Ok so I pulled the trigger on a HUGE roll of matte black vinyl to wrap the X with and I'm just trying to get some opinions. I have some blaze purple plasti-dip for the wheels too. I plan to swith the wheel color up pretty often but starting with purple because the lady only said it was OK if we did purple first haha. Car goes in the shop next week to get the Bilsteins and H&Rs put on with a bunch of new front end parts. Getting excited! I wish I would have been taking pictures of the progress to the X but its come a long way considering the quarter panel you can see in my album photo was caved in! Haha

 

Ok. So I'm the nerd replying in my own s**t but I'm excited! Haha it's supposed to be 57 and sunny here in Kalamazoo this coming Sunday! Time top wrap this mother! I plan on it being a couple week project because I honestly have no Idea what I'm doing. I put my advertising letters on my work vans for business purposes but I'm assuming that's not s**t compared to wrapping entire panels. I have everything I need for the install except the weather. Tick.. tock.. tick.. tock..

And yes, the wheels are still going blaze purple.

Pictures of the install will be provided.

 

This I am in for to see

 

Why did you decide to go with wrap instead of just plasti-dipping it? It sounds like a big project. Are you doing it yourself? I would carbon fiber wrap mine... hell yea... Just for fun, I don't care what people think, I like carbon fiber wrap. I would have to see what your wheels look like. Post some pics of the progress.

 

Can't wait to see pics. Sounds like your Jag is gonna get a complete transformation after this. The only tricky part about wrapping is because the car has so many curves to it. Best of luck!

 

This should be interesting.

 

Will be quite unique if you murder it all out. Nobody does murders out cars or trucks these days. Are you getting black wheels and tint film for head and tail lights?

 

I went with vinyl because of business purposes. If all goes well and I'm better at it than I thought, I'm going to start charging for it. I hear you can pay up to 3k getting your vehicle wrapped. If I can do it in 3-5 nights after work than I can do it in a straight weekend for sure. I'll run it for $1750 with materials and clean house. My company is called Installers Direct. We specialize in the installation of any installable home improvement product and hoping to be soon installing vehicle wraps too! Haha otherwise, I chose the wrap so I can peel it off to sell the car later, if ever... I'm going to switch the color of the wheels up with plasti dip pretty often. I just ordered 24 cans of the white to go under the blaze colors. Haha I've read that the white makes it pop a lot more...They're black right now and will of course look good against the matte but I'm looking to stand out a little more Everything will be matte black, no more chrome, ever!

 

No film but I have the spray leftover from when I blacked out the S-type a while back. I loved that car! Lol but that's besides the point. I haven't decided if I'm going to black out the tails but I do know that I'll cover the side makers and the reflectors in the bumper trim with the vinyl. I won't tint the headlights though I can't stand that for some reason lol but I'll probably take a page out of exexpat's book and tint the clear reverse light area of the tails. If I can find a picture of the old s type I'll post it...

 

X Type Mentality,
Sounds as if you have the B*LLS for this job, GOOD LUCK!!!
can't wait to see it, I hope you are successful? Stu

 

I personally don't like tinted tail lights anymore. They look alright but they suck for visibility at night. I think it's cooler to leave them stock looking and put in super bright led bulbs. I also put in the led blinker bulbs and it clears out the orange from the tail lights, giving it kind of an M3 look.

 

Yeah I hear ya. I don't like it fully blacked out either, I like a light dusting. I only dusted the s type lights as well. This time I'll probably just lightly dust the clear area of the tails. I kind of dig it.

 

Hi Guys,
Do what you fancy but remember, you need to see and be seen to safely use the roads AND BE HAPPY IN YOUR JAGS!!!

Enjoy!!! Stu

 

To do just the clear area is that something you would mask out with tape or is there another trick to it? I've seen a lot of cars with tinted tail lights where it looks like they masked off parts or something. Light dusting would be the way to go. The super dark black tint just looks cheesy in my opinion. Especially when they hit their brakes and you can barely see two unevenly dim red lights. Just looks ghetto to me. On a car like this you would have people crash into you on purpose I think. However I've seen some real lightly tinted that look cool, just a little different from stock.

 

I am apparently too old to participate in this conversation...

 

Haha I love it man, especially with the name like timetraveler. Are you from the future or from the past? If from the future, lottery numbers please?

But yes, I think I'll end up masking off everything except the clear area. I kind of want to darken the entire tail light up a little so the bright red of the tails doesn't interfere with whatever color I decide for the wheels that month. Obviously, when the wheels are red eventually it would look killer but it would also look good with the little darker tail light lens. It's all up in the air still. Kind of winging it... Safety is the key so definitely not too dark. Police in my area don't like the super dark anyways. It's probable cause.

 

It's hard as hell to install this stuff with only 2 hands. I need another person for sure. It's impossible to operate the heat gun and stretch the vinyl at the same time. Just the mirrors took too damn long to continue with just me. I freakin love the color though so I can't wait to be able to get more done. I think my old man is going to help me tomorrow evening. He stopped by today but couldn't stay to help.

Few pictures of before and after of mirrors. The hardest part was the tight inside area between the mirror and glass/plastic mounting area.

 

 

Looking good so far man, figured that would be tough just doing it by yourself

 

After long delay, finally put some work in on wrapping the X. S**t's not easy. Took about 4 hours total for hood and deck lid. The trunk was the hardest, especially the license plate mounting area. Ended up 2 piecing it and none the wiser.

I can tell it will get easier and easier each panel and I'm hoping to get it finished this week.

I'm lovin it.