Vinyl Wrapping - Any tips?

[RooEUC]

I'll be wrapping my still immaculate Segway One S1 over the weekend in an attempt to keep it scratch free for as long as possible.  I have never wrapped anything (apart from presents) before and I know some of you have.  The EUC is probably about as easy to wrap as they come, and I will probably only do the upper panels which make up 70% of the surface.  I have a hair dryer, a scalpel and scissors.  It's a slight dome shape, so I'm expecting to have to do a fair amount of heating and stretching.  Any tips from the experts?

Is it worth putting two layers on for extra protection?  Or what about a few coats of Minwax Polyurethane to protect the vinyl from scratches?  It gave our birch kitchen table a nice hard layer of protection.

[dbfrese]

It's not too hard, just take it slow - rushing the job will not give you good results. You can pretty much reheat and peel the vinyl back up as many times as you need to to stretch it out and get it smooth. I made a video of applying vinyl to my 9Bot1 E+, pretty similar to an S1.

 

 

[who_the]

Good advice. Use quality vinyl. Go slow. Good vinyl has plenty of stretch. 

[RooEUC]

Here’s my first attempt. It’s for scratch reduction rather than cosmetic effect, so I have some coats of polyurethane over the wrap.  I will probably do the bottom part too and make it all black. I just wanted to see how it looked with a bit of white left.

The vinyl cost $7.99 CAD ($6.36 USD) and there’s enough on the roll to do all the white pieces twice.

 

[duaner]

My 1st impression: I did not like the look.  2nd impression: I scrolled down and saw it with the LEDs on - Looks nice.  How long did it take you?

[yourtoys7]

It takes long, long time, you have to be very patient person. Ive dont small item but nothing like Nineboot.

 

[RooEUC]

I ended up doing the bottom too and I'm happy with the result.  The polyurethane I applied didn't work out (it scratched too easily) so I had to sand it all off the vinyl and then scrub it with steel wool.  I didn't expect the vinyl wrap to survive being sanded and attacked with steel wool for 30 minutes but it held up well.  This gives me great confidence that my wheel will now be well protected from being scratched by my jeans and footwear (which was the goal). 

I would say the whole thing took me 4 hours if I pretend the polyurethane mistake never happened.  The next time I do it, it'll take much less time, now that I know what I'm doing.  It's very stressful at times, though.  I can't say I enjoyed the whole process.  I'm keeping the templates I made, which will save time on the next go. 

I love being able to change the colour of my wheel any time I feel like it, for less than $10.  In hindsight I wish I bought a more expensive, more realistic looking wrap.  But I wanted to keep the cost down for the first attempt in case I screwed it all up.  And I would prefer the foot plates to be covered right to the edges for aesthetic reasons, but I know that if I did that, I would scuff the vinyl off during the very first outdoor ride, so I left some margin for scrapes.    

  

[NECway]

3 hours ago, RooMiniPro said:

I love being able to change the colour of my wheel any time I feel like it, for less than $10.

Where did you buy your vinyl?

[RooEUC]

1 hour ago, NECway said:

Where did you buy your vinyl?

Amazon.