Toyota Nation Forum banner

Matte Black Camry - opinions and comments :-)

20K views 57 replies 19 participants last post by  ryandoan90 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone, I started my project for a Matte black camry today. PITA but i think we did OK as first timers.

So far, we only got the roof done, took us about 2 hours of squeegeing, stretching. We still got about 20+ small creases!?! (what the hell,right? hopefully it's not very noticeable).

Car wax was removed. Heat gun was utilized (great help, use it!!!).

Matte Black Vinyl 3M 1080. I think you will need about 5x50 feet to complete a car (without messing up too much).

Still in progress, I will try to get as much done as possible during the weekend, will post updates as soon as possible.

Please post your opinions, pros tips and comments :)


















++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ABOUT 15 hours of measuring, working.
NOTE FOR rear bumper:
If you measure it, for me it came out about 10'4" x 2'3" size. it wraps around the bumper just fine at the beginning, but as i work from the middle outward to the sides, things starts messing up.
When you stretch the vinyl to the bottom of the bumper, it tends to relocate the vinyl toward the top of the bumper, resulting in shortage at the bottom. I had to pull it back down, cut the film at the corner (vinyl can stretch but not that much) leaving behind two seam lines at the corners, and then a lot of heatgun stretching too. It worked out ok for me but cost me 5 hours of working on it by myself.

I completely remove the bumper and brought it inside the house to work with, i couldn't stand the 100+ heat in texas, although i'm in the garage. This might have been the reason for wasting a lot of time. the damn thing won't stay still.

Gas cap was easy, it just hard to tuck it around the hinge.


I will have seam lines on the side of the side of the roof, cut off is right there as you can see, it way to long and big piece of vinyl to make this seamless. The rest of the vinyl is tucked around.


Door are easy too, need to remove the door handle to wrap around the exterior handles.


So far, only the passenger side of the roof roof is done as you see above, will post more photos as it progesses


Passenger-side doors, and the bottom trim, i would look much nicer with the SE side kit, i think.


Overall look from the back bumper, will need to get that trunk trim wrapped soon.


Here comes the problem, the corner of the bumper, where a lot of heat was used, the matte finish faded a little because of too much stretching. It is not very visible unless you focus closely. Try to look from differnt angle to your screen, you'll see "waves" on the vinyl.


The corner cut off and seam lines at the bumper corner. It was my bad to cut the film to narrow and did not pay attention to the side until it was almost too late. And crap, i was tired as hell after wrestling with the jumpy bumper.


Seam on the driver side. (track it from the mud flap toward the back, you'll see it.


Another look, a little bit far back.

Driver side doors.
 
See less See more
20
#2 · (Edited)
Here are some more pictures of the process...

Rear Left door. Very simple and easy. You have to remove the outside handle to get a complete wrap around the handle area. Leave it for last.
Instruction for handle removal: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...06-2007-2011/339748-diy-led-door-handles.html (credit goes to bleachigo)

Trunk and spoiler were done separated. For me the spoiler wasn't too hard to wrap, utilize the heat gun (don't over use) and press with your thumbs. I got a blister on one of my thumb for doing that. I don't know what could be a better choice. At the corner, it is very hard to get a clean wrap without having some creases, i don't know how to fix this... more heat gun ? Putting the spoiler back by yourself is not a good idea, have some one to help out with that. My spoiler was $100 from spoiler wing&king, worked just fine, I twisted the middle screws so hard that it made two little dents on the spoiler bottom.

Upper part of the trunk were easy, straight forward flat surface, when it come down to the bottom part, this is where it gets tricky. Time for heatgun... it is important that you stretch the film straight down as much as possible, and work on it horizontal evenly. This is why: it looked hard ! so i skipped the middle part and work around the flat area around it. It ended up having a bunch of vinyl in the middle of the bottom part of the trunk and right under the trunk trim. I had to cut it and applied them over each other, then it resulted in seams... the rest of the mess was hidden behind the license plate and under the trunk trim... so keep in mind, when you do this part, work on it evenly horizontal.
















 
#3 ·
personall i would just keep the black you already have unless you are doing this to protect it. I feel like the matte black wouldnt make a big difference interms of looks unless you went a crazy color like aquablue, orange, etc. However, if you enjoy doing it, i think it would be great to see it completed.
 
#10 ·
It wasn't hard but requires patience, a hell lot of it !
i used the heat gun to stretch the vinyl, it is a pita but with patience, we got the roof done with some creases.

Best way to work on flat surface such as roof and hood is to cut the big piece, then peel the whole thing off. having 2+ persons to help you straighten it, and then stick the whole piece to the surface. You are going to have to lift and squeegee, but doing from the center is much easier than going from edge toward edge.

I don't know if any body out there do this by himself, but not for me, i must have some help from another person (mostly to hold the heat gun, and straighten the vinyl)
 
#11 ·
I like my car shiny as well, trust me, I have kept it very shiny, wash every 1.5 or 2 weeks, always wax afterward. But it always ended up with some small scratchy lines on the doors, hood, and trunk. Plus there were so many "circling" marks (not scratches but it looks annoying)
 
#12 ·
Sounds interesting. Props on doing it on your own bro. I've seen plenty high end cars in matte black and it can be pulled off to look very clean. They usually get murdered out in all black including black wheels to give it a ninja look. Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Autoguide
 
#17 ·
Thanks man, the roof was very nooby done, no alcohol application or anything like that, just edge to edge, and it took a hell lot of time!
This is a 2009 LE, so no antenna... I don't know if the original antenna on Camrys are decorative or actually has some functions ... IF NOT, just heat gun and "saw" it off with some small wire, again, IF it doesn't have any important functions...
I'm planning to put a shark fin on afterward. what do you think ?

3M tape is pressure activated, so as long as you don't get dirt on it, (even if the glue stick together) you can still use them until they're pressed and heated, then the stickiness is reduced.

Day after that, we did the hood... all the help i needed was just an extra person to hold and stretch the big piece, then drop it on the hood, I myself took care of the rest, including lift & squeege, heat gun then squeege (or just use your thumb & fingers, it's quicker than way and doesn't leave possible crease compared to when you use the squeege). Took me about one and a half hours to finish. Even though the roof has some curves and edges, it was a breeze, just required a lot of patient.

One important thing, SPRAY A LOT OF APPLICATION LIQUID ON IT (car surface and glue surface on the vinyl, both). In case you struggle to get one side done, the other doesn't dry up before you get there.

Use it on flat surface such as roof, hood, doors...etc, flat surface ONLY. It's OK if you spray on the flat area of the bumper or trunk, but don't spray on complex surface where you need to use the heat gun afterward.

Application liquid i made was ~35% rubbing alcohol 90% (bought from walgreen) and ~65% water. Clean the surface a few times with that in order to get the wax off.

I finished the roof and hood about one day a part. They have been holding up in Texas heat 100+F for 6+hours a day for 5 days.
 
#16 ·
wow man, it will look nice but damn it will take a while.

took my friend 4-5 days matte wrapping his 335i sedan.

but his vinyl was hexxis, your 1080 3M should be a lot easier.
 
#18 ·
I think it's the about the same difficulty... or maybe i wasn't exposed to different types of vinyls.
Anyways, it is super easy to apply on flat surface with some simple curves.

But when it gets to things like spoiler, mirrors, bumpers... it's gonna be painful...

I finished the roof, hood, trunk & spoiler (done separatedly), and a door... will post picture of all.
 
#21 ·
Make sure the surface is smooth and clean. Dont use heat gun too much, because when it cools down, the film willtry to get back in previous shape or some what close to that. Also, try to remove the piece that needed to wrap, after getting the surface done, flip the vinyl and stick it to the back of the piece, where it is not visible when you reasemble it back, that will help the film from shrinking.

As far as i know, 3M has this thing called primer, you spray on the surface to enhance the stickiness, recommended to use around area where vinyl is stretched a lot, like bumpers mirrors...ect. You might want to check into that, im pretty sure there could be other brands as well.
 
#22 ·
Nice job on the work, OP! The end result looks very clean and already much better than I've seen on many Mercedes and BMWs.

As far as look, though, I don't think the matte black looks great on a stock or near-stock Camry. Are you planning on getting anything else done to the car?
 
#40 ·
i did not use primer on the roof, but i used the heatgun (which was a big mistake), but it works out just fine.

Roof doesn't requires heatgun. Mix 30% rubbing alcohol & 70% water, spray them on your roof, scrub a few times to remove wax.

Get a large piece of vinyl, always cut 2+ inches larger than the actually measured size.
CLEAN the working area, you don't want large dust particle or hair or grass...etc. One little string of hair will show up and it is visible!

Next, lay the vinyl on a flat surface, peel off the non sticky part. NOTE: when you peel, it will create static electricity, and crap will try to get on the sticky surface of the vinyl. So be sure to have the area CLEAN. There will be dust on the outer surface, that is fine.
Start spraying application liquid on the sticky surface, this will make it less sticky and much easier to handle. Spray as much as you want. I sprayed till they beaded well all over the vinyl.
Remember to spray on the roof as well, little or much, depends on what you already do on the vinyl.

Now get someone to help you hold the big piece. At once, you straighten the vinyl and then just drop it on the roof. make sure everything fits and has some overage on the sides.

I recommend spraying a lot of fluid on it. because you will need to lift it as you squeeze the fluid out. it is much easier to lift when you have a lot of fluid in between the vinyl and surface.

Get a plastic card, or felt tip squeege, cover it with a thin micro fiber cloth. And start working from the center outward.
Try to press serveral time back and fort on small areas, you're trying to get as much air & fluid out.

I did not tuck the vinyl on the roof, I only get it over the edge as much as possible. Then cut it cleanly off with some shaving blades or X-acto works too.

You can try to remove the black trims on the sides of the roof, I have instructions for the '07 camry hybrid, idk if it works on regular camry, though. But if you figure out how to remove that trims on the sides, do that and tuck the vinyl underneath, then put it back on. There would be no way the vinyl can peel.
 
#27 ·
are you planing on getting Matte?

I have gloss black that I never used that's big enough for our roofs.

It's the newest 3M 1080p.

give you the whole roll for 45$ if you want.
 
#30 ·
#39 ·
Thanks man, my taillights were done by me, a very noobie. THey are just stock taillights, though. I covered the car with newspaper, taped the chrome lines, and just sprayed lens tint Rustoleum from autozone for 14$.
I thought it'd be crap, but it actually turned out pretty cool. By spray the can upside down, i got a matte looking finish on the taillights.

Did the same thing on my cousin silver camry, we painted it a little darker, and it turned out very nice !
 
#33 ·
i have no idea how to install it (but it looks quite easy)

i can give you some pointers but it takes a while to install

 
#41 ·
i have no idea how to install it (but it looks quite easy)

i can give you some pointers but it takes a while to install
I did the hood (which has curves that makes it a little harder than the roof), took about 1.5 hours to finish everything.

If it is your first time trying out vinyl wrap, it will probably take a little longer. You'll learn along the road.

Roof, hood and doors wrapping is nothing to fret. but when it gets to things like bumpers, trunk... i suggest that you try the heat gun on small area first, such as side mirrors, spoiler...etc, play with the heatgun and you'll get a sense of how it works.
 
#37 ·
There is nothing easier than vinyl wrapping the roof. for the size, just simply measure it... film comes in different sizes online, always cheaper to buy large bulk package.

For applying it on the roof, you are going to need an extra person to straighten the vinyl, there should not be any need for heat gun since the roof is just flat plain surface. REMEMBER to apply application fluid !!! dont pull this crap with out it, or you will regret forever.
Some people can pull the dry-application off, they're pros. but as far as i know, through out my experience, once the heat gun is involved and the vinyl is stretched, it will get hard to get the flat surface perfectly afterward. in short words, once you use the heat gun, you have to stick to it. So get as much flat surface done as possible, then at the curves, use heat gun.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top