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fitting rt stripes onto a challenger

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:11 pm
by Anonymous
anyone fitted 3m full rt stripes or simular to there cars as no one want to fit them for me tryed 4 places now , all said its a one time chance and the graphics wernt cheap. cant be that hard surely. fitted tons of graphics to motocross bikes .whats the best way / technic for it ?? :? help would be great cheers jamie

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:28 pm
by TyreFryer
Wash the car.

Wipe the polish off the car with some acetone or similar where the vinyl is going.

Position the vinyl with both backing papers still on using masking tape along the top edge and double check the position.

If the graphics are large it's a good idea to lift the vinyl and spray the paint surface with a mixture of one drop of washing up liquid in a spray bottle of water.

Using a firm squeegy (you can get a way with a plastic body filler scraper if you don't have the proper job), carefully peel back the backing paper from the adhesive side and squeeze out the air bubbles, continue along the length of the vinyl, the top paper is still on at this stage.

Small air bubbles will disappear over a week as the 3M vinyl breathes so don't try to get rid of them if they don't disappear easily. Large ones can be removed after a week with a hot air gun and a pin. I didn't need to do this but be careful, I would imagine the hot air gun will melt the vinyl if you're not careful.

Leave the top paper on for a while to let it dry out if you've used the wetting agent and for the adhesive to settle.

If the vinyl spans a gap in the body (wings and doors etc.) it's best to wrap it around behind the panel end, Chrysler did this. If you find it unpeals use some contact adhesive sparingly but be careful, it will probably melt the vinyl if you use too much.

I did this a couple of weeks ago (not RT stripes though, strobes), good luck! :thumbright:

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:32 pm
by Anonymous
ok thanks for the tip they are red rt stripes going on a black 72 challenger the same as yours should look good will post pics tommorow if all goes well thanks again tyrefryer :D

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:36 pm
by TyreFryer
Looking forward to seeing it. :thumbright:

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:38 pm
by TyreFryer

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:41 pm
by challenger
i fitted r/t stripes a while back, they reccomend using soapy water and a plastic spreader as martin suggests, you should have one in the kit, i did mine dry but did have a lot of air bubbles some of them you can pop with a pin, but it took prob a few months for all the bubbles to go heres the stripes.

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 8:47 pm
by Anonymous
yeah thats the one was a bit rough but its getting there , spent alot of time and money on it. needs a re spray really but im going to use it as is dont mind it getting marked then. cheers

Posted: Sat May 21, 11 9:05 pm
by TyreFryer
Well done mate, have fun.

Posted: Mon May 23, 11 11:10 pm
by MattH
Great job on the strobes there Martin, well done!

Posted: Tue May 24, 11 12:34 am
by TyreFryer
Thanks Matt.