Stone chipped bonnet
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what should i do.. ive been looking at vinyl wrap for the bonnet ..carbon effect maybe..
or shall i just get a respray. tempted with the cheap carbon look. i want a carbon bonnet but there to much for me at the mo..
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The lacquer fell off my bonnet after some stone chips so I did exactly what you want to do last year.
ITS EXTREMELY HARD WORK TO GET RIGHT
I tried doing it in one hit and it does not work, you need to make a join exactly up the middle of the bonnet from front to rear to make it work as the shape at the front makes it impossible to get it flat in one go.
To do it right, clean all the bonnet with an acetone to remove grease etc
make a line exactly down the center of the bonnet
Over lap by at least 2cm on one side of the line
wet the bonnet with water and a small touch of washing up liquid
start flattening out the vinyl with a vinyl squeegy the better quality you get the better it applies to the bonnet
When you start getting to curves etc gently heat the vinyl with a hairdryer
and it will stretch nicely over the bonnet curvesIf you get bubbles the wet from the soapy water let you peel it off again + again until its right.
Then when one half is on and done you need to remark the center line and line your carbon pattern up as well as following the line.
Make sure the bonnet is kept damp as you apply it all over because you will keep lifting and reapplying to get it right
Now its all on you need to do the edges, this is a 2 stage operation because I found the heat from the engine makes the vinyl peel off the front and rear of the bonnet because of the shape.
So start by making cuts up to tight curves in regular intervals to make it curve around, now use loads of heat to stretch the vinyl over the edges but do not wet the edges it needs to stick in one hit.
Dont worry about little bubbles, get a stanley blade or sewing pin and use the end to put tiny holes in the vinyl and squeegy all the bubbles out
Now the vinyl is on put the bonnet back on and drive it around for a couple of weeks to make sure the glue has gone off and its stuck well.
Now to tidy the edges to stop the peeling a couple of weeks later, I have used chrome effect trim for doors etc, its cheap to buy and now you need to do the front and the rear of the bonnet. you need to go along with an adhesive, I recommend marine sikaflex in black colour as its pretty indestructable and put a very fine line along each edge as you do it, then slide on the trim and all the way along, the sikaflex will go everywhere so as soon as the strip is on get some acetone and wash off the excess on the car and your hands, then just hold in place with some masking tape and leave for 24hrs, its all done then
Ebay shopping list
you will need to buy 2 rolls of this to do the bonnet properly
soapy water, 1l of water to 1 teaspoon of washing up liquid
THIS IS HOW MINE HAS COME OUT
you can see to the right of the mazda badge I have some creasing due to the shape but I would not get this if its done in 2 parts as you can see on the left of the mazda badge