Install Question Vinyl

dgoodhue · Post by **dgoodhue** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:23 am

I am almost ready to install vinyl on my door pods. I have never work with Vinyl before. Here is my door pods in an almost complete state. The center section is recessed 1/2" and is going have a grill in it. So I want Vinyl on the outside edge.

Should I used one peice on top and attempt to stretch it to fit it? Can I use a heat gun on the Vinyl to help strech it?

Or do I wrap it around the outside and put the seam on the lower where it will be hard to see?

Ahsmo · Post by **Ahsmo** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:29 am

In my limited experience:

Make sure you spray the glue on and let it set up. Make sure the surface is not totally smooth.

I would start in the middle where the speakers go and go from there. If that doesn't work I would start from one side.

Also figure out what isn't going to show if you have to put wrinkles in it.

Mastiff · Post by **Mastiff** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:35 am

Heat gun ...use one piece and stretch it.

TIP: put vinyl in the sun or toss section to be used in the dryer on med / low setting for a few min. this will make the job mucho easy.

Also don’t skimp on adhesive! Please don’t use 3m 77spary shit, its total crap, use something like a landau top adhesive.

Mastiff · Post by **Mastiff** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:41 am

Also judging from your photos you are no where near done prepping those pods. Every thing has to be smooth and I mean newborns ass kind of smooth.
Every bump will show through the vinyl and look like ass. Do it right the first time, you didn’t spend all this effort to stop now.

e.g. you need to sand sand sand and sand even more!

dgoodhue · Post by **dgoodhue** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:00 am

Mastiff wrote:Also judging from your photos you are no where near done prepping those pods. Every thing has to be smooth and I mean newborns ass kind of smooth.
Every bump will show through the vinyl and look like ass. Do it right the first time, you didn’t spend all this effort to stop now.

e.g. you need to sand sand sand and sand even more!

Its getting one more layer, their are just few recesses and I need to clean up the top edge. I think the pictures make it look worse than it is. I used 2 different bondo cans, on had a white hardner, the other red, so the difference between pink and white bondo really shows up even though they are smooth.

dgoodhue · Post by **dgoodhue** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:39 am

Update, I fucking hate vinyl. I love the texture, but I can't get it to work like I want to work, with out have ripples. I will be looking into other options.

SolacE · Post by **SolacE** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 1:01 pm

ultrasuede maybe? Its more forgiving than vinyl but still not anywhere near as forgiving as carpet.

rlockwood · Post by **rlockwood** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 1:22 pm

dgoodhue wrote:Update, I fucking hate vinyl. I love the texture, but I can't get it to work like I want to work, with out have ripples. I will be looking into other options.

heh. thats what happened to me, too.

such a bad taste in my mouth over the last time I tried to vinyl something, ugh.

things really have to be designed with thought into the covering process to work out properly.

Ahsmo · Post by **Ahsmo** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 2:13 pm

I just had some speaker pods cover for 30 bucks around here. After struggling with it, you can understand that its totally worth it to pay someone else to use their fancy glue and heat guns.

You might check around.

brenzbmr@sb · Post by **brenzbmr@sb** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:35 am

do as mastiff said..
first i would brush on the adhesive instead of using a sprayer.

do a very even coat on teh pod and vynal.

also what really works good is a hot steamer...heat gun will melt the
vinal and thats bad
a steamer will get that material like soft..also it will help to find some stretchy material.

keep in mind you need to work it to where you get all the ripples out and only to the edge of the back

the inside where the woofers will mount can also be used to pull some of the slack that builds up..

good luck