With the bodywork under prepared, it was back to the shed to do some our our own body prep before the car was sent to be vinyl wrapped.
We had purchased 20 metres of yellow wrap and it looked the goods. Despite the cold July weather, we were able to heat the shed enough to get it to take to the bodywork pretty well.
After a few days of trial and error, we had a finished product. It's worth pointing out here that while in theory, wrapping a car is a simple enough process, it's not something that you can do either on your own, or without plenty of practice.
Getting it right is critical first time, and you can expect a few wasted lengths of vinyl along the way.
20 metres of yellow wrap ready for application.
Wrapping a car is a tricky process that requires plenty of skill and practice.
The yellow wrap went on well and we were confident of a good result.
Time was running out though. A couple more event deadlines had come and gone and, worse still, the wrap still wasn't sticking as it should have.
It turns out that the lack of preparation to the body shell was proving to be a real problem here. In essence, the wrap wasn't sticking to parts of the body that had been painted in undercoat.
We knew this might have become an issue, although we were hoping that it wouldn't come to this.
After a little head scratching and some discussions with another friend, an Irishman who was a gun panel beater and spray painter, it was decided that the wrap had to come off, and the car needed to be sent for paint, rather than vinyl.
Fully wrapped, and with the new LED headlights fitted, the car was looking a treat.
As frustrating as this was, it was the only logical answer. With parts of the wrap already proving problematic in good conditions, we expected that this would become a real issue once the car hit the gravel and was subject to dust, mud, water and rocks.
So, it was out with the heat gun and off with the wrap.
Surprisingly, it only took 15 minutes to remove the whole wrap from the car, and it came off incredibly easy with little or no residue left behind. It was the first win we'd had for weeks!
With the car back on the trailer, it was off to the Irishman's shed for a month of prep and painting, which we'll cover next time.
The wrap was lifting in critical places, and we weren't confident that this would improve over time.
Read the other parts:
https://rallysportmag.com/part-1-rallysport-mags-never-ending-rally-car-rebuild/ https://rallysportmag.com/part-2-rallysport-mags-never-ending-rally-car-rebuild/SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY
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