Wrapped the LC (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I'm about to do a 3M 1080 Satin Wrap on my 2009 Land Cruiser. Still planning the details including certain parts that really can't be wrapped well (ex. grill, emblems, etc.) and possibly painting them. I'll be sure to post pics but I'm at least 6 weeks away from getting this done.

Why can’t the grille, and emblems be wrapped? I just bought some 3m satin 1080 off amazon to play with and I wrapped my chrome emblems. I’m a total rookie with the product, but it turned out okay. I would think with practice, it could be applied perfectly. My side moldings look great, the rear emblems are okay, I’m going to give them another try, but I’m expecting high quality results. I haven’t tried the grille yet.

8918429C-B6B8-4C65-9FBE-C1739AFF544E.jpeg


BFEA6F49-98CF-4CA1-997D-C350B975540F.jpeg
 
Why can’t the grille, and emblems be wrapped? I just bought some 3m satin 1080 off amazon to play with and I wrapped my chrome emblems. I’m a total rookie with the product, but it turned out okay. I would think with practice, it could be applied perfectly. My side moldings look great, the rear emblems are okay, I’m going to give them another try, but I’m expecting high quality results. I haven’t tried the grille yet.

View attachment 1894985

View attachment 1894986
That looks good. I've seen people do this with plastidip but I guess vinyl is better?
 
That looks good. I've seen people do this with plastidip but I guess vinyl is better?

Yeah, I’m not sure why you’d choose plastidip. Vinyl is pretty user friendly, and you peal it off in minutes. In my case, I like the black but I want to find a grey that matches the rock warrior grey, that may be where I go. Maybe some with more experience can chime in?
 
Why can’t the grille, and emblems be wrapped? I just bought some 3m satin 1080 off amazon to play with and I wrapped my chrome emblems. I’m a total rookie with the product, but it turned out okay. I would think with practice, it could be applied perfectly. My side moldings look great, the rear emblems are okay, I’m going to give them another try, but I’m expecting high quality results. I haven’t tried the grille yet.

View attachment 1894985

View attachment 1894986

Well done! I honestly don't know why they suggested paint vs. wrap. I was just told by a shop that for certain things like emblems it would be better to paint than to wrap. Maybe they are concerned about warranty and peeling, etc.

Did you remove the emblem, wrap it and then reattach it? If not, how easy was it to get a good, clean finish where the wrap/emblem meets the body of the truck?
 
Well done! I honestly don't know why they suggested paint vs. wrap. I was just told by a shop that for certain things like emblems it would be better to paint than to wrap. Maybe they are concerned about warranty and peeling, etc.
Honestly, I’d find a different wrap shop. The guy that did my LC also plastidipped my rear chrome portion that says Land Cruiser in raised lettering which I feel was lazy and a cop out. The dude that did my Tundra was able to do my tailgate which has recessed lettering that say Tundra, no problem.
 
Yeah, I’m not sure why you’d choose plastidip. Vinyl is pretty user friendly, and you peal it off in minutes. In my case, I like the black but I want to find a grey that matches the rock warrior grey, that may be where I go. Maybe some with more experience can chime in?

I'm going to do some sort of gray or gray/blue wrap. My vehicle is currently black. Both 3M and Avery Dennison have full color charts.

I'm leaning towards either Thundercloud (Satin) or Satin Dark Gray.


Thundercloud on a BMW....

3bb4f2971a051f8ebb1a022d695748f5.jpg



Satin Dark Grey on a Range Rover...
31414606471_0cf0d1e357_b.jpg
 
Well done! I honestly don't know why they suggested paint vs. wrap. I was just told by a shop that for certain things like emblems it would be better to paint than to wrap. Maybe they are concerned about warranty and peeling, etc.

Did you remove the emblem, wrap it and then reattach it? If not, how easy was it to get a good, clean finish where the wrap/emblem meets the body of the truck?
Thanks!

I’m not sure how long the wrap will last. I did no prep other than a normal wash, I just wanted to give it a shot.

I just left the emblem on, honestly the rear “T” and “land cruiser” took about 40 mins. With zero experience, my results look great from 4 feet. There are slight creases and few edging blemishes. Edging is easy, but pushing the wrap down into the depressions between the letters without getting creases was the hardest part.

It looks good enough to stay in my opinion, but I sort of just want to give it another shot and see how well I can get it.

Today I watched a couple of YouTube videos and I learned a few tricks. I’d recommend getting a “wrap kit” from amazon with a few blades and squeegees.
 
Thanks!

I’m not sure how long the wrap will last. I did no prep other than a normal wash, I just wanted to give it a shot.

I just left the emblem on, honestly the rear “T” and “land cruiser” took about 40 mins. With zero experience, my results look great from 4 feet. There are slight creases and few edging blemishes. Edging is easy, but pushing the wrap down into the depressions between the letters without getting creases was the hardest part.

It looks good enough to stay in my opinion, but I sort of just want to give it another shot and see how well I can get it.

Today I watched a couple of YouTube videos and I learned a few tricks. I’d recommend getting a “wrap kit” from amazon with a few blades and squeegees.

Yeah, it looks great for DIY. I certainly couldn't do it that well which is exactly why I'm just going to get a wrap shop to do it. Check out APEX Customs....it's a Phoenix, AZ business but these guys are some of the best in the country at wrapping. The owner has been in several articles and has a book coming out. These guys share their tips and tricks too. One of the keys is wrapping in a clean environment, using gloves when appropriate, doing a wash and then a spray clean with 70% alcohol. Check out this video...

 
I’ll let you judge how it turned out.

That looks great to me from online photos — nice work getting a good deal. In my experience (especially in my neck of the woods) it's a more expensive endeavor and especially difficult to find good shops. I learned a bit about this process with the 200 after needing to get some bumper covers painted (they came flat black from the factory) and ended up paying a little over $1k and there was little to no prep work. I suspect you could keep the figure below $5k if you take on most of the prep work and have a connection with a solid paint shop, but I'd personally plan on spending closer to $10k for a quality paint job around here. That's in line with what the feedback has been in the 60/80/100 forums as well.
 
I did my hood and roof when my upward facing paint started to fail. I like it...but if I had it to do over, I’d do satin. Matte is fine, but seems prone to showing imperfections.

For me...it’s not even a tiny blip on my radar of things I worry about...but I do think satin would be easier to take care of. Again...not a big deal, but I can see how it might matter more if not just my hood/roof.

What did it cost to just do your hood and roof my l parking space is on the roof of a garage exposed to the sun all day would vinyl handle this better than paint or should I just repaint when the time comes
 
What did it cost to just do your hood and roof my l parking space is on the roof of a garage exposed to the sun all day would vinyl handle this better than paint or should I just repaint when the time comes

I didn’t do the roof to protect the paint. I did it because the paint was already failing. I’m pretty sure paint will outlast the predicted life-span of vinyl in the sun...but for me, it was more of an alternative to expensive repainting...plus a glare reduction on the hood. But to be honest, it was my failing paint that motivated me to do it.

Covering the roof is a huuuuge pain because it huge...irregular...and means removing/replacing the roof rack. I frankly felt my guy made too low a price at $400 or so, and I ended up giving him extra after learning it two two guys more than a full day messing with it—especially since he had to smooth out failing paint and deal with roof rack headaches.
 
I didn’t do the roof to protect the paint. I did it because the paint was already failing. I’m pretty sure paint will outlast the predicted life-span of vinyl in the sun...but for me, it was more of an alternative to expensive repainting...plus a glare reduction on the hood. But to be honest, it was my failing paint that motivated me to do it.

Covering the roof is a huuuuge pain because it huge...irregular...and means removing/replacing the roof rack. I frankly felt my guy made too low a price at $400 or so, and I ended up giving him extra after learning it two two guys more than a full day messing with it—especially since he had to smooth out failing paint and deal with roof rack headaches.

I would be doing it for the same reason you did it cheaper than then painting but give me a few more years
 
That looks great to me from online photos — nice work getting a good deal. In my experience (especially in my neck of the woods) it's a more expensive endeavor and especially difficult to find good shops. I learned a bit about this process with the 200 after needing to get some bumper covers painted (they came flat black from the factory) and ended up paying a little over $1k and there was little to no prep work. I suspect you could keep the figure below $5k if you take on most of the prep work and have a connection with a solid paint shop, but I'd personally plan on spending closer to $10k for a quality paint job around here. That's in line with what the feedback has been in the 60/80/100 forums as well.

I live in South Carolina. I don’t know where you live but a $10k paint job sounds insane. I do have a connection with the shop in that I’ve been going there for a long time. They did a great job.
 
I had my LX sanded down and primed and painted for about $3k. That included blacking out the grill and emblems etc.


I’ll let you judge how it turned out.

No judging needed. That looks fantastic!

An interesting thing about the wrap to me is the ability to remedy scrapes, scratches, etc. quickly and cheaply. If I get some Arizona pin striping on a door or two that's pretty horrendous I can swing by the shop and they'll rewrap just those areas for something like $250-400. It will take about 2-3 hours. That's MUCH cheaper and faster then getting a door resprayed/painted and trying to blend it correctly, then clear coat, etc. I thought that was a decent benefit. The high end vinyl wraps like the 3M 1080 series and Avery Dennison are pretty resilient and durable. They are advanced composites of vinyl that are similar to what Andersen Windows and others are making exterior window frames out of.

Another cool story about doing a vehicle wrap. My friend was looking for a preowned BMW M3 and found one he loved....except for the horrendous yellow/gold exterior paint job. The dealership was having a hard time moving this vehicle as well because of that color that nobody seemed to want. Long story short...he negotiated the car down from about $65K to $57K and then changed the color to exactly what he wanted by wrapping it at a cost of about $3K. It turned out so good that I'm considering using the same approach on purchasing a Certified Preowned car later this year. In fact, I almost WANT to find a great car in a really bad color just to get the price down and then wrap it how I'd like.
 
Honestly, I’d find a different wrap shop. The guy that did my LC also plastidipped my rear chrome portion that says Land Cruiser in raised lettering which I feel was lazy and a cop out. The dude that did my Tundra was able to do my tailgate which has recessed lettering that say Tundra, no problem.

Do you have a picture of that lettering on the Tundra?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom