All jokes aside, the woodgrain was fading from the Florida sun so I figured I would re-doing it in black. I considered a woodgrain wrap but I'm glad I went with the former.
When I got this car - and if you remember, I'm surprised - the interior was torn up. The phrase I used was it looked like a dog had owned it and drove it around with all his bitches.
Driver's seat? Ripped to shreds. Passenger seat - almost as bad. And the back seat? Also almost as bad. It seriously made me wonder if a family of werewolves owned this car. How do you manage to rip up every seat, badly, and then do the center console too? It looked like sh*t! Luckily I was able to redo it cheap.
I painted the floormatts using vinyl paint, reupholstered the center console in a soft black cloth, put black seat covers on, and it totally changed the look and feel of the interior. Before? Grandpa's car (who owned dogs). After? It looks damn respectable. And I just did the wood part of the center console and made that black too. Paint it black... (Someone gets the reference.)
I was originally going to do the ashtray too but then I realized it actually looks nice like that and matches the woodgrain around my power window buttons.
What you need to do for a big area like this is roughly mark the areas you're gonna cut on your wrap. I set it down on the area it was gonna go and used a marker to draw where I have to cut. For example, I had to cut a square around the shifter. Leave yourself a little extra wrap. You can always cut some off.
When you apply the wrap in it's rough form, it should go beyond every edge. Using the area around my shifter as an example, I had to put the wrap down as straight as possible, press down all around the shifter so it's in place, and then I simply used a razorblade to cut around the edges. Take your time! Go slow and follow the lines of whatever panel you're working on. If the wrap is gonna fold over like on a rounded edge, leave enough for that exact reason.
If you look closely, you can tell I made a couple mistakes. Not to take anything away from me messing up but the wrap I got was kinda crappy. It didn't stretch or respond to heat so in order to fix the wrinkles, in one case I had to make a small cut. The area I did in one sheet is also pretty big meaning it was hard to get what is essentially a huge sticker to stick flat. You may be able to see where I patched the wrap on the left side.
Guys, get a good wrap from a shop. I got this at one of the auto supply stores and it's okay but could be easier to work with. It doesn't stretch so anything rounded is hard to get right. Around the ashtray, it was popping up in the corners so I had to get a 3M adhesive. This stuff is a little messy (use it when it's not hot or it dries too fast causing you to rush) but perfect for holding down wraps and even emblems. It also scrapes off if you ever take it off.
I forgot to mention that you should clean the area you're gonna be wrapping so it sticks well. Take your time putting the wrap down. It is very important that it doesn't get wrinkles or bubbles so work slowly from one side to the other. If you DO end up with a couple wrinkles, you can usually get them out by peeling the wrap back a little bit and re-doing it or cutting and overlapping it if there is simply too much wrap in one specific area.
I don't think it would happen with a quality wrap but like I mentioned earlier, the rounded edges tend to come off. In the top photo you can see that quite a bit won't stick and in the bottom photo I am pointing to the problem area with my screwdriver.
This is how you fix this. You have to be somewhat quick because the adhesive dries quick but also careful because you can make a mess. Just use something like that small screwdriver to pick up a little glue that you have poured out onto something and, if possible, lift the wrap up slightly and get a decent amount of glue on that edge. Then you're gonna want to quickly press it down with your finger or maybe another tool for maybe thirty seconds. If you touched the glue, use a 'wiping' motion going away from the wrap to get your finger off of it without pulling it back off.
It's the same thing with the exterior panels although since they're a little easier to work with usually, I would recommend actually putting some 3M right on the edge of the wrap where it's gonna come up at the same time as you're putting it on. These wraps are weather resistant but a little extra adhesive can't hurt.
It makes a huge difference. I never realized how much this peeling paint was detracting from the car. This is before:
And this is after:
That's it for now. Comment if you have any questions. I hope this inspired you to work on your own car.
Mine has come very far in the year or so that I've had it. I live paycheck to paycheck but I've been able to not only fix a few things that went wrong such as power steering pump and alternator but I've redone a good amount of the interior and I can say this is MY car with MY taste. The thing that bothers the hell out of me, however, is that the hood sits wrong because of that damn hood hinge. It's about time I change it out. Thanks for reading!
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