner as symmetrical as possible.

 

By doing this, you can successfully achieve a tension-free roof corner with high quality and long durability. Learn more about wrapping at teckwrap.com