Hood Wrap Debacle aka: SHOW ME YOUR HOOD WRAPS!!

I have no pics. I wanted pics. Trust me. I did. But what ensued was foolishly unforeseen. Got some digital camo wrap for my hood. The glare from it was nothing short of painful heading east on 80 at 6am. I can deploy my visor, but nothing can save me in that instance from the full force of the sun reflecting off my hood. So. Vinyl.
I brought it over to my homie's house to put on in his garage as Im not so lucky right now. We watched a couple YouTube videos and felt, foolishly, confident. We brought the sheet I cut into his shop to peel the backer off, brought it into the garage, which we had heated up properly and stretched it over the hood and slowly lowered it. We got the middle of the hood laid down nice and tight, but as soon as we got to the curvy, undulating areas, we were chasing and creating wrinkles and bubbles at a rate and intensity that we just simply couldn't keep up with. after about an hour of it, I called it and we ripped everything off and I drove home disgruntled.
I am still hopeful there could be a viable solution. Thinking a partial covering:

I may even like this better. It might not be cool camo, but it would do the job.

But lets see your success in the face of my own failure! Have you wrapped your hood? The whole thing? Partial? What kind of wrap did you use? Pics? I need inspiration to get this ball rolling again. Thanks guys/gals. Have a wonderful day.

 

Sorry, I don’t have a hood wrap (though want one for my scoop), but, can it be installed using soapy water (like window decals are), that way it can be positioned correctly then use a small squeegee to get the soapy water removed?

 

Welcome.
So you spent one hour and failed trying to do a job that requires a decent amount of skill and lots of practice.
For a result you will like and not look like ass, I suggest you take it to a pro and pay for a good result.

FYI I wrapped vehicles and tinted windows as my job while going to college. You have unrealistic expectations if you think you can wrap your hood with no wrinkles or bubbles with no training or practice. Your hour don't count as you did not complete it.
Good luck.

 

Wraps are different than decals or tint. No soapy lol.

 

Thanks, Champ!!

 

I’m not a pro at installing vinyl but the few times I did (granted, not an entire hood) I found that heat was always my best friend. With that said, it’s important to get good quality vinyl (3m or Vivid are the best from what I’ve used and heard). The better the quality, the more forgiving it is and the easier it is to use heat to work with.

 

I used 3M knife less tape and off the roll 3M sheet vinyl...pretty easy after the vinyl is down just pull up on the string to cut the vinyl clean.

 

that was one of my big mistakes. I got cheap eBay vinyl. I have a good bit leftover too which ill use to cover my cap side doors. They're flat and will be relatively easy to cover. The next piece for the hood is on the way is pre-cut and 3M.

 

this is SLICK. love the cutting tape. great job!

 

This! You have to get good vinyl, it’s night and day difference. I’ve used Avery, 3M, and Vivid on the smaller jobs I’ve done. I think Vivid was my fave.

 

I have two decals I ordered on line and the designer states they are made with Oracal 651 Vinyl.
Any tips or lessons learned one could share when I try to apply these myself?

 

First time applying vinyl and didn’t want to deal with creases so only partially covered the hood. I like the end product!

 

How was the process?
I have a hood decal being delivered today very similar to yours... is that from FactoryCraft?

 

That’s a small parking space haha

 

I got mine from RLM Signs and the instructions that came with it were great as far as I can remember (applied this over two years ago). I had a buddy help line it up and sprayed soapy water before laying it down which made application very forgiving. I then used a squeegee type tool to get the water and air bubbles out from underneath the vinyl and it came out pretty clean. Took about 30 minutes!

 

I had a shop do mine, no way was I going to try to tackle a decal this large.



Black specs are water, just came from a car wash.

 

That's what I am afraid of also... Mine looks to be about the same size and dimensions...
I got this one and really dont want to fuck it up.

 

Here's my hood wrap - helped immensely with the glare.

I also did the roof and mirrors

 

I did my own vinyl work. 3M and knife less tape. It wasn't terribly hard, the worst part was laying out the tape to get the pattern I wanted. But the vinyl itself wasn't bad.

 

that looks great with the black flares.