Anyone Vinyl Wrapped a bike?

I'm looking into wrapping my 96 instead of painting and was trying to ball park how much wrap it would take
Has anyone vinyl wrapped a VFR?
Anyone have any advice, pro's or cons?

 

Try doing a search, I'm sure this has been discussed before. Not to long ago actually.

 

I'm not one hundred percent sure this will help but last year I had a local guy wrap my upper cowl and both lower cowls on my 2000 VFR. I had just had them painted the year before and didn't want to get them all rashed up from rock chips since I tend to ride the bike whenever I get the chance, even duiring the winter if the roads are clear, so I wanted some added protection. The guy who did the clear 3M vinyl wrap on the front of the bike charged me $250 and he had the bike for about 4 hours. If I were to hazard a guess the tail section might be harder to wrap because of increased number of curves and the fact that it is one piece, but it depends likely on how much material they will have to use to get it done. As for cost, I might expect to say that the tail section would cost at least as much as the front half and then the tank as well so maybe $750 total. Keep in mind that these are prices in Canada so I can imagine the prices in the US may be lower than up here. If you get someone to do the wrap for you be sure to ask if there are any examples of the companies work that you can look at so you can see what kind of work to expect. The guy who did my bike took me out in to his shop where he was in the process of doing a clear vinyl wrap on the front of a Benz SL63 AMG convertible and there were a lot of compound curves on the front of the car and the work looked amazing. After he did my bike I checked for air bubbles and stretch marks in the vinyl and could not find a single flaw.

 

A few months back, there was somebody on here who did a carbon fiber wrap on their VFR1200. It looked great. I'll post up the link if I can find it.

 

Mine was, including taxes, $537.60. But I did get a deal on mine I was getting our fleet of company cars done at the same place. Mine are also one off graphics and the 3M vinyl is also reflective. They told me that to do this again, someone would be paying considerably more.

But there was not a lot of compound curves to deal with in my application. A little bit where the faring curves in behind the front wheel. Mine was done in about an hour. To do a whole bike would likely cost you considerable more even with a non reflective wrap because there are many compound curves to deal with. These have to be done using heat.

For comparison sake, I also had the bike painted just before the wrap was put on. It is a pearl paint so it is a bit more expensive that a regular paint. With me removing the plastics and taking them to the shop, the paint job was $1344.00. There was a little bit on body work to be done but very little.

My opinion for what it is worth. Unless you are getting some sort of graphics with your wrap, I would just get it painted. If you are getting it done by a professional, you are likely to pay almost as much fro the wrap as you will for the paint. But if you are doing the wrap yourself, then only you know the value of your time.

Whatever way you go, post up pix from start fo project to finish so we can all oogle at your ride.

 

Best bet to see how some of this stuff is used, what it is and how it works in on the 3M website. Many graphics that are precut or custom cut from full service sign shops are polyvinyl. The paint protection film from 3M (Scotchgard) is urethane. Sometimes 3M distributors will sell walk in customers products, the Scotchgard is sold in rolls. Best to have it done by a pro on compound curves. On flat stuff it's easier but ya gotta pay attention. The adhesive side is tenacious and if ya blow it and try to "un stick it" over a "TJ paintjob" it will pull off sheets of paint right down to the fiberglass or ABS substrate. Cool if ya like the retro-goth look.

Sign shops can also cut "weeds" which are removable vinyl stencils from original scanned artwork or even striping tape.

I think the dude that "wrapped" his bike was using one of the commercial building wraps used in signage. Good stuff for what it's designed for but on a bike??? We would have to see before, during and after pix of this app.

All this stuff is not in the giveaway shelf at Walmart.. it's pricy and does require doing some homework if DIY is your bag.

Harleydood story from "the day". Dude pays big pesos to have his FLH painted. Takes it to a pro and it comes out real nice. Harleydood decides he is gonna do some paint licks on the FLH. Does a good job on the masking and paints the licks with the older lead containing striping paint called "One Shot" great stuff but to save a peso or two, Harleydood pops for some elcheapo masking tape from who knows where and the solvents in the One Shot dissolve the adhesive on the tape and yep,,, BIG MESS.

 

Hey thanks for all the good info.
Think you might have a point about all the tight curves etc...
Going to re-think the plan and look at just paint

Thanks for all the replies

 

The Scotchgard urethane film is clear aka waterwhite. Eight mils thick (??) . Not much stretch. The polyvinyl graphics are a little more forgiving.

The Scotchgard is a protective product. Some outfits have pre-cut pieces to fit cars, trucks and other cages. Maybe some bikes too. I've seenl it used as a tank protector and really works great on the triangular piece of lower fairing.

Another slick use for the urethane is as a fix for a faceshield.

 

Here's the thread on "strada's" wrapped 7th gen., nice!

http://vfrworld.com/forums/7th-gene...21-if-you-dont-like-red-blue-here-option.html

 

That's the post. Thanks for digging it up.

 

Unlikely. Possibly 0.8mm.