Hey guys, my trunk on my SC300 lost pretty much most of it's clear coat and it's probably the worst part of my car. I know I want to paint the car later, but I want to vinyl it as a substitute for the moment. I wanted to ask how vinyl over flaky clear coat would look.

My friends tell me I should at least try to wet sand it to a smoother surface, but I want to know what I can do to make the vinyl stick better while not being as noticeable.

 

I wasn't sure which section to post in, sorry if this isn't the right forum. I'd appreciate it if a mod could move my thread to where I would get better answers

 

To my limited knowledge working with vinyl, I'd imagine a roughed up surface due to sanding would cause the adhesive to bond to its ultimately strongest bond available due to surface area. I'd imagine that would make it a huge pain to remove when its time to repaint. This is all going by the fact that paint sticks better to a sanded surface over a perfect one so theoretically I'm guessing a smoother polished surface devoid of the clearcoat (aka after sanding it off) would make it easier to remove and stick decently as well.

My guess anyway haha

 

I believe you are talking about a vinyl wrap like Wraptivo. This is a 3M/Meguiar's vinyl wrap and needs to be applied to a clean, smooth surface. If you have existing CC failure you will need to wetsand and compound if you want the wrap to lay smooth and last for a while. These wraps are much less expensive than painting and offer an endless array of design and pattern options. Things like wrapping your hood and trunk in carbon fiber, for example. If you decide you don't like the look in a couple years simply remove the vinyl and try something different.

Do a youtube search for Wraptivo and you will see a huge number of videos.
Here is one:
Meguiar's advises that this is only for application over factory cured paint so if you have done any repainting you might not have success. Too soon to tell what that comment is based on and why it was made.

I see this product is available at numerous shops as well as even being available from Amazon. If I had CC failure I would consider this as a creative option to think outside the box and look to a striking design change.

There are a lot of unknowns about vinyl wraps. How do they handle extreme heat/cold? How do they hold up to bird poop etching, bugs, scratches, industrial pollution or acid rain? Yet replacing a marred wrap is much less costly than repainting so I expect to seeing a lot of wrapped cars in the future. There are already a number of wrapped vehicles in the area and they look stunning.