Know the surface: Wrap safely with durability | TeckWrap

When coming across difficult sections during vinyl wrap installation, it is necessary to use knifeless tape or overlays and ensure promising quality. But if the surface has low energy, it will be challenging to keep those in place, causing troubles for the following application.

Besides car wrap film, surface energy matters in every area you wrap around. High energy will bring risks of cracking the material when applied. However, if a surface has low energy, keeping it well in place is tricky. Installers need to know this property and be aware of when to adjust the surface energy.

Here are a few situations that you will need to adjust the energy, which might bring you some inspiration:

Wrap near rubber molding that is connected to glass

If you are wrapping around a window with a rubber molding, you can usually cut along the edge of the rubber, and tuck the vinyl wrap film underneath to achieve a full coverage.

But what if the molding is connected to the glass? This makes it risky to cut along its edge, and it is impossible to cut directly on the rubber because it will damage it.

In this case, Knifeless tape is the perfect solution. But rubber molding has really low surface energy, making the tape barely stay on it. And this is the time you should raise the energy. You can do it by first applying edge tape to the rubber. And add the Knifeless tape on the top. The tape will then stay well in place for your purpose.

Install around glass

If you are wrapping around the area of a window or light, it is best to get some preparations. As glass has high surface energy, it can grab the car wrap film during the application, and you might tear the material. Thus, you should lower the energy in this area by putting masking tape on it.

Overlay on low surface energy material

Every type of vinyl wrap film has a different level of surface energy. A gloss film has the highest level, then satin and matte car wrap. As for textured film, it has the lowest energy.

If you need to put overlaying pieces on a low surface energy material, you should raise the energy before doing it to achieve long durability. You can either wipe the area with alcohol beforehand, use an adhesive promoter, or gloss the particular spot (specifically for matte film).

But the last two methods are risky, as they can leave marks on the wrap. The safest way is to wipe the material with alcohol. Add a bit of alcohol on a paper towel and wipe the area that will be overlapped. Doing this will raise the surface energy in this area.

It is not recommended to apply overlays on a textured film. Its structure can affect the performance of the overall finish. But if you must do it, remember to heat the overlapping area afterward and let the adhesive flow. Doing this can at least keep the vinyl stay well for a longer time.