Looking to see if the 3M carbon fiber looking material can be used to cover a dash and door panels, or if the ink dipping stuff is better? Its not for a honda, restoring an old truck with metal dash and door panels - can't seem to get any help on other forums - this forum has always been good to me for my Honda repairs... anyways, it gets kinda of hot where I'm at - over 105 in summer, so I don't know how long the 3m carbon fiber looking vinyl would last or if it would lift. Not sure how much the dipping process might be... maybe some other suggestions? Don't feel like painting it, would like to add the cool factor... thx...

 

You can use it to cover anything. I have that same stuff on the roof of my car. Still looks the same after almost two (maybe three?) years.

 

Thanks! Is it a self adhesive or do you use a "primer", dry time, lift in heat (hot days)? Do you know if 3m or anyone has anything similar but maybe in different patterns other than carbon fiber? How hard was it to install? Also, was this a "wrap" type vinyl? Thanks again!

 

Got it off of eBay. All of these are what they use to wrap cars and car parts with. Adhesive backed. No drying time needed. Can be peeled up and repositioned many times. They recommend an adhesive promoter for the edges. For large areas like a roof, get two people and make sure one of you is supervising and the other is listening. I made sure to apply it in the shade on a moderately warm day and used a lot of soapy water and a squeegee. I tried the trunk but I wasn't skilled enough and the trunk proved itself not as easy as it looked to wrap. Check on the web. Plenty of colors available.

 

Thanks again! What sort of weather has it been exposed to? Since I would like to do my dash and in the summer here the interior will hit about 115 degrees, I don't want to get any lifting. Thanks!

 

Use the adhesion promoter and you definitely won't.

 

Here are some of my pictures:

https://honda-tech.com/forums/miscellaneous-appearance-lighting-47/%2A%2Adon-nguyen-%7C-vinyl-roof-wrapping-tail-light-tinting-black-out-chrome-trim%2A%2A-3191030/

If you have any questions about it, feel free to PM me, but what grumblemarc has said is good advice as well.

 

Hey grumblemarc, do you have pics of the edges around the sunroof? Was always curious how the sunroof wrapped roofs looked. Thanks.

 

Didn't take any. But I can tell you that, with a little heat, it wraps under just fine. MAKE SURE that area is as clean as you can get it!

 

I agree with what grumblemarc said about the vinyl, although I did find it difficult to do the contours of my hood scoop with it. 2 or 3 years sounds great, I was only expecting a year or so out of mine, but either way after 3 months on my hood it's held up really well.

 

That's where a lack of experience of working with this stuff hurts us. You watch the videos and they make it look so easy. I tried to do my trunk and wound up wasting a good sheet of vinyl. Then I wanted to put some yellow on the headlights and utterly failed.

 

Agreed, some of the videos I watched made it seem effortless lol. I do plan to do my trunk lid in the near future with the exception of the inlay where the license plate goes, I feel like I'd mess that up badly...especially after helping a friend do his lower grille the other night. I think my trunk should be fairly easy. Did you use the cheaper vinyl or the 3m for your roof?

 

3M. Don't trust that cheap stuff. But it makes it expensive when you screw up a sheet.

Another thing I just remembered. Don't try and apply this stuff in any kind of cool/cold weather. The adhesive kinda doesn't want to work and makes it very difficult to manipulate.

 

Definitely, at almost $70 a sheet. Overheating is also a big no no. I was using a heat gun at first but I've found I actually prefer using a hairdryer (Revlon of course lol), also due to my friend who was helping constantly pointing it at my hands

 

Got it, thanks! Still debating to use this to cover the Honda paint peel, or just re spray the roof?