Thought I'd post a little "how to" on wrapping the trim on the interior of the 3rd gen D.... below will be for door piece and headlight switch trim, that I did on my wife's 2011 Crew, but this gives you a little idea on the process/steps to wrapping ANY piece of trim really...
****keep in mind, this is MY WIFE'S D.. and was the color of choice for HER D... mine is a little more "manly"... not that there is anything wrong with HOT PINK
Headlight switch Trim:
- once you have removed the trim piece (maybe the most difficult part), clean the piece with rubbing alcohol.. make sure to really clean all surface area, edges, and a little of the back side where the trim will fold over... any dust that gets stuck on the surface, when vinyl is heated over it, IT WILL SHOW THROUGH... especially on the non textured, matte colored vinyl
- measure a piece of vinyl that is BIGGER than the piece of trim... vinyl is cheap, so I always have a piece that will overlap at least an 1" or so on all sides (also, on pieces of trim that can be removed, like shown here, you can wrap the vinyl around the back of the trim piece, which really holds the vinyl in place!!!)
- once you have your measured piece of vinyl cut, I usually take just a little bit of heat from the heat gun, and just warm both the vinyl and trim piece up a little (couple seconds of heat on each piece).. doing so makes the adhesive stick better, and makes the vinyl easier to work with, to center up on your trim piece....
- place the SLIGHTLY heated piece of vinyl, remove the backing, and center it on your trim piece... press down on the vinyl on the flat spots of the trim piece, then throw on a little more heat from the gun...
- start working the vinyl around the edges of the trim piece by adding heat to make the vinyl workable and use your fingers to start working the vinyl around the edges.. dont be afraid to pull and stretch the vinyl slightly to make sure corner pieces are smooth/uniform...
- you will get a feel for how much heat you need for particular bends/curves in the trim pieces.. but the more heat, the move flexible the vinyl become... BUT YOU CAN BURN THE VINYL... see this pic below... I added a little too much heat trying to work out some creases and caused the vinyl to discolor a bit... no worries though, as this section of the trim is hidden under the dash panel...
- once you have worked the vinyl around the edges, you can start on the headlight switch hole, and the interior light dial hole... holes can be a little tricky, but follow these steps and they typically turn out very good for me...
start by heating up one of the holes, and work your fingers around the outside of the hole... add a little more heat, then work it some more...
- once you have the vinyl worked down into the hole a little bit, make some slices with a razor like this...
- heat again, then work the vinyl.. heat, work the vinyl... do a little bit at a time...
- fold vinyl around the backside of the trim and then heat up the backside of the trim and press on the vinyl so it holds tight..
FINISHED HEADLIGHT TRIM PIECE!!!!
****keep in mind, this is MY WIFE'S D.. and was the color of choice for HER D... mine is a little more "manly"... not that there is anything wrong with HOT PINK
Headlight switch Trim:
- once you have removed the trim piece (maybe the most difficult part), clean the piece with rubbing alcohol.. make sure to really clean all surface area, edges, and a little of the back side where the trim will fold over... any dust that gets stuck on the surface, when vinyl is heated over it, IT WILL SHOW THROUGH... especially on the non textured, matte colored vinyl
- measure a piece of vinyl that is BIGGER than the piece of trim... vinyl is cheap, so I always have a piece that will overlap at least an 1" or so on all sides (also, on pieces of trim that can be removed, like shown here, you can wrap the vinyl around the back of the trim piece, which really holds the vinyl in place!!!)
- once you have your measured piece of vinyl cut, I usually take just a little bit of heat from the heat gun, and just warm both the vinyl and trim piece up a little (couple seconds of heat on each piece).. doing so makes the adhesive stick better, and makes the vinyl easier to work with, to center up on your trim piece....
- place the SLIGHTLY heated piece of vinyl, remove the backing, and center it on your trim piece... press down on the vinyl on the flat spots of the trim piece, then throw on a little more heat from the gun...
- start working the vinyl around the edges of the trim piece by adding heat to make the vinyl workable and use your fingers to start working the vinyl around the edges.. dont be afraid to pull and stretch the vinyl slightly to make sure corner pieces are smooth/uniform...
- you will get a feel for how much heat you need for particular bends/curves in the trim pieces.. but the more heat, the move flexible the vinyl become... BUT YOU CAN BURN THE VINYL... see this pic below... I added a little too much heat trying to work out some creases and caused the vinyl to discolor a bit... no worries though, as this section of the trim is hidden under the dash panel...
- once you have worked the vinyl around the edges, you can start on the headlight switch hole, and the interior light dial hole... holes can be a little tricky, but follow these steps and they typically turn out very good for me...
start by heating up one of the holes, and work your fingers around the outside of the hole... add a little more heat, then work it some more...
- once you have the vinyl worked down into the hole a little bit, make some slices with a razor like this...
- heat again, then work the vinyl.. heat, work the vinyl... do a little bit at a time...
- fold vinyl around the backside of the trim and then heat up the backside of the trim and press on the vinyl so it holds tight..
FINISHED HEADLIGHT TRIM PIECE!!!!
